Time (Ally or Enemy)
Time is something that is often neglected. It's easy for us to lose track of time, especially with a busy schedule. Some of us are students with tons of exams and papers, others are full-time adults with busy work schedules that are trying to pay bills. It makes sense that the first thing you want to do after a long day is go home and watch tv. And why not? You should! You've earned time to rest after a long day. A distraction from the stress of life, followed by dinner and much needed sleep. The problem with this is that it creates a pattern, or better yet a habit. This can be quite tedious, and somewhat depressing. It is almost as if there is nothing to look forward to but the weekends.
Now I will stop myself and say that there is nothing wrong with recharging. If you worked your behind off all week and all you want to do is recharge, then thats fine. There is nothing wrong with that, however, we then say to ourselves , "I wish my weekend was longer. I felt like I didn't do anything." We begin to hate the habitual patterns we create because its not fulfilling, we are still missing something, a purpose with our life. Now I will say this again, there is nothing wrong with relaxing during the weekends, I encourage everyone to spend time recharging. The problem begins, however, when we don't value the time given to us, which leads us wanting more.
Time is our greatest gift, but also our greatest enemy. It's a gift because if used properly, we can accomplish great things. But it can be an enemy if we use it unwisely, thus resulting in never getting that time back. Here's a short story about my time as a high school student. When I was younger I remember playing video games all day. I was addicted! I wanted to be the best in Halo 3 and in the WWE games. And while I still do play these games, I've disciplined myself to know when to stop. The reason why I can do that is because I asked myself, "What if I spent more time on beats? What if I took that time to read, or get a job?"
I knew I hated school, and I had nothing to look forward to after classes. I never took the time to figure out what I wanted in life, to understand what I wanted to achieve. After you beat the game, all you get is an in-game achievement and then the newest version of the game would be released within a year. So unless you had a collectors edition, that game is worthless. Then after some time, games got boring to me. Eventually I was going to graduate, then what? It was until that point that I had to make a decision. Do I want to make time my ally, or my enemy?
Before I start I would highly advise reading my previous post called "The Uncomfortable Change." That post will illustrate similar concepts of what I am about to break down, and overall a great read. I think you will be able to benefit more reading that post first, then reading this one. I'll leave a link below to go to.
How to make time your ally
The First step is called, "The Blueprint." Here I want you to write down your goals. Time will not wait on you to figure things out as you go. You need to fight smart. You need a game plan. You need to write down your goals. I cannot stress enough how important this is to accomplishing your goals when you write them down.
Second step is your "Why" Your why will tell you why your goal is so important to you. This is crucial because not having your why will make it difficult to be motivated to accomplish your goals. Maybe you want to help provide for your family, or give the world your message, your story. Your why has to be powerful enough to provide the fuel you need to push towards your dreams.
The third step is "The Game plan" and your game plan is your schedule. Create a schedule for yourself. This is too is crucial because in every battle, you have to analyze a time when your enemy is most vulnerable. Its like a guy trying to see a girl. If a man is busy when the girl is free, then he needs to figure out when he and his love interest is most available. Same applies here, you need to know when you are free and when you are busy. Making a schedule, highlighting work hours, exercise, sleep etc., is a major key. By doing this you will create a new habit that is worked around your goals.
Fourth step is "Mental Warfare." Look I'm going to be honest with you, this will be difficult. You will fail a few times, so be prepared mentally for it. Don't see failure as a bad thing, but rather a good thing. You will see what areas you need to work on, regarding your schedule, goals, etc. Practice makes perfect. Plus there will be times where you did everything possible but things didn't go your way AS OF NOW. You need to fail a few times to get it right next time, so don't beat yourself down mentally if you stumble.
The last step, "Meditation." I've expressed my belief before. I am a Seventh Day-Adventist, a christian. For me my meditation would be reading the bible, reading some other books, and listening to calming music. Your meditation and or belief may be different, and thats fine! The importance of this step is to make sure you have a peace of mind. Whatever keeps you grounded and calm, use that. However, I will advise during meditation time, that you disconnect from social media and technology as a whole. I believe that it would help more to stay focused by doing so.
To sum this up, if you have written down your goals, have a strong desire to accomplish them, a schedule, acceptance of failure, and meditation, you will succeed. By doing so, you've scheduled your time around your goals, making it easier to not waste time. I hope this blog helped you to be better prepared to make time an ally. Please share your thoughts below, I am curious to know what you think of this post. Any ways, hope you've all enjoyed. Until next time!
