I know you haven’t heard from me for a while.
It’s because I was drowning in a sea of “Other People’s Schedules”.
From time to time I do wonder how I end up fitting so much into a day. Anyone who knows me will be nodding in agreement.
I have been doing some Self Enquiry lately. What I was asking myself was “how does it feel to keep everyone else happy, together with their approval and honour myself in the process?” DOES IT FEEL GOOD? No it’s exhausting.
I haven’t been reading as much as I usually do this past month, or blogging. One of the books that I started and I wanted to finish in 48 hours just didn’t happen. I recently met Mark Leruste at a networking event, who inspired me to follow my Truth in the path of Self Employment. I was very fortunate to purchase his book on the spot but failed to read it because I filled my time up with Scheduled Clutter. Please take a moment out of your schedule to take a look. It’s Not You, It’s Me by Mark Leruste. What I have been doing I have concluded, is making everyone else’s life happy but not fulfilling my own dreams and plans.
Recently, I have felt some downsides to how my schedule has been running. So, I thought it is time to just sit and reflect. The overwhelming thought that kept surfacing was how I seem to attract people who ask me to do things for them, taking on someone else’s commitments, feeling put on. Don’t get me wrong I love to help people, but at what price?
So I decided to think about my Time. Yes MY Time. How do I want to spend my time, what do I want to have on My Agenda. Now if you have children you will know that your life can be mostly run by your children, particularly if you have teenagers who only think about themselves! Take a look at your Calendar thoughtfully.
I have read a couple of blog posts recently which have inspired me to share some things with you. One of them was about Priorities. I would like to change this word into the Singular, i.e PRIORITY.
This word is defined as before anything else in order, time, preference, importance, etc. Years ago the word Priority was singular, which makes sense doesn’t it. Over time it has developed to be plural, in part due to the age of technological advances and the instant access that appears for everything and everyone. So in essence our top First thing to do becomes a list of Top things to do. This can be overwhelming, even if you are a list maker. It has become expected that we can and want to Multitask and work through a list of Priorities.
How do we really work out the Essential from the Non Essential? In other words, using our time to the best advantage, achieving the most important thing in our day. I believe it is having a clear target for ourselves each day and to stay Focused on the Bullseye. From time to time we are going to miss the mark and our attention will be distracted but to keep things simple and uncluttered, lets try to Focus on one target Bullseye moment at a time.
Distraction plays a huge part in this process and procrastination (feeling uncomfortable with something and therefore putting it off).
Checking emails, watching TV, playing games on our smart phones loses us an enormous amount of Productivity Time.
That is a huge amount of time wasted. Agreeing to do stuff, on someone else’s Agenda, takes us away from our own. Allowing ourselves to be side tracked because we face doing something difficult and fear that we may fail is equally an excuse to stay stuck in the cycle. Take a moment if you would and have a look at your Schedule, your diary, your fridge Calendar and see if it reflects how you would prefer to be spending your precious time. Unclutter your dates, your obligations and free up some important moments to focus on your Number One Priority.
You are not alone, if you would like to be accountable and feel supported in your quest to live simply uncluttered. I am here to help. Thank you
