BUT I DON’T HAVE THE TIME!

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." -H. Jackson Brown

Ah! This quote is closest to my heart because that used to be my fallback line ‘I don’t have the time!’ and of course nobody would believe me. And you know what – they were right! Everybody is given the same number of hours in a day and you can make it idle or busy as you want it to be. It’s the same number of hours yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Let’s see this.

I had a job that was both challenging and interesting. As the years moved along I soon found myself wearing different hats on the job. People moved up, a few left, and the company went into diversifying its business. So there I was with my hands full with the nitty-gritty details of memos, correspondences, prepared daily-weekly-monthly-quarterly-annual sales reports, in-house trainings, seminars to branches and to the dealers network, handled dealers’ complaints, ran them through the process, followed through till the transaction was consummated, and publish the monthly company newsletter (there was no newsletter staff to speak of then). At home I was wife and mother to my family. Most times my mother role took the bigger part of my time as the children were growing up needing more of it than hubby did who was also busy with his own hectic life at the office. Too I was a daughter to a widowed and aging father in the province who needed care and attention. It was tough sailing but come to think of it some other women with my same circumstance managed businesses on the side and maintained regular workouts at the gym. Now that’s a good one. I would have done the same too if only I had thought about it then. And others more heard of were in congress, or painting master pieces, or writing books and novels, or doing other great things that took up thousands of minutes each day… but it all got done! Because there was always time to do it. The 24 hours God gives to one day is enough to finish anything in that allotted span of time when managed wisely.

Do I hear objections? But of course there will be objections particularly – from someone who may be tackling his projects clumped into one huge batch - one big muddled mess and wants to finish everything ASAP. This is the exact ground or condition on which ‘but I don’t have enough time’ would thrive on.

Things come to us at a varying degree of importance and urgency, don’t we all know that ---a life saving fact, if you ask me. I think that one can adapt oneself to the different levels of magnitude or substance of each matter while working toward a goal or goals. A person does not have to feel pressured in doing everything in one sitting or with one sweeping stroke or with constant high energy– which isn’t possible all the time of course. Instead one may possibly do little on some things and then do so much more on others and yet still come out quite productive on those concerns.

Companies don’t crumble because of that; I know only too well that they do things in a manner that fits into a time table beginning with one day. Goals and projects are finished that way. Fortunes are built that way too. Great people in the history of the world have used that same wisdom in pursuing their inventions, missions, master pieces, goals and dreams.

It’s just learning how to reign-in a bit or go full throttle to what the hour or day asks of you. But you don't need to waste energy on something that doesn't need it. Besides, you can always have the time you need if you really want to.