Time is a funny thing.
Time of Our Lives: Everything that we have learned or experienced has created the person that we have become. Deciding on what we want to learn & experience helps us to achieve desired talents, traits, skills & life goals. Let’s use daily habits, routines, schedules & calendars as tools to create the needed space to become our future selves.
Mindless Time: Time used for mindless activities helps us to transition to our next activity. However, extended periods of mindless activities carve away the time needed to develop our future selves. Any activity can be a mindless activity if you are not learning, practicing or experiencing something new. Let’s be mindful about the time spent doing mindless activities so that we will have more time to work towards our personal goals.
Needed Time: Discipline & consistency are needed to reach any goal and both of these attributes require dedicated time. Without allocating time, goals will remain as wishes & dreams. Whether we want physical skills, mental well-being, an ideal weight, healing, supportive social circles, financial health or connecting to life’s purpose, they all require time to improve. By adjusting daily, weekly & monthly activities, we can capture the needed time to work towards our desired goals.
Time Balance: Time is used to care for ourselves & to care for others. It does not have to be a 50/50 split and its allocation may shift throughout our lives. However, there always needs to be a balance. With this balance, we are able to be more compassionate towards ourselves and as a result, will be able to be more compassionate with others.
Gratitude Time: Setting time aside to express gratitude helps to relieve negative thoughts of what we don’t have or what we have not accomplished. Recognizing the good in our lives is associated with improved mental health, emotional well-being, physical health, resilience, sleep quality, relationships, self-esteem, empathy, compassion, productivity and satisfaction with our current circumstances & possessions. A daily expression of gratitude for various aspects in our lives helps to add positive thoughts to our day.
Spending Time vs. Investing Time: Time is our most valuable commodity. When time is used on something that does not improve our lives or the lives of others, it can be thought of as ‘spending time’. However, when time is used to improve our lives or the lives of others, it can be thought of as ‘investing time’. Investing time in self-improvement will positively impact our health & happiness. When done on a regular basis, the time investments will yield compound interest in all areas of our lives - Mind, Body, Spirit, Social, Finance & Work.