Monday 20 July 2009

Wasted time is gone forever!

This past week I received yet another invitation to join yet another social networking site. I won’t bother to name-check it as I’m sure you know the one to which I’m referring. Now I’m not one to subscribe to the old-dog-new-tricks mentality but what makes these sites essential to daily living for others has completely passed me by.

But what was so interesting about this particular friend wanting me to join her circle of friends was that she constantly talks to me about how busy she is and how she no longer has time for herself, much less for her spirituality.

When the two of us connect in “real time” as she’s so fond of saying, we get on like a house on fire. We’ve been great friends for a very long time. She is after all one of the few people who has over the years managed to survive what I call my annual “contact list cull”. She loves to hear about what I’m doing on my sites, on the farm, on the restoration and on the various other projects that I constantly seem to have on the go.

My friend is married, is a mother and works part-time. But no matter what strategy she tries, she claims that she can never seem to liberate enough time to take care of herself. And so this week I want to offer some techniques to make time for what it is that you say you really want to do in life but never seem to find the time for.

The first step is to undertake a “daily activity audit”. What a great name for the simple task of writing down how you spend your day. Get pen and paper and start itemising everything that you’ve done in the past twenty-four hours from getting out of bed until you crawled back into bed. As a former lawyer, I like to work in units of fifteen minutes, but use whatever unit works for you.

The next step is to take a few minutes to consider what that list says about you. Ask yourself what kind of person spends their day like that. Do you like the story that your activity list tells? Look at how many times you checked your emails. Consider the number of times you updated your online status on THAT social networking site. Tally up the number of searches you made trying to find out what someone who you knew way back when is doing today.

If you’re happy with your analysis, then you’re doing better than most. But even if you are amongst this elite group, allow me to raise the bar. Take into account all those things that you’ve been telling yourself you’d do for weeks, months or maybe even years. And if you’re feeling especially cocky, then let’s pull out those New Year’s Resolutions that you made just over seven months ago.

It’s amazing how much of life happens when we take our eye off the ball. Just like that years can pass by, leaving us to wonder what we’ve been up to. With all the emphasis these days on conserving the planet’s limited resources, shouldn’t we be more concerned with one that is more personal and one that once gone is gone forever, never to be replenished? What kind of resource is that? Well, it’s the most precious one of all – time.

Think back to how you spent yesterday, last week, last year. Were you wise with your time? Did it just happen? Were you wasteful with your most precious resource?

Now, I’m not arguing that we should all be productive all of the time. Taking time out to rest and relax is essential. But it’s easy to fall into the habit of needing to check the headlines one more time or trying to re-establish sustained contact with someone from your past that most likely fell out of your life so long ago for good reason.

If you feel that you spend too much time on auto-pilot (me being gracious) or that you are just wasting too much of your own time (me telling it like it is), then it’s time to do something about it by pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and stop letting yourself of the hook.

Getting control over your life starts with the simple task of knowing what it is that you are doing from day to day. Stop sleepwalking through your days. I appreciate that some of us don’t like what we are doing or wish that we were doing other things. That may be the case. But that’s no reason to give yourself an excuse for letting the years slip by without lifting a finger to change that situation.

Once you have a handle on knowing how you spend your day, I encourage you to consider what it is that you wish you had time enough to do. Start out small or begin with what I call “baby steps”. Limit yourself to finding the time to do ONE thing that has slipped through the cracks for far too long.

Having carved out some time, even if only a few minutes, I recommend that you set out some ground rules. These consist of the boundaries that you are going to establish in your life that will make it easier for you to stick with your new timetable. For some, this could be making a commitment not to turn on the computer or TV after dinner. For others, it will be switching off the mobile phone after hours. If cold-turkey is too much for you to consider, perhaps a time limit might be more amenable. Naturally, whatever you have chosen for yourself, it’s going to be up to you to police the rules and then enforce them. And yes, it will take discipline.

Distractions have always been there and always will be there. Whether we bow to temptation or whether we remain focused on doing what we said we would do is a choice. More bluntly, whether we spend our time wisely or whether we waste our time is up to us – no-one else. It’s your call – pure and simple.

In years to come, I fear that there will be a generation who will have lost much of their lives. They will have no conscious recollection of what they will have done or how they will have spent a good portion of their lives other than playing computer games, maintaining their presence on social networking sites, sending text messages or checking their emails.

If you’re one of those at risk, I urge you to take back your life. Live a life of conscious choices. Know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it at the very least. And if you can, begin to take concrete steps, small though they may be, toward the life you have always wanted.

Some of us will able to do this on our own. Others of us may need some assistance as this, like so many things in life, is easier said than done. Perhaps I can help you with this journey.

Every day I work with clients who have chosen to empower themselves to make the changes that they need to live a healthier and more authentic life. Through my Intuitive Life Coaching I provide one-on-one sessions to guide and inspire my clients to do it for themselves, whereas my Medical Intuitive Readings help identify the spiritual issues underlying illness. If you are ready to accept that challenge and behold the awesome potential of your own powerhouse, then let’s get started today!

And don’t forget about my Journey to Power forums. Please join me there and let me hear what you have to say on what I’ve written here. I look forward to your postings!

Finally, this week over at PsychicBridges, I take a look at all the claims of those who say they've contacted Michael Jackson since his untimely death. Read my article here!

I always welcome your thoughts and feedback on IntuitiveBridges, so let me hear from you by clicking here.

Until next week,

Kindest regards,

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