The Daily Journal
By the Ocean
Sunny 79 Degrees
7:42 a.m.
Time is a fickle thing.
Word on the street is that we never have enough of it. But it seems that we actually have too much. My hunch is that that’s actually the source of the problem.
The human form doesn’t seem to know what to do with abundance. Look at folks who win the lottery. Look at folks who get everything they’ve ever wanted. Bizarre stuff can happen after that.
We DO seem wired to respond to scarcity pretty directly. In fact, we’re wired to respond to the IDEA of scarcity, whether or not it matches reality.
So what’s someone to do who wakes up with 24 hours in a day and never seems to have enough time for the things they want to do?
My recommendation might be to identify even more hours of your day and take them OFF the table. Make them disappear. Unavailable for “doing things.” So now we’ve taken someone who already didn’t have “enough time” and given them even less!
Now I can hardly call what I do WORK, simply because it’s what I’m here to do. But I’ve never been more productive than the times I decided that my “work” day would be two hours, or four hours.
With that simple decision, the mind flips into scarcity mode. All of the unnecessary is immediately identified and cast aside. We won’t be doing that! There’s no time!
In scarcity mode, the mind has no problem saying, “No” to that coffee date, or “No” to that meeting, or “No” to that prospective client engagement that’s on the table but not really a good fit. No. No. No.
For “Yes” men and women who have trouble saying, “No,” this is a very effective way to trick yourself into having a spine 🙂 After you get into the habit, you lose the emotional hit you used to take when saying No.
There’s not enough time so you’re forced to ignore all that is not essential.
So many people talk about how busy they are as though that’s just something you have to settle for in today’s world. It’s not. Don’t believe the illusion.