Time is money! Now, I have personally heard this phrase many times. What about you? Have you ever noticed though that we mostly hear this phrase when we want some time off for ourselves? We mostly hear it when we decide to leave the rat race behind for a bit and do something that we actually enjoy. What does this phrase mean anyway! Does it mean that we should devote all of our available time in some consistent pursue of making money? This is definitely the most popular interpretation! However, is it the correct one?
Let us think about it for a second! Could it also mean that time is so important and valuable to us as in fact is the commodity we value the most in our lives, money? In fact, time is the most valuable commodity we shall ever have. I mean, is it possible for anything to exist, let alone money, if there is no time? The answer is no! Time is the prerequisite for everything. So, what do we do to this valuable possession we have? We spend it and waste it without a second thought.
We have been taught since early childhood that we should be careful with money, that we should spend it wisely and that we should save for the rainy day. We were never taught, however, how to budget our time. At the end of the day, if we do not have enough money, then we can do something about it. We can find ways to earn some more, or we can find ways to budget the existing money we have available in a better and more efficient way. What can we do when we do not have enough time though? We can do absolutely nothing! We cannot earn more time. Twenty-four hours a day is all the time we shall ever have! The only thing we can do is to budget the hours we do have wiser.
One way of doing this is by dividing our day into two smaller parts. The first part will consist of eight hours and it will represent the time we spend at work everyday. The second part will consist of the remaining sixteen hours. This part will include the time we spend commuting to and from work, the time we spend doing household chores and cooking and eating dinner, the time that we spend sleeping and the hours that we will spend in activities that we love doing and that improve and develop our body, mind and soul.
This way we will have to budget for sixteen hours instead of twenty-four. We can then subtract the seven hours of sleep that we have on average. This will leave us with nine hours. Let us then subtract two more hours that we consume on average for commuting to and from work. Finally, let us subtract few more hours for household chores, shopping, cooking and having dinner. Let us say that we have the clear expanse of three hours every day to devote to ourselves and to the activities that we love.
There are not enough you say? Well, do you have more available time now? Do not worry if you feel like three hours are not enough for you to do all the amazing and wonderful things you have dreamed about doing. This is only the beginning. Let us learn how to budget for three hours first, a task that is much simpler than trying to budget for twenty-four hours is it not? Soon enough, you will grow accustomed to budgeting your time and the three hour will become four, five, until you will be able to sufficiently manage the whole of your day.
I am not going to tell you that it is going to be an easy thing to do. Far from it! It is going to be hard and it will require a lot of effort and sacrifice. It will all be worth it in the end though when the days spent running around like headless chicken will be all forgotten. You will have to find a balance where you will be strict enough with the programme not to let anything interfere with it, but not too strict, on the other hand, so that you do not feel like a slave to the programme. Once you put aside the three hours a day for yourself, then you have to decide how you can use those hours in the most effective way. Make a list of all the things that you would like to do and to achieve for yourself. Then prioritise the items on your list and start devoting the three hours a day to the item/s that have the highest priority for you.
It sounds natural when we hear someone say that by spending 10 minutes a day training our body, we will very soon see results in our health and appearance. Yet we question when we hear someone say that by spending an hour every day to a form of mental activity, we will soon see results in the power of our mind. Why is that?
Finally, do not forget the most important point of all! The key to success is attitude. Ordinarily, when we finish work we feel exhausted and drained from the day’s work. We feel like we have no more energy left. However, do we feel the same when we have organised to do something special after work, something we love doing, like for example go to the theatre? No, we do not. We do not feel tired. Instead, we feel enthusiastic and energetic and we keep going non-stop until it is time to go to bed. This is the attitude that we should employ in every single one of our days. Remember to leave work back in the office. When you leave work, you should get excited for the next part of the day. Your part of the day!
=============================================================================== Roula Lazari is a writer, product creator and proof reader. you can download the 1st chapter of "you Are the Time" free when you go tohttp://www.azmek.co.uk the home of free self help information. Webmasters: you can reproduce this article as long as the live link and this resource box stays intact.===============================================================================
