Do you find yourself wishing you had more time? Do you hope that one day things will be different and you’ll have all the time you want? It’s very easy to say this, but the acid test is whether you’re willing to do something about it. Wishing and hoping are passive and don’t move you towards what you say you want. Action is what’s required if you’re really committed to spending your time in the way you choose.
You alone are responsible for how you spend your time, so are you ready to move from wishing to actually making a commitment and taking the necessary actions? If so, I invite you to consider what it will take. First, you need to be conscious of the times you use the words wish or hope. Each time you say “I wish I had more time for . . “, stop yourself and clarify whether this is what you truly want or whether it’s something other than what you want. If it’s something other than what you want, then wishing or hoping is fine. However, if it’s really something you want to have time for, are you willing to commit yourself and act? Even the smallest action will demonstrate you’re committed and not just wishing. You’ll feel empowered by taking the first action and any actions thereafter will build momentum.
The next step is to define specifically what you want the time for, what it would look like, be like and feel like. So, rather than making a blanket statement such as I want more time with my family, you should describe in as much detail as possible, what this time would mean to you. Go for what you want it to be ideally, even if your mind logically says it’s unrealistic. Unless you ask for what you want, you’re not likely to get it. Even if the gap is big between how you spend your time now and how you would ideally like it to be; you only have to keep taking the next step. As you’re describing how you would spend this time, notice what you’re feeling. You need to be excited, inspired and energised by the mere thought of it. This will pull you forward quite naturally and means you’ll be able to start taking forward steps.
When you know what you want to spend your time on, allow yourself to be comfortable with the idea. You don’t need to figure out how you’ll make it happen. This can just end up being a struggle and invariably puts you off continuing. Allow yourself to be pulled forward by the excitement of it and keep focused on only taking the next most obvious step. You choose how regularly you take a step forward and each time, you can either do this when the next steps occurs to you or you can ask yourself the question, “What’s the next step to take?” If there isn’t an obvious one, leave it until there is. It will come to you quite naturally if you allow it. This is a much easier way of reaching the point where you’re spending your time the way you truly want.
Remember, wishing is passive and gets you nowhere. If you want to spend your time on what’s important to you, you need to make the commitment and follow this through with action.
Wendy Hearn works with business owners, professionals and executives to discover and unlock their own inspiration, to effortlessly take the actions required to have the success they desire. To receive Wendy’s free newsletter, send an email to: newsletter@wendyhearn.par32.com http://www.Business-Personal-Coaching.com Copyright 2003, Wendy Hearn. All rights reserved.
