Time is the only commodity we have that matters, and it is impossible to get more of it once we have wasted it.
Think about a day when you used your time well and one where you didn’t.
It impacts our self esteem, our emotional state, our relationships, our productivity, our sense of purpose, meaning and contribution. We also know when we are spending our time on things that are less important (the low hanging fruit), when even though we get a lot of things checked off our To Do list, we feel weak or like we didn’t spend our time on the things that really matter.
I have those periodically, when I spend time
cleaning and getting things done around the house or office, usually while trying to multitask, at the expense of time to rejuvenate and replenish. It weakens my signal and connection to my strong and healthy self and makes getting back on track seem even harder. I still sometimes get sucked into living as if I am the lowest priority, I will take care of me once everything and everyone else is taken care of. Thankfully when this happens I start to feel yucky. My strong and healthy self is telling me I am doing something wrong, and this gives me the opportunity to fix it.
When we organize our time, and use it INTENTIONALLY, ideally in line with our VALUES, it improves our self esteem. We feel more productive, it improves our performance and efficiency, we make fewer mistakes, have better energy and sleep better. Our relationships improve and there is also a pile of research that shows that it leads to overall improved health, including weight, blood pressure, blood sugar control and lower rates of heart disease, autoimmune disease and cancer. It is also shown to lower pain ratings in chronic pain and improve recovery time post accidents or surgery. When we manage our time based on what is most important to us, every aspect of our life benefits. (Follow this link to a pdf of the Time.Management discussed in group- images used are all from google images).
So why don’t we all use our time well? It isn’t as though you didn’t already pretty much know all of that. For many of us it is because of our old stories and filters. It is often because we have histories where we learned that we can only be strong and powerful as long as it is not threatening to others, or we didn’t learn we could be strong at all. As a result, we are not allowed to feel angry, upset etc. Those old stories interfere with our own story. For a reminder about the power of stories / filters, see What’s Your Filter? and The Danger of a Single Story.
Someone forwarded the following 4 min video of Bishop Jakes, which I think puts a lot of this in perspective. It is worth the time to watch it!
Are you ready to accept YOUR destiny?
Here is a worksheet to help you track your progress and increase your awareness of what is working and what isn’t. LIFE WORTH LIVING BANK STATEMENT.1
See you next week!
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