You Can Take Back Your Time

Oct 22, 2013, Written by Sue Miley


I spent years and years working 70 hours per week at a job that I thought couldn’t live without me.  Time wasn’t my own.  Or so I felt.  Then I moved to the next job and commuted an extra ten hours per week of drive time.

I told people, people I cared about, so many times that I can’t even count…..

I can’t.  I don’t have time.

The pressure of work can become an addiction that needs all of your precious time to stay alive.  Depression from a purposeless life can become a sinking whole of quicksand that absorbs your time in aimless pursuits of contentment.  The one day syndrome can have you wishing away your own time, to get to some far away destination, that steals the timeless moments of the journey.

Time is A Constant

Time is a resource that cannot be manufactured or bought to gain more of it.  It is given in equal doses day to day.  And the number of days is controlled only by God.

We all agree that time is a precious commodity.  It is consumed, traded and even stolen by others.

Most of us at some point or another wish we had more time.

One more day and the assignment will turn out so much better.

If I had more time I would read the Bible and pray more.

I used to have (hobbies), (friends), (family time), until things got so busy at work.

Aren’t you tired of it?  Aren’t you sick of hearing your own excuses?

We can take back our time.  

The business does without you when you have that heart attack or quit and go to your next job.  But how many hours and days of your life, and your relationships, did you give up saying, “the job needs me”?

You remember the times when you were younger and enjoyed playing the piano or painting.  Now you have kids, a house, chores.  There just isn’t time.  But how many hours per week do you watch tv?  Any tv?  Yes even the news and sports events.

How much time we have is set. 

How we use our time is not.

Your Time Is Yours to Spend

I won’t even begin to judge someone else about what they consider a valuable use of their time.  I am sure it is as unique as we are uniquely created by God.

But I feel I can safely state that most of us do make excuses for not having time because we are not proactively and consciously choosing for ourselves how we will spend our time.

Let’s take a look at it.

1.  Make a list of things you would like to spend your time on that you feel you haven’t had time for.

2.  Take some time today (pun intended) to review how you spent your time over the past week.  Ask yourself a few hard questions.

  •  Was this activity personally important to me?  Is it worth the price of my valuable time?
  • If yes, was the quantity of time reasonable payment for the value you received from the activity.
  • Was this specific activity more important to you than something else on your list that you created above? Be honest.

3.  After reviewing how your time is spent, make a simple action plan to begin to eliminate the time wasters and time absorbers and replace them with something on the list of things you wish you had time for.

Just Do It

No excuses.

This valuable resource is running out.

You can do it.

We can do it.

We can take back our time!

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Sue Miley

Sue Miley MBA, MA, LPC helps small business owners build successful businesses on a foundation of Christian values. After 20 years in business, and 10 years as a Christian counselor, Sue uses a combination of faith, business and psychology to help clients in business and in life.

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