I’ve been doing a lot of un-scheduling lately. I’ve unscheduled my weekly network meeting. I’ve unscheduled my weekly accountant meeting. And with great heaviness, I even unscheduled my monthly card making group despite the fact that I enjoy it immensely.
Back when I was in school I sometimes had a conversation with someone who would say something like “I’d love to go back to school too, but I just don’t have the time.” It used to tick me off. I refrained from saying something unkind like “Oh, how unlucky of you that you haven’t been given 28 hours to every day like I have!” But instead, I smiled and thought to myself about the number of things I had chosen to give up so that, I could use my standard 24 to get school on the schedule.
When others played on the weekends, I wrote papers. When others rested in the evening, I went to class. When others ate lunch, I read a book. I’m neither a martyr or a superhero. I simply made a choice because I wanted the pot of gold I thought lay at the end of the rainbow. It made me neither better nor worse-simply attached to a goal I was willing to work towards.
A number of years ago before anyone and everyone called themselves a life coach, Cheryl Richardson wrote a book called “Take time for your Life.” It’s still a relevant and terrific book. Richard’s strategy is to take things OUT of your life before adding new things in. Simple, but not always easy.
Most of us are collectors. And, most of us operate out of habit. Once a habit gets in place (unless it’s eating well or exercising), we have a hard time letting go. Even after only a couple of weeks, we can get attached as if it looks like we were genetically programmed with the behavior. Think I’m exaggerating? How often do you check Facebook or Email?
Schedule fillers can creep in without much notice. I’ve started to watch a little TV in the past couple of months- something I rarely did in the past. But something had to go out. So far its mostly sleep and housework. But there is a limit to how little one can participate in either of those. Summer is coming and I want to spend some time at the pool- hence the unscheduling from paragraph one. This much I know is true: all any of us are ever going to get is the standard 24. Are you spending yours the way you will look back and feel good about?
I’d like to leave you with two quotes about time from guys a lot smarter than me:
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us” J.R.R. Tolkein
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it” Henry David Thoreau
Decide and spend it wisely
This reminds me of a quote that has always stuck with me. It comes from an unlikely source, a book on how to play fantasy football. The author is talking about what people do and don’t do, and he quotes a friend who often says, “I chose not to make time for that” whenever he would respond to someone who was asking him about why he didn’t show up to an event, etc.
It’s a stupid quote from a stupid book, but for some reason it leeched into my mind. What it means to me (whether the author meant this or not) is that if you decide to do something, you are deciding NOT to do anything else with that time, and you’ll never get that specific unit of time back to do something else with. Ever.
once again so ever insightful K- also highlights how life lessons are always around.. sometimes in the least suspected of places-
This article is why I, on my way into work yesterday, I decided to tell the doc….”Remember when I was hired and you told me to tell you when it was time?” (Meaning I needed extra help with work)He replied “yes”. I said, “Well it’s time. Please make it sooner than later”. I now have part time help coming as of June 1!!! My reason for doing this (along with being overwhelmed at work) however, was something needed to go in order for me and my family to be a priority in my own life. I chose work LOL.
good for you Debby— but tell your boss you read an article in USA today 😉
Great topic that hits home. Thanks for the reminder.
thanks for reading RB–