Did you ever wonder how you spend your “thinking time” on any given day?
The first time I was asked to track time and do a time audit was at my first professional job as a tobacco use health educator in a health department. We needed to think about and tally up the time spent per work activity and make weekly submissions. For example, 60 minutes on developing a tobacco program, two days doing a smoking cessation event and hours upon hours in meetings that were so much longer than I ever expected.
The next time was more fun and involved estimation. I was pregnant with my first son and was in prenatal class with my husband. The instructor asked us to think about our typical day and estimate how long we thought specific aspects of “baby life” would take. You know, like sleeping, feeding, diaper changes, doctor appointments, grocery shopping, etc. Then we were asked to add up the time and see how much unaccounted for time there was left in the day. It’s no surprise to you, of course, being older and wiser, that the total was well over 24 hours.
How about you? Have you ever had to do a time audit?
It got me thinking about the amount of time we spend on thinking about what we want in life…and the importance of doing a “thinking time” audit.
As a culture, much of we tend to think about is problem-focused. Especially working moms.
Our “life lens” is really about problems and solutions to problems. Think about your day, your week, your month. What problems did you have? What problems did you solve? How much time did you end up thinking about your problems, big and small?
With all of that energy being directed to this type of thinking, how much time did you actually spend on thinking about the life that you want? (Click to Tweet)
I’m talking about really dreaming. Freeing up your mind to do this type of thinking, with this same intensity, focus and energy as you devote to problem solving.
Be honest….
Did you spend ANY time on thinking about what you actually want to create in your life? What NEW things you want to happen, completely separate from your regular life and problems?
Just imagine how different the outcomes would be if you did.
Thoughts create feelings. When you are focused on a problem, you are quite likely to feel differently than when you are focused on something you want to create or have happen. Feelings create action and behavior. This leads to results. And if you look at your life and the results and outcomes around you, it only takes a bit of digging to find out the thoughts that ultimately got you there. If your thoughts are all focused on “problems,” it’s easy to see that this diversion of mental energy is can actually rob you of possibilities.
I hope you spend some of your valuable time and energy on what you want to do with your life. If you don’t do this, NO ONE WILL.
I repeat.
If you don’t prioritize thinking about what you want to create in your life, what you want will not happen. And this is where regrets come into play.
You will run the risk of not creating the life that you always thought you would have. A life that you can get excited about. A life filled with what YOU want to happen and experience. As we get older, this becomes more and more important.
Just imagine the changes that would happen if you allowed yourself to focus on what you want to do in your life. On how you want to spend your time. On what you want to create.
I’m giddy even thinking about it.
And you’re just one person. The large-scale potential impact is mind-blowing.
Check out my free download to help get you thinking in this direction. Why not? It’s free and you’ve got nothing to lose…except some well-deserved excitement in your life! www.suzyrosenstein.com/get-dream-igniter
Think you need a bit more help? https://suzyrosenstein.com/coachingwithsuzy/
