Stop Saying You Don't Have Time

Welcome to the Rich Life Reframe podcast. We've been given an amazing opportunity in entrepreneurship that's never been available in any other time period. We live in a reality where the number of lives we impact can be directly reflected by the dollars in our bank accounts. This podcast is all about living a truly rich life that goes beyond the amount of income that we make. It means living the good life and existing in a state of freedom and well being. In this podcast, we'll be going through quick reframes that can help you get your mind right so you can truly live the life that you've always dreamed of. That being said, let's hop into this episode.

All right, welcome back, everybody. Today I want to talk about a topic that I am super passionate about and probably one that I might get on a soapbox about a little bit, so. So the topic I want to talk about today is saying that you don't have time for things. So stop saying that you don't have time. If there's one thing that I really can't stand hearing, it's that we all have the same 24 hours as so and so big celebrity. Like, people always say you have the exact same 24 hours in the day as Beyonce. Like, I hear that one all the time. So of course we actually are awake, or maybe not awake, are alive for the same 24 hours of every single day. But we don't all have the same circumstances or resources as anyone else. We might have different varying levels of responsibility. We might be the default parent, you know, the one who is responsible for making all the doctor's appointments, getting the kids to school, or homeschooling them in the days of Corona, you know, making dinner, keeping the house clean, like, everybody's responsibility lists look a little different. And we all tend to think that we're the busiest or we're, you know, the most overwhelmed. Like, our egos get in the way often when it comes to thinking about productivity. Like, oh, that would never work for me because I have three kids or I have five kids or I have 12 kids. Like, we always try to weasel our way out of responsibility around things. And that's. That's basically saying it's not that you don't have time, you're just not making it a priority. So if there's any shift that you can make in the way that you're talking to yourself about getting things done, if you ever catch yourself saying, like, oh, I just don't have time for that, shift it to saying, that's just not My main priority and just see how that feels. Because that's essentially what you're doing when you're not making time for something. So when it comes to like, prepping healthy foods or exercising, if you're saying, like, oh, I just don't have time, what you're actually saying, that's not a priority in my life right now, there's nothing wrong with that, but you just need to be really honest with yourself about why things aren't happening. So it's the number one excuse I hear from students and clients. I don't have time. So I totally get it. Trust me, I get it 100%. I am a mother of three busy children. I am running a business. My husband travels. He's often gone for days. Like, I know how busy life can get, especially now where our responsibilities have been all jumbled up with, you know, working from home, more, having kids home, doing distance learning. Some of the stress and the, you know, procrastination that comes with anxiety around coronavirus going on. I understand that it's hard to be productive right now. So when you're saying you don't have time, what you're actually saying is, I don't want to find time to do this. I don't want to figure out how to fit this into my existing habits. Maybe those habits are scrolling Instagram for four hours, that's your priority. Or that's what you're making your priority. Instead of going to the gym or instead, of, you know, going to bed earlier, instead of waking up earlier and giving yourself time for journaling or reading a book, you're choosing. You're choosing the way that you're spending your time. So an interesting exercise that I've done in the past is to track how you're using your time for. I think it's two weeks straight. So for 14 days, you track everything that you do. Like, every time you shower, you write it down. Every time you eat, every time you scroll your phone mindlessly for 25 minutes, you write it down. Then you start tracking of the 24 hours in a day. How much time are you actually spending sleeping? How much time are you spending eating? How much time are you spending doing mindless, numbing activities? When you look at it that way, you start to realize how many different pockets of time you have that you could fill with more productive activities than just scrolling mindlessly or watching Netflix. So you're making that choice to either a, be productive or not be productive. But you've got to be honest with yourself in how you're feeling that time, maybe it is important to you to be able to sit down on the couch at the end of the day and look at your phone for an hour. If that's something that makes you feel good and that's something that your brain needs to decompress after a busy day, then I'm not saying don't ever give yourself wind down time, don't ever give yourself time to numb out, but just be clear and be honest with yourself about how you're actually using your time instead of making excuses. When you're making excuses like that, you're training your brain to essentially give up. You're training your brain to say, it's okay that I'm not reaching my goals because I just don't have time. You really need to work on changing that narrative into understanding what you want in life, why you're not working to get there, what the actual story is about, why you're not getting things done, and why you're choosing other activities. Maybe it's procrastination, maybe it's perfectionism, and maybe there's some level of self worth, self belief in there that you're masking by saying you don't have time, when in reality you're just scared to do the project because you're afraid it might flop. So if you eliminate that excuse from your life, if you start actually looking at the amount of time that you have, then you're going to get clear on where your real blocks are and what you can do to start overcoming them so that you can make the money that you want to make. You can have the business that you want to have, you can have the body that you want to have and the family life that you want to have. Because you have so much more clarity and intention around where you're spending your time and what your goals are. So really think about what does an ideal day look for you look like for you? If you can map that out and then compare it with what you're currently doing, you can start slowly by removing things or paying closer attention to things that aren't serving you longer. You can't just rip the band aid off and go, you know, all in on, I'm gonna wake up at 4am and I'm gonna do journaling and then I'm gonna run 12 miles and then I'm gonna bake cinnamon rolls for my kids for breakfast. Like anytime we shift completely from one extreme to the other, it's really hard to maintain. So the best way to do it, if you're finding yourself making that excuse. If I'm too busy, start by changing one little habit a day. As you start stacking the habits, maybe you only look at your phone for 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes. You're going to start being able to shift what your day looks like into a more ideal framework for what will help you fall asleep smarter, happier, more successful every single day. Those types of habits are going to start compounding on themselves, and maybe in a year or two, you don't even recognize yourself. So just a little bit of feedback about saying you're too busy, about having that mindset about your life and how to start shifting into a more intentional and more fulfilled lifestyle. All right. Hope you're having a great day. I'll talk to you all soon.