Accepting Time
There are very few things in life that are fair. Some are fortunate to be born into privilege. Others are blessed with skills and abilities that others do not have. Still for others, genetics or environment may have an impact on their destiny. However one thing that is equal for everyone is the amount of time they are given each and every day. It is a fact there are 24 hours per day, broken into 60 minutes an hour, broken still further into 60 seconds per minute for each of us.
That does not mean that some of us may be busier than others at any given time. I found as I was progressing through the first month of 2015, that managing how I chose to use the time I was given each day was becoming a challenge. Fortunately opportunities were arising with additional clients reaching out my way. Additionally, for the last several years January is the month I assist friends of mine prepare for an annual fundraising dinner we run to support ALS research. I’m committed each week to providing my time at regular job search support groups that I facilitate. Combined those with time I spend with my spouse, networking meetings I attend and just the regular day to day tasks that need attention and it can get overwhelming.
It is the same for the job searchers I coach. They wonder if they spend time going to all of these networking meetings that they’re told they need to attend in conducting their search, will that take them away from looking online and spotting job postings? If they choose to follow one job lead and it does not pan out, they will ultimately beat themselves up for “wasting time” pursuing the option they selected.
When you truly get down to it, if what you choose to do in the moment is what is going to give you the greatest value for your time spent, then it is not “wasting time” to have chosen to do it. May it take you away from doing another task you also wanted to do? It could for the time at hand. However, ultimately, it may benefit you days, weeks or even months later for choosing to spend the time the way you did.
For example, there are 5 different documents that I administratively put together to support the charity dinner of which I spoke earlier. In past years, I would do the documents in a certain sequential order and not move to the last 3 until the first 2 were “finalized.” However, my experiences and my need to use my time differently this year taught me there was no sense to delaying the later documents. I could keep all 5 in sync throughout the development process. I also made the decision that when the later documents were “finalized” I was not going to be fanatical about going back and changing everything throughout all the documents if additions or corrections were required. I would just make the best adjustments possible. The result was that the process was a lot less stressful for me than in the past, and I was able to have time available to support my coaching clients as needed.
As this month’s quote on the Absolute Transitions website indicates, time is what keeps everything from happening at once. So, while you, like me may want to fool ourselves into thinking we can do all things at one time, it is just not going to happen. Therefore, look at the situations in front of you, make a quick, but firm evaluation of the circumstances, choose the course of action that you feel is best and will provide you the most value in the moment, and then move on. It may not be easy to do at first, but I assure you the other items that you wanted to do will still be there. And, when they come to the top of your “value board” evaluation, you will address them “in due time.”
