Not Enough Time

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of ours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Do you have enough time? Yes. To do everything? No. To do those things that mean the most to you? Yes. To do everything that means a lot to you? No.

If there is something that’s really important to you, but you’re doing nothing about it, then that means one of two things. It’s not as important to you as you think. Or, it’s not as important to you as something else. “That’s not fair,” I can hear you screaming (or perhaps it’s just me). “I want to do this and that and the other thing, but I deserve time to relax after my hard day…but I need to take care of this other obligation … but, but, but…” Whatever. And I say that to myself too – if only you knew how much time I waste watching TV and playing computer games.

Now, computer games and TV are not as important to me as writing. No, really. Despite the fact that I spend more time playing computer games and watching TV than I do writing, writing is more important. So, why the games and TV? Because mixed in with the games and TV are other things – fear of failure, fear of success, inertia, depression, victim-attitude, desire for instant gratification (I love rereading what I wrote, but it takes longer to write it than it does to watch a TV show). When you take all of these things and you combine them, you get a mass of ugly ooze that unfortunately adds up to something more important than writing.

How do you defeat the ugly ooze? One little bit at a time. Each five minutes you spend on the truly important thing is a little bit carved out of the ooze. Keep it up, and slowly you will starve the ooze until its power lessens and suddenly it becomes more important to you to X than it does to do something else.

It also helps if you add things to your very important X to make it stronger in the face of the ooze. Self respect. Self esteem. Making yourself a promise and being the type of person who keeps their word. Rewards (don’t underestimate rewards or consider them beneath you – if it takes an ice cream cone to get you to X for now, then do it). And, very important, habit. Eventually, that inertia will switch sides, betray the ooze and come over and help you build your castle. That which is at rest tends to stay at rest. That which is in motion tends to stay in motion. If you are moving towards building your anti-ooze castle around your very important X, then you will keep moving.

You have enough time, if you use it right. Build your Future. You’ll be glad you did.