Do you feel as if you are in a perpetual battle to find enough hours in your day to get everything done?
When last did you really take time out from your hectic schedule, observe, reflect, question what you’re doing and take action to bring more balance to your life?
“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”
– Will Rogers
Too few hours in a day
One of the things that always strikes me when I talk with other people is how frantically busy everyone seems to be.
Many people talk about how their workloads have increased, others talk about how time seems to be speeding up – but the common refrain is that there are far too few hours in a day to get done all we believe needs to be done.
I’m afraid we humans have only ourselves to blame!
Technology – saviour or curse?
Increasingly rapid advances in technology were hailed in the seventies as the solution to our work woes. Lifestyles would become ever more comfortable and enjoyable as new devices automated repetitive work and relieved us of our burdens, freeing us up to do the things we really wanted to do.
So what happened?
While new technology has indeed helped us to complete tasks that would previously have taken hours or days in minutes, it has also stripped us of our private time.
In my recent book, I talk about the evolution of an ‘always on’ society where it has become almost socially unacceptable not to be available 24/7, whether that be for work or private purposes.
As a result of the ‘always on’ society that we’ve created, most of us have lost the ability to pause and reflect deeply on our lives and the direction we want them to move in. We’re simply too busy getting stuff done!
Critical importance
And yet, the act of pausing, observing and reflecting is of critical importance in getting to know yourself. Knowing yourself is the first step towards accepting yourself and ultimately being able to love yourself for what you are – which is when the true abundance of this magical universe starts to make itself obvious.
If you’ve read to this point then you have effectively just embarked on a brief course of pausing and reflecting. Do you feel better for having done that?
If so, why not take it further.
Your conscious mind needs variety in order to be at its most effective. Focusing on the same issues for too long brings about fatigue and frustration. Issues that you feel need to be ‘resolved’ and make you feel stressed are best handled by your subconscious mind that works ‘behind the scenes’ to find solutions to meet your needs, while your conscious mind ‘enjoys a breath of fresh air’.
Time out to reflect and correct
So, anytime you’re feeling stressed with a situation, overwhelmed by everything you feel ‘needs to get done’ or simply ‘stale’ and in need of some reinvigoration, take a little time out, observe the tranquility of the natural beauty around you, reflect on the outcome you truly want, question whether what you are doing will get you there, resolve to make some changes … and take action.