LifeGrid Magazine August | Page 16

If Only I Had More Time! These words are often spoken by people who are feeling rundown, overwhelmed, overworked, unhealthy or looking for someone or something to blame for the reason their life seems out of control or harried. Ask a person who believes there are not enough hours in the day and they will tell you they wish they could find a way to manage their time in a more effective manner. To say that we, “manage time” is a misnomer; we cannot manage time but we can choose how we spend our time. A question I like to ask myself is, “If I choose to do this, will I be spending my time or wasting my time? Of course, your answer is based on your belief of the situation. For example, if you are being asked to donate your time to a cause or event and you don’t have the time, energy or ability to donate your time but you feel guilty if you say “no” what is your belief about saying “no”? Too often we allow others to manage our time for us out of guilt or simply because we don’t know how to say, “no”! How much more of your time could be spent doing things that bring you joy, hap- piness and pleasure instead of allowing the needs of another person to dictate your time? When we believe we don’t have enough time to do the things that really make us happy, we find ourselves doing everything from pulling through the drive-thru instead of making healthy eating choic- es to crossing off things that are important to us from our “To Do” list (including self-care). What we have are choices; when we believe we don’t have time for something, it’s because we are choosing to do something else. Every choice we make is based on a feeling or belief. To help you with your time challenges, here are 3 questions you can ask yourself the next time you are trying to decide whether something is causing you to spend your time or waste your time: 1. 2. 3. What Belief/Feeling can you let go of at this very minute? What Belief/Feeling will you let go of at this very minute? What Belief/Feeling do you need to hold onto for a while longer? Being able to answer these questions gives you the opportunity to be 100% responsible for whether you spend your time or waste your time. When you take 100% responsibility for how you spend your time, you’ll stop believing you’ve run out of time! Nancy Mueller LifeGrid® Local Editor - Long Beach masteringyourbeliefs.com facebook.com/lifegridlongbeach August 2017 LifeGrid Magazine | LifeGrid.com.au Channel