Life Beyond Teaching
The Only Time Is Now
'This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to
use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today
is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When
tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something
that you have left behind.., let it be good.'
Author unknown
These inspiring words help us focus on time-management; how to live each day to the full and balance work and leisure. Accept that there will never be a perfect uncluttered time in your life when all the chores are completed and your in-tray is completely empty. Just as people have observed there is never a right time for having a baby or moving house, similarly there is no magic time given to write a book, start a new hobby or book a weekend away. But this shouldn't stop you putting off the things you really want to do. Remember, you are in control of your life and if you really want something to happen it is up to you to seize the day!
As a life coach I often support clients with issues of time-management so they free themselves up to fit in what was missing in their lives. Write down how your time is spent on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Use a journal to reflect your priorities, how you really want to spend your life. What could you eliminate, delegate or multi-task to make this possible? Do you realise that by cutting down supermarket trips to once every three weeks, with the help of a local greengrocer and a huge freezer, you could be saving yourself 34 trips a year! Just think of all that queuing, parking and unpacking you have saved yourself and what you could be doing more pleasurably instead. If you're not good at saying no and you have spent a lifetime pleasing people by saying yes, remember that the first time is the worst and it does get easier! If you don't stand up for yourself no one else is going to, or as Cheryl Richardson says in Take Time for Your Life, if you don't pilot your own plane, someone else will. If you have ever been hijacked off course then you will know exactly what I'm talking about! However hard you are working, try to find time to incorporate ten weekly habits to enhance your life from walking and observing nature, time for exercise and relaxation, listening to music or reading an uplifting book to bring balance back into your life. You owe it to yourself to fill the remains of each day in ways that lift your spirits.
Try to find time to be spontaneous, even in a crowded schedule. Recently, I reluctantly took a day off to join friends bird watching in Suffolk. It was a glorious day and I had the once in a lifetime experience of seeing a bittern in flight that I wouldn't have missed for the world.
An eighty-five year old woman, Nadine Starr, once said: 'If I had my
life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay
that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more
merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.' Doesn't that make you realise
that the only time is now?
Anderson Internet
| Life Beyond Teaching offers help and support but is unable to take responsibility for individual results |