Rejecting the Myth of “I don’t have time “

Busting the myth of i don't have time

If you’ve ever thought, “I have so much on my plate, I’ll just do it tomorrow”, you’re not alone. Life is a crazy, blistering journey that leaves us craving for more of the one reserve that we all seem to need — time.

When it comes to our health and wellbeing, we can often be ‘light on the resources’. If you’re consciously prioritizing other things over proper nutrition and exercise, that’s your choice. But, if you’re waving your finger at the universe as if it’s your fate to be on a permanent time crunch, think again.

“Whilst time is an unending and uncontrollable process, OUR TIME is within our control and so it doesn’t come down to having time, it comes down to making time and deciding how to use it and organize our priorities. Time is almost entirely within our control with barely any exceptions.”

The reality is, you lead a completely different life from your neighbor, your co-worker, and your best friend. You could live on your own. Perhaps you have six kids. Heck, you may work 60 hours every week to pay the bills. Finding the opportunity to workout is not easy. That’s life.

I Have No Time” Is a Lie, Time Is All You Have

What if you found out that you didn’t have much time left to live? How would you spend the remainder of your time? Would you make different choices? Would your priorities shift from what you consider to be what you have to do to what you want to do?

How many times have you said or heard others say, “I don’t have time!?”

Some of us say it offhandedly as if it is self-evident, some of us say it facetiously to poke fun at our sense of under preparation, and still some say it with a tinge of pride as if being too busy to get everything done is a badge of honor.

Regardless of how we express it, all this does is perpetuate the myth that we are at the mercy of our environment and our circumstances.

Exposing the excuse

When we say we don’t have time (especially for things we say are important to us), what we are really saying is, I cannot be bothered to make time for it.

Perhaps I’m already overwhelmed, or maybe I am just lazy. Whatever the reason, I have just abdicated responsibility for my life’s greatest asset – my time.

If you took a closer look at how you spend your time, you would most likely find a lot of time that is just spent…lost scrolling through feeds, or travelling, or watching something or just doing nothing at all. If we did a time audit on our lives, we would find that we do have the time, we could probably just use it well.

What shall I do with this 24?

I can systemise and hack my way to becoming better at using my time and better at execution. I can become skilled and massively productive, my results compouding over time, solving intractable problems quicker than normal and being present enough to pounce on opportunities as they arise.

Because if it is a lie that we don’t have time. Then the truth is that all we have is time.

And time can be anything we want it to be. It is literally a matter of what we make of it.

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