Throughout my life I’ve had a messed up relationship with time. I was diagnosed with a learning disability when I was in elementary school. Life seems to take me more time than most. I read slowly, I speak slowly, and I even think slowly. As such, people have been telling me - throughout my entire life - to hurry up!
Needless to say, I’ve been very self conscious about the speed in which I do things. I get anxious when you put a clock on me. I show up crazy early to most things as a way of dealing with this anxiety. The saying “early is on time and on time is late” is like Prozac for me. Becoming an expert in time management practices and productivity is a necessity for me to achieve my goals. Without this, I would be lost.
As you can see, my relationship with time, as messed up as it’s been, has helped me develop some very helpful skills. But, it’s largely come from a coping mechanism and not necessarily from a place of freedom.
My mindset towards time has been rooted in fear and scarcity. This is not a healthy way to live.
The antidote to my situation is two mental shifts. First is acceptance. While it’s taken years of work, I have learned to accept myself for who I am and am starting to allow my authentic self to shine with brilliant intensity. (A huge thanks to Janelle Smiley and Amy Holtz for this. There are more people who’ve helped and I am grateful for each and everyone of you!)
The second is to approach time with abundance. In full transparency, this is a recent discovery for me. I was taking a workshop on an abundance mindset (lead by my fellow EOS Implementer, Nathen Fox) when he asked us to think about areas where we wanted to foster more abundance. Included in his list of examples was - you guessed it - the word “time.”
Seeing “time” in the list took me by surprise. It had never occurred to me that it was even possible to approach time with abundance - at least not if you want to get important things done. It seems that nobody has enough time, even the people I know who get things done with immense speed.
Here’s what I learned… abundance is not necessarily about infinite resources… it’s also about having enough. Let that sink in… it’s a belief that there is enough for you and there is enough for me.
Nathen also explained that having an abundant mindset doesn’t mean we can disrespect things. For example, you can believe in an abundance of money, but that doesn’t mean you can waste it. Abundance requires us to treat money with respect.
The same approach applies to time. An appropriate approach to an abundant mindset related to time requires us to believe (1) that we have enough time to do what is important to us and (2) to treat our time with respect.
To treat time with respect is to say "yes" to things that serve our vision (as defined by the Vision / Traction Organizer, for those who run on EOS). It is to say "no" to things that don’t align with our vision. Therefore, to have enough time and to respect it, we must prioritize.
To sum this up… to approach time with abundance is to move from scarcity (“I don’t have enough time”) to trust (“I have enough time for what I need and what is important to me”). Do this and time will expand. Ignore this and time will contract.
This simple shift… to believe that I have enough time for what’s most important.. has unleashed something powerful inside of me. I no longer need to rush.
“We have all the time in the world. Time enough for life to unfold all the precious things love has in store. We have all the love in the world. If that's all we have, you will find we need nothing more.” Beautiful words sung by Louis Armstrong in one of my favourite James Bond films, No Time to Die.
And as always, if you’d like my help, please reach out. I’m crazy passionate about this stuff and it would be my honour to help you achieve each and every part of your vision.
Simple. Not easy.
About EOS
EOS is a simple, complete and proven system for running a truly great organization. As an EOS Implementer, I help my clients create organizational alignment, execute with accountability and discipline, and work together as a healthy team.