Obligation Have You Made One Lately
What is your level of obligation to your dreams?
As I looked up the word obligation, it surprised me to see the definition of the military term for obligation as: The period of time one agrees to serve on active duty, in the reserve, or a combination of both. It is not about making a commitment to serve, but more about the time they will sever.
One problem I had in the past was when I said yes to a dream or goal I failed to understand the obligation of time it would require. I think we often leap into new things saying yes I want this and then expect time to appear in our schedules for it to happen.
As a coach, I often hear from clients “I don’t have the time to (fill in the blank)” as to why they have not made the changes in life they want.
There’s one thing I do know — there’s always enough time. 168 hours in a week. 40 to work,56 to sleep. That leaves 72 — about 10 hours per day. If you give yourself 3 hours per day for your family and friends, they get 21 of your full undivided attention (that's like 5 date nights a week), That still leaves you 51 hours a week or 7 hours a day or you can split it in half and keep 3 for your eating and commuting work and 4 for your what? Maybe working on your dreams.
Either way, there’s time.
There’s time, and there’s space. If you spread the time out and give yourself space to breathe along the way, you’ll get there. “Successful,” people chip away at their goals and dreams. Knowing that at some point systems and habits will be in place to help them live more fully aligned with their goals
So what do you do to make time for your dreams when it seems like there isn’t any? You work in the cracks and crevasses.
Did you know Stephen King wrote on his lunch breaks when he had a day job? John Grisham worked 70 hours per week as a lawyer and still fit in time to write.
What is stopping you from carving out time for your dream?
Have you become so used to living outside of time that you forgot how to make time work for you.
Here are three tips to help you get back control of some of your time.
Organizing Your Day — Create a to-do list that prioritizes difficult tasks first. When I am clear on what needs to be done I seem to be better able to get it done. Taking just 5–10 minutes at the start of my day and laying out the what got to get done today list and in what order helps me stay focused on just this and then that. Try it.
Start Ahead Finish Ahead — Arrive to work a little early to ensure that you don’t end up behind. Getting into the office be it at home or in your cubical ahead of the rush is the best way to get more done and done better. I stopped being the last guy out and started being the first guy in. What I realized aside for the fact that the coffee was fresher. Was that in the silence I got more done with zero interruption and my focus and quality of work was better allowing me to leave the office at a “normal” time guilty free. Oddly no one questioned why I was not the last guy out, I guess because I let my work do the talking instead of my time card.
Do you have a minute? — Plan around periods in your day where you’re likely to be interrupted. We all know there are parts of our day that are more prone to interruption. Interruption of email or phone calls or last-minute meetings, so schedule accordingly. Don’t put mission or attention critical tasks in that interruption time zone.
At the end of the day we all have only one life to live and we can choose to send it binge-watching reruns of Game of Thrones or we can be building our own empire of Success. The choice is yours.
Today I challenge you (thats what coaches call an accountability test) find a spot in your calendar to be more engaged in your dream and goals. Just 15 minutes to invest in your bigger life. If it works try it again tomorrow. If it doesn't work still try it again tomorrow. Change takes time to implement and achieve.
