Do you ever find yourself saying “I don’t have enough time” when it comes to things you know may be good for you and could advance your career or help others you care about? I know I have. I’ve been trying to put out a viral music video of my song smile for me for two years now and its disturbing that I still haven’t finished.
Recently a friend sent me this article, which reminded me of the NLP (nuero linguistic programming) certification I got about 4 years ago. It talked about leveraging yourself with language.
Basically, when you find yourself using “Time” as an excuse it comes down down to self honesty and leverage with language.
Self Honesty: The first thing we need GET CLEAR by asking the question: “What do I want and need Most?” Or as stated in the article I read: “What is your Priority?” Everything else is irrelevant. If you’re not making enough progress towards your dream whether its a new business or your relationship with your significant other then its just NOT A PRIORITY!”
Rather than make a huge to do list of crap that may not move you towards your highest achievement or creation for this life we first need to get in touch with what really moves us. For me its music, hands down. When I sing, write and play songs for people I’m on cloud nine. What is also a priority for me is caring for others and giving love. What is it for you?
Perhaps just as important, “Am I honest with myself about how I spend my time?” Are you really too busy or might you be telling yourself a little white lie? For instance, while Americans claim to sleep six to seven hours per night, time log studies show we sleep more than eight. “One study tracking people’s estimated and actual workweeks found that those claiming to work 70, 80, or more hours were logging less than 60.”
Solution 1: Track Your Hours: start a journal if you don’t already have one and check in at the end of the day and see how you spent your hours. There may be another hour or two you can re-allocate from reading, watching tv, or some other task that can be easily sacrificed.
Solution 2: Leverage with Language: If you find yourself making excuses like “I don’t have enough time for that” ask yourself is this a priority? Or try this leverage with language: Lets say you’ve been wanting more than anything else to become a guitar virtuoso, but you find yourself on the couch watching TV for 2 hours a day. Repeat the following statement to yourself and see if it doesn’t get you disturbed enough to get off the couch and start practicing:
Sitting on the couch is more important than living my dream of becoming a guitar virtuoso.
For any other dream, goal or desire just insert your “undesired outcome” and your “desired outcome” into the underlined statements above. More than likely this should stir you to action, if not then its simply not a priority and you need more leverage. In this case I suggest you re-define your goals using my goal strategies by clicking on this link HERE.
But here’s the catch, which may ring a bell for you. Sometimes these things that really move us don’t pay the bills or get the car cleaned or make the family happy. Once again you’ll need to log you time spent throughout the day and see what you can sacrifice and what you simply can’t. Of course a good dose of faith through some type of spiritual or reaffirmation practice will also help you believe that putting all this time into something that doesn’t make money eventually will.