How many times have you heard yourself say, “I’d love to do that but I just don’t have time”? I said it more times that I can count. I lived it. In fact my belief that I didn’t have time in my life for anything extra was so strong, that I actually started filling up my life with crap that wasn’t important just so I could maintain this ‘story’.
But, I didn’t realize that I was doing it. I wanted to have more time for exercise, reading, leisure and my business but it just seemed too hard to get started. Instead I was spending hours shopping online, playing games on my phone and watching TV “to relax” rather than choosing activities that would nurture my soul or grow my business.
While I was pregnant I ‘busied’ myself with collecting everything that we would need for the new addition and made excuses about lacking time to get out of going to yoga class or lap swimming and then I suffered through essential household tasks like cleaning and laundry because they felt like a waste of time.
Then I gave birth to my daughter and due to feeding complications I was on a rigid schedule for pumping my breast milk. My time was suddenly ALL GONE. For 12 weeks I did nothing but sleep, eat, care for my little one and get on the pump.
Talk about not knowing what you’ve got til it’s gone!
I thought about all the free time I’d had access to before having a baby and how little I’d achieved and I was determined to use my precious free time for something meaningful.
As I started to develop a routine, get more sleep and find more pockets of available time I asked myself “What do I want to achieve?” and “What values do I want to nurture? Health? Business? Friendships?” and rarely did I receive the answer “I want to watch TV or scroll through shopping websites”. My answers were more like “The baby’s asleep, time to roll out the yoga mat” or “Ring your bestie, it’s been too long!”
I found that I intuitively knew what I needed to do in order to feed my spirit once I stopped wasting time on things that didn’t actually matter to me. Now I occasionally indulge in web surfing, games or TV but I know when to switch off so that I can focus on the things that are important and meaningful.
My free time is now a treasured resource and I no longer feel the need to be ‘busy’, I simply check in with what I feel to be important and meaningful.
What are your biggest “time wasters”?
