Photo by Pete Linforth
“I just don’t have the time…”
“I don’t have time to do everything.”
Cue body: Shoulders slumped in resignation. To do list crumpled in hand. Complete exhaustion.
I had gotten to the point of such total breakdown around the concept of having time for what mattered that my coach had me repeat the following mantra:
I drink when I’m thirsty.
I eat when I’m hungry.
I sleep when I’m tired.
It seemed so basic and so absurd that I finally got it. Why wouldn’t I eat when I’m hungry? Why wouldn’t I sleep when I’m tired?
Actions speak louder than words and my actions reveal what I was committed to.
Five years ago, I wasn’t committed to taking care of myself.
My time and my actions were going to everything but me. They were going to my job. And, yes, I still had a day job. They were going to all the “busy work” of life that was taking me away from life.
Why is that we all have the same number of hours in a day, yet the outcome and experience of those hours is so wildly different?
Have you ever met someone who was so productive you found yourself asking, how can they possibly get so much done?
How can Richard Branson possibly run over 400 companies?
Well, the other day I was traveling with my friend Natalie Ledwell. Just like me she’s into positive thinking, body hacks, nutrition and all the ways to bend time and do more… while enjoying more. (Yes it’s possible!)
And she shared with me her personal time mantra.
It goes like this: “Time expands to meet my needs.”
Every time it feels like she can’t possibly do what she needs to do, she tells herself “time expands to meet my needs.”
Since I’ve started using this mantra.
And here’s what I noticed: The more I tell myself that time expands to meet my needs, the more I realize that I have enough time to do what I really want to do.
No excuses. No stories. If I act in alignment with my commitments, I have enough time to do what matters.
And you have enough time too. The question is what will you do with it? Spend time with your family? Build your business? Let me know in the chat.
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In this series, I invite you to imagine that your life is like the Starship Enterprise. You’re the captain. You have access to a fully-equipped control deck. And on that deck are 3 warp drive controls that allow you to bend reality.
The first control is the time warp. It allows you to expand time to meet your needs. Every. Day.
Stay tuned for the next two warp drive controls… things I’ve learned over the last 5 years as we built our business from zero to multi-million.