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When we are young, we feel that time is on our side. Not any more.
Our days are a blur of perceived demands from workplaces stretched beyond the
leading edge to the bleeding edge, from technology that allows others to locate
us even in the privacy of our cars and bathrooms, from children and aging
parents who name us and claim us, and from our inability to find options for
creating mind sets and actions that can give us a modicum of breathing space and
control.
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We can all sing the chorus: "There's too much to do and too little
time." We have created a commodity worth of the Stock Exchange: Time. We
spend it, lose it, waste it, and manage it. We're told to make time, use time,
take time and, if we've had a run-in with the law, we might even "do"
time.
Time is the great equalizer, given in singular 24-hour chunks by the rising
of the sun and the setting of the moon. No money can buy it, no power can hold
it, no army can stop it. We need to concentrate on winning back our life --
snatching it away from the blur of to-do lists, technology, and work/life
pressures.
Four Truths
The more I ponder time demands, I realize four truths:
Truth 1: Simplicity isn't
simple. It's an admirable, essential goal that most
of us are working on. Simplicity takes time and requires an agreement from all
those impacted by its requirements. We've been given day-to-day wisdom to follow
in realizing the already-present abundance without adding to our closet, our
bank account, our larder.
Truth 2: The technology genie will not go back into the bottle. Once
released, our challenge becomes to wisely choose when we access technology's
power. The seductiveness of thinking we are so important that people must find
us any time, any place, for any matter is ego at its worst. Consider my
experience with a man who brought his computer and cellular phone along on a
four-day cruise. He was not present. He missed the experience. And, I think, he
lost.
Truth 3: Time management creates order and structure. It does not create
present moment awareness. I'm not concerned with "managing time" as
much as I am for discovering how to make better choices for what we put in these
blocks called "time." This is not about finding the latest time-saving
devices. We all have a plethora of these. Too often, they've become excuses for
letting us cram our life with longer to-do lists. We end up working harder and
longer. What I want to have us consider is taking control, finding personal
empowerment in our work, lives, lifestyles, and relationships. It's about
finding more life in our years and more years in our life. We do not have extra
time, but we do have discretionary energy and creativity. And we can learn to be
present in the moment.
Truth 4: Being present takes practice. As children, we felt we had command of
our day, at least until bedtime. Summers stretched into hide-aways, street
games, lightening bug hunts, marshmallows over campfires, and inner tubes in
pools. What would happen if we could capture, practice, and re-frame the present
so that at the end of a day, a week, or year, we felt like we have lived life --
with it's joys and sorrows -- in a manner of our choosing? Plenty.
How to Get Started
Here are two examples of what you can do to be here now:
1. Create a sacred space for
regrouping. This could be your car, your
bathroom, your backyard. When you enter this space, ban anything that distracts
your attention from simply breathing and noticing your surroundings.
2. Try and discover something you have never seen or heard
before. There will
always be something. This is like any exercise. The regular practice will allow
you to stop at any given moment and be in control, centered, and observant. Keep
a journal, and joy a few words of some event, person, experience or observation
that struck you as meaningful. This is part of being in the now.
Being present means seeing with new eyes and looking beyond the obvious to
that metaphorical magic which takes an event in time and earmarks it as a
memory. By collecting these moments and capturing them in word or picture, at
the end of a year, you'll be amazed at how much you have won by being present.
You have won back a portion of your life.
About the Author:
Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE, is an international speaker, author and seminar
leader. Her book 'Work for A Living and Still Be Free to Live' is also the title
of one of her most popular and upbeat programs on Work/Life Balance. For more
information on Eileen and her presentations, please call 949-496-8640 or visit
her web site at http://www.eileenmcdargh.com
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