Looking to start a little website selling stuff online?
Want to start searching for a new job?
Finally want to add a rental property to your investing?
Just want to spend more time with the family and kids?
But you don't have the time right?
The story of our lives...
You meet an old friend at the grocery store and the first thing discussed is how busy you each are and that you wish you had more time.
Then you walk back to your car and your cell phone has a missed call from the office, there are two text messages about your child's soccer game being rescheduled and there's an **urgent** message popping up in your email.
You get home and there's a pile of paper sitting on your desk begging to be filed away, you haven't followed up with your accountant about a burning question and you still haven't booked your summer vacation time.
Then when you finally have a moment to relax at the end of the day your realize your PVR isn't recording shows properly, your Netflix account is messed up and the family iTunes account has songs on it that you don't remember buying and there's a phone message reminding you it's time to schedule your air conditioning maintenance.
More stuff.
It's enough to make us all go mad, isn't it?
It's taken us a LONG time to accept that "time" isn't the problem.
We've read all the books, tried all the strategies ... heck, I used to walk around with index cards in my pocket held together with a bulldog clip with lists of daily items broken up into 4 quadrants on it.
Some of the strategies work for a day, others work for longer but they all have one thing in common.
They're missing the problem.
None of us have a time problem.
We are simply behaving in a manner that is perfectly congruent with our values.
We are all acting EXACTLY the way we truly want to be acting.
Please read those last two sentences again.
If you're not finding time to track down that next rental property or spend time with the kids it's not a time problem.
It's a value problem.
Dr. DeMartini is the first person that brought this to our attention and I think we fought it for years but he's right.
Do this....
List out your values in order of importance to you.
And if we had to guess, if you're a male in Canada over 30 years old with a family, yours may look like this:
Work
Relaxation
Family
Recreation/Fitness/Health
Vacation Time
Friends
Organizing Car/Desk/Office/Life
Building My Investments
Learning a New Skill
Starting My Own Business
Here's your time management problem.
We are always going to spend the majority of our time on the highest items on your list.
If "work" is ALWAYS number one on your list then it ALWAYS gets the first choice of your attention and time.
So even though family is pretty high up on the list "work" will always trump "family".
It's not that you don't have time for "family" ... it's just that "work" is higher on your priority list.
So when you're at your daughter's dance class you'll always step out to take a call from the office.
You are behaving in perfect accordance with your values.
No of us actually have a time problem.
We have a priority problem.
If you REALLY want to find your next rental property or do something like organizing your desk or plan the perfect family vacation ....
... it will NEVER happen until it is high up on your list.
Until you decide that being in control of your schedule is more important than reacting to it ... you will NEVER sit down and set up a good plan for it.
You'll never find the time to for it.
Somehow many people have time to update Facebook.
But they don't have time to start their own business.
Facebook is trumping business.
It's higher on the list.
End of story.
And if you disagree with this then you may not be completely honest with your own value list.
Perhaps you **think** family is higher on your list than it really is.
One last thing...
Your list of values isn't set in stone.
It can change.
It can change at different times of the day.
And it can change at different times of the year.
And it can change at different seasons in your life.
After 5 pm does work really need to be #1 on your list? Most people leave it there and then never find time for family.
For us, there are days/weeks, sometimes months where work is #1 in our lives. Evenings and weekends included.
Then there are times ... when we go on vacation for a month to Europe ... that family is #1. During that time family stuff trumps work stuff.
There are "seasons" to the priority levels of our values. That's how we keep balance.
So don't get frustrated that you don't have enough time.
You do.
Time isn't the problem, your priorities are.
Until next time ... Your Life! Your Terms!
So true!