“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” – Carl Sandburg

A few weeks back I was chatting with a coaching mentor of mine and we were discussing time management. She said something that absolutely blew my mind. When the student is ready… the teacher appears… right?

For as long as I can remember I’ve crammed absolutely as much as possible into every day. 

Always saying yes. 

Yes. 

Yes. 

Yes. 

What are we here for other than to suck every last ounce of experience from our lives? And why does Thoreau always come to mind….?

It’s requiring a massive shift in thinking on my part… and it hasn’t been and continues not to be… easy… but there are “activities”… that don’t require moving a muscle… and they are just as important as anything else. 

Rest… in fact. Reflection. Time to just be…

Things I never made a priority or scheduled time for…now I do. 

However in order to create that space… there has to be room on the calendar…room that never seems to automatically manifest itself without any effort on my part…sigh…

WAIT FOR IT

Then she said… “if it (it being any request made of your time… a party… a meeting… anything) was tomorrow… would you do it?” 

That’s your answer. 

You see… we always assume we will be more “free” a week or a month or a year from now… but we simply won’t be. We will be just as busy in a year as we will be tomorrow. 

So if you wouldn’t do said thing tomorrow… your answer should be a polite…effortless…no.

See you on the journey… or not. 😉