In the last few months, I guess sparked by our lives during Covid, so many of my clients have said that things they have done are a waste of time or things they want to try but don’t think they can accomplish will be a waste of time.
I can completely relate to this idea.
I have long wrestled with the idea that I “wasted” a big chunk of my life doing things I didn’t like or that didn’t work out as I had envisioned.
I have felt bad about things I have discovered that are inspirational and insightful. I regretted that I didn’t come upon those things sooner so my life would have been better and I wasted time living without that insight.
I even hesitate to use new tools, strategies, ideas to their fullest. My thought process may sound familiar to you. It goes like this:
If I had known this 15 years ago I would have created a completely different business for myself, but now it is too late, and I would be wasting my time because I no longer have the time to see it to its fullest potential - as if that is a thing!
I did not see a way around this thought pattern. It felt like a fact - completely true. And I would be a fool not to believe it and choose my actions accordingly which was basically a version of “don’t bother”.
UNTIL I heard two ideas, from two completely different sources that, together, changed my thinking.
The first one I heard on a podcast which quoted, from the movie The Map of Tiny Perfect Things:
“It’s true that we are losing time every day, all the time, until one day it’s all gone. But you’re gaining it too. Every second, perfect moments, one after the other, until by the end, you have your whole life.”
Amazing, right?
The graphic in my mind is that my hands are cupped together, holding all the moments which add up to my whole life. I imagine that I will have this amazing gift in my possession at the end to look at, admire, cherish and love. I immediately felt peaceful, calm and abundant.
This was the opposite of the picture I previously had - that time was constantly slipping through my fingers, like sand, and at the end, my cupped hands would be empty and I would be alone - with nothing.
But then I came down from that new elated state of abundance and became my human self.
I started thinking about all the obstacles that stand in the way of me actually acting on this new idea - that I am not wasting time but gaining all the things I do with my time.
Would my time be well used (as if that’s a thing either!) if I pursued my dreams and visions for the future, even if I just started now, at this point in my life and had to deal with the time sucking ups and downs of any goal?
That’s when I heard the second idea, from an advanced coaching program I am currently finishing up. It was:
We think that obstacles get IN THE WAY of our goals. But really, they are THE WAY to get to your goals. As you solve them you are one step closer to your future.
Those thoughts, together, made me think that wasting time is just a thought, not an action and that I would live my life far more enjoyably - obstacles and all - if I thought that time was a gift that, I was collecting, little by little, moment by moment, and that my whole life will be the gift I will have in the end.
Thinking that I would be wasting my time, only led to inaction, which, ironically, was literally wasting my time!
So here is my new thought - It’s only too late if you don’t start now!
Any takers?
PS - If you want to figure out how to stop thinking that you are wasting time pursuing your dreams, sign up for a free consultation with me and let’s talk. Doing nothing is the only true waste of time! CLICK HERE to sign up for a spot on my calendar.
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