Wishing For More Time Gets You Nowhere
by Wendy Hearn
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 energized 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, Coach. She 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 Business-Personal-Coaching.com Copyright
2003, Wendy Hearn. All rights reserved.