Do Some People Have More Time Than Others?

With the New Year on the horizon and potential new resolutions, we need to ask ourselves, who controls our time? Sure we have work, bills to pay, shopping, kids, appointments, oil change and all sorts of other normal obligations. But, who is in charge of our time? Do some people really have more time than others? The answer is emphatically NO! There is 24 hours in everyone’s day. Sure, some people have fewer obligations than others and some people are better at planning than others. So, who really controls the clock? Spoiler alert, you do! Yeah, I know you are already saying, BUT and referring to your obligations and all the outside influences that affect your time. You choose how you use your time, all the time. Most of the time, we are flowing through the day fulfilling our obligations and feeling victim to it all.  We race the clock daily to “finish” things because tomorrow will bring more. We respond to every demand that comes our way by skating and dodging in defense like a hockey player aiming for the goal. Somewhere along the way we have accepted the belief that we can’t do anything about the demands on our time. That’s where the trouble lies. We can choose to manage our time in a way that serves our best interests with self-confidence. We make New Year’s resolutions each year, some reasonable, some extreme, but we exclude the specificity of an actual plan to make it work in our daily lives.

Making a plan and working the plan is the way to successful achievement every time. You are in charge of the decision to create change in your life and you are in charge of the plan to make it happen. So the first ingredient in a New Year’s resolution or any decision to make change happen in your life is to believe in yourself! Acknowledge your happiness is worth the effort. One of the top 5 regrets of the dying in Bronnie Ware’s book of the same name is: “I didn’t live my life the way I wanted to.” Don’t allow that to happen in your life. No better time than now to take the plunge. Below are five steps that can be applied when making a decision to commit to change, so plaster these on your fridge:

1. Honor yourself and acknowledge your heart is telling you to do this. Listen!
2. Look at your 24 hours and be honest about where you are spending time on things that are less important than your goal and trade-off that time. Once determined, guard that time and don’t let anything encroach on it.
3. Make a realistic plan, including a realistic timeline to achieve this goal and a commitment that you will not judge yourself, but only give positive reinforcement.
4. Determine what resources you need to support you in your goal. If it’s family, friends or co-workers, get them on board. If it’s financial resources, coaches, classes, mentors or other resources available in the community, commit to it, you are worth it!
5. Every step of the way, celebrate yourself for each rung of the ladder you achieve and always hold on to the vision of exactly what your success will look like.

We all have the capacity to choose what is best for us, commit to a plan to make it happen and surround ourselves with resources that support that vision. Consider the wise words of Master Yoda:  “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” This is your time! Choose now to put yourself first, make the plan, lock down the support and vision your success! For help with your process go to www.kathleenacarr.com  and click “Talk to Me” in the menu or click below the header for a free 30-minute coaching assessment. Happy New Year – 2015!