Do you wish you had more time?

Now there's this general train of thought, particularly amongst solopreneurs, you know, being one-man band and all the rest of it, where there's this idea and perception of lacking time. Now, time is not the first conversation we've, we've had. Likely you've likely heard me talk about time before, and the feeling that we're lacking time can be a very real thing. Let's face it, you're trying to juggle every single role within the business. You're then also trying to juggle family life and wife and kids or partner and children and so on. Then you've got the fact that you're trying to maybe manage yourself and get your health in order and get your body back to how it should be and so on. So there's a lot going on. Then of course, if we're at a place where we're not maybe reaching the levels or the goals that we want to in each of those categories, then we feel like we need to do more and more and more in order to get there more quickly. It's like, I need a result as quick as possible so that I can get some time back. Now, the catch that many of us have is we have this perceived lack of time because despite the urgency that we feel within our own world, we still find ourselves taking care of everybody else's crap. We're responding to everybody else's urgency and obligation to the point where we leave minimal time for ourselves. So we, we have a desire to move forward and a desire to get results and a desire to feel less time pressure and less overwhelmed and so on. But the catch is we're so obligated to do other people's things because we struggle to say no that we end up feeling like we have less and less time to do our own things. So from that perspective, it feels like, hmm, holy shit, I just haven't got enough time. I need a bloody 30 hours in a day. I need 10 days in a week. And then maybe if I had that, I would have enough time to get all of my shit done and I wouldn't feel like I'm constantly behind. Now, of course, that's one aspect of it. So we've got this idea that, well, I'm lacking time because I've got so much to do. Now, I've spoken to you guys before about how I don't really consider this a time problem. It's more a self-management issue. It's an inability for us to show up in power and actually prioritize the things that are important to us over the things that we feel are urgent to us in the moment. So from that perspective, it's not a time issue, it's a self-management issue. But staying on the trend of time, or on the idea of time being a problem, what many of you will actually find is it's not so much a lack of time that's the issue, it's actually the fact that you have too much time. Now I know that can sound a bit like, you what, mate, there is no such thing as me having too much time. But at the same time, I'd have you consider that actually most of the things that are really important always get done despite the fact that you have limited time available. It's like you might not get every single item on your to-do list completed, but the things that are really important that must be done always get done, right? There's always time for those things. So why is that? It's because for those particular things, we allow just enough time to get them done. and yes, it might require late nights, yes, it might require pressure and urgency and all the rest of it, but they still get done. If we were able to take that same mentality that got those particular tasks done, rather than going, oh, well, I've got this list of things to do, and as long as I get them done at some point, that will be good enough. In other words, giving ourselves too much time to get them completed, then we wouldn't obviously find ourselves in this place where we constantly feel like we're lacking time because all of the shit would have been done previously. Because if we are able to actually set our own deadlines and hold ourselves accountable to those, things get done in a much more efficient manner without the time pressure, without the urgency, and without the scarcity and the obligation to do it now, do it now. Now, of course, it's hard because we're stuck in this pattern maybe, and we have maybe even a bit of what we call learned helplessness. Where we've put ourselves into this behavioral pattern, this behavioral pattern, sorry. And now we're struggling to get out of it. We're struggling to kind of rewire the brain and re-pattern our ways of acting so that we can actually show up differently, so that we can actually get different outcomes. But if we can do that, if we can take the time to step back and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute. Much of my problem is actually that I give myself too long to complete these tasks. I don't actually set a fixed deadline and then hold myself accountable to it. Maybe I wouldn't have so many issues if I actually did that, because this issue of giving myself too much time to act and perform gives me too much time to think about it, too much time essentially to overthink about it, in fact. And often with the overthinking, we overcomplicate and we make things far more complex and difficult than they actually needed to be. Whereas what we find when we approach the deadline and holy shit, this thing has to be done right now, quite often we will do it in the simplest fashion possible. But it tends to be the most effective and the one that gets it done in the shortest time possible, but at the highest standard possible, at least to pass the task, which generally speaking is plenty enough because done, let's face it, is better than perfect. So what we need to do is go, okay, well, there may be a perception of lacking time, but actually I should probably reframe that and consider that it's not a lack of time, it's actually a lack of ability to prioritize myself. And to prioritize my own important tasks against these things that I perceive as more urgent. And then my other issue is not a lack of time, but actually the fact I give myself too much time to complete these particular tasks. I apply no importance and no urgency to them, and therefore they drift and accumulate and therefore create a pressure and a sense of overwhelm and a sense of urgency and a sense of time scarcity that then makes you feel uncomfortable with it. It constantly feels like, holy shit, I've just got so much to do. This is too much. Do I really want this lifestyle? Like, is it really worth me running my own business? Is it really worth me striving for more? Now, we know ultimately that it is worth it, but often when we're stuck in this place of time scarcity and lack, we feel like it's not. It's like, holy shit, it would just be easier to go get a fucking 9 to 5. Now, let's face it, none of us really want the 9 to 5 grind because as much as a business is challenging, as much as a business comes with a lot of pressure and difficulty in terms of managing time, you don't want to throw away the opportunities that a business provides versus what a 9-to-5 provides. Now, of course, for some, a 9-to-5 is your best option, and that's probably what you should do, as in just a normal job, work within a company, work your way up the ladder. That's maybe the best thing, because the truth is running your own business or entrepreneurship is not for everybody. Now, that's not me saying, oh, I'm so special because I'm a business owner. I'm just saying it's not for everybody. There is a lot of pressure and emotional issues that come with it. Now, when I say issues, I just mean a lot of emotional stress and strain and so on, because your money is dependent upon you being able to make money, not depending upon somebody else being able to make money to then pay you. So there is a lot of pressure that comes with it, particularly during times of a bit of a business drought, or if marketing doesn't seem to be working, or sales and leads aren't coming in, and so on. So there's a lot more pressure that comes with that, which then adds to the time pressure that we're already facing. So it's like I've already got stress up here, and obligation, and overwhelm, and pressure, and so on. It's all piling up. Now I've got the added pressure of having to make sure that I'm doing at least enough of the right tasks to bring in enough money to keep a roof over my head, to put food on the table, and so on, so that my partner isn't running around scared shitless that, holy shit, we're going to lose our home and all those types of things. So getting back specifically to time, we need to consider that while there isn't a time issue, it's a self-management issue, and there isn't a lack of time. We give ourselves too much time. So that brings me to my question for you guys. It's like, okay, well, if that's the case, where would you say in your life that you find that you're currently misusing your time? Because this is what tends to happen for a lot of us. It's like We have time, we allocate time for certain things, but sometimes we're actually negligent with our time. We misuse it and perhaps spend too much time on certain things. Could be the old social media, Facebook scrolling or Instagram scrolling, which is very easy to do in our busy, stressful lives where we're looking for that quick dopamine hit and so on. The trouble is that quick dopamine hit often turns into 20 to 40 minutes of just aimless scrolling. So that's one way. Then obviously we've got the Netflix binges and so on. So often there are ways that we're using our time that isn't effective for us reaching our goals. That doesn't mean we can never do those things. It just means we maybe need to be more strategic about how we do it. And then the other thing that I want you to, to at least think about is what small step can you make or what small change can you make by tonight? So as in for tomorrow, that will enable you to start moving forward, that will enable you to start taking back some time for yourself, or at least reprioritizing you in your list of to-dos and so on. Now, this doesn't have to be perfect from day one. It doesn't have to be immediately perfection in your calendar and schedule and so on. But we do want to at least get into, into habit and into momentum as quickly as we can. So the sooner we can have an insight or a revelation and go, oh, 'That's interesting. That's a way I hadn't thought about it before. Maybe I should do something about that.' The quicker we actually do that thing, whatever it might be, whatever might work for you, the sooner we do that, the sooner we see that, 'Oh, actually, maybe I have been lying to myself. Maybe I kind of exaggerated the extent to which I'm actually lacking time.' Not because I genuinely did it to lie, but what we often do is try to justify to ourselves why we're stuck, why we're struggling, why we're not moving forward at the rate that we want. So we find reasons and excuses that will back that up. There's a saying that humans are not rational, we rationalize, which is often the case. It's like, okay, well, how can I rationalize the fact that I'm not moving forward in my business? Oh, well, it's because I don't have time. But why don't I have time? Oh, it's because I've got to do all this, these different things for all these different people. Then of course I have my own stuff to juggle. I got the business and I obviously have to fulfill every role in the business. Then I also have my family I need to take care of, and then I'm trying to do my own thing, and I just don't have— and we overwhelm ourselves with the ideas and the thoughts and all the different things rather than actually getting clear on, well, what within that whole span of things, that whole realm of to-dos, which of those is actually important? Which ones will actually move the needle? Because quite often what we find, particularly when we do have tasks where we're giving ourselves too long to complete them, is that we have a whole lot of shit on our to-do list that just doesn't need to be done at all or doesn't need to be done by us. We could quite easily get somebody else to do those tasks, whether a friend, whether a family member, or even a VA if you wanted to hire yourself a virtual assistant or something. Quite often there are things that we are allowing to take up our time that we don't need to be doing. We can allow somebody else to do it and therefore take that time back for ourselves to start elevating and growing the 4 categories of life in the way that we want without feeling pressure all the time and having a desire to grow, but being unable to and feeling stifled because we perceive ourselves to constantly be lacking time. So that's what I'll leave you guys with today. As I mentioned, what are you misusing? Sorry, what things are you currently misusing your time on? So in what ways are you misusing your time and maybe need to kind of juggle some things around or perhaps even stop or delay some things that you might be doing? That are, that are taking time away from you? And then the other thing is, what small step can you make in the next 24 hours that can help to start move you forward, get you into momentum, and help you start building more time for yourself into your routine and schedule without delaying things, without putting them off, without overwhelming you and not being able to say no to other people? So thanks for watching, people. Appreciate it as always. Drop your answers in the comments below, and I look forward to chatting with you all in my next video. Take it easy, people.