Finding Your Road Map

Do you often feel there is not enough time in the day?  I recently ran a survey asking people how they felt about specific areas of life.  An overall message in the responses stood out like a flashing neon sign.  We want more time!  In fact these responses included comments that said, “I don’t have enough time and what time I have is ate up by others in my life.”  Specifically those chucks of time include work, children, spouse, aging parents, or people we allow to steal our time.

Time becomes an act of juggling the different areas of our life to find a balance between what we think needs to be done, what is really important and to nurture our own mental and physical well being. Specifically, those chucks of time include work, children, spouse, aging parents, or people we allow to steal our time.

I find that friends, family and acquaintances struggle with this dilemma often.  Frequently they don’t even see they have a choice in the matter.  They believe there are no options or alternatives.  Good news!  There are choices you can make.  The trick is you need to sort out what you want in life and where you want to be in the future.  This is a road map that can help you with direction so you are able to see what is really important and see options.

How do you begin?  Start with taking a hard look at where you are now.  Question where you want to be in the future and if you are letting life just happen.  Write it down and examine it closely.  Talk to the people in your life that are important to you and determine what is vital to you about your time. 

Make a commitment to yourself, but know that every day you will have adjustments to your road map.  A good example is an airline flying from one city to another.  There is a plan how to get there but the course will have changes due to weather or other conditions.  The pilot is still going to the destination, but decisions are made to ensure they get there the best and safest way possible.  You can do the same with your road map.  It is a course that may need adjustments but you still have a direction to keep you on your path.   It is up to you to assess what is working and not working.  Make a conscious effort not to drift too far and keep the destination in sight.   

Remember it is up to you and it is your choice.  Learn how to focus on what is really important.  It is easy to get wrapped up in distractions and lose direction.  Finding time for you means learning how to focus and take care of what is needed at the moment.  Learn how to enjoy moments in time that you may have missed previously because you were too busy thinking about all the other things you need to do.  Learn to compartmentalize your time so you are able to be more focused on the task you are working on at the moment.  Be more cognitive of your time and check your road map often and see if you are on track.

“Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.”  Brian Tracy