I am currently sitting on a plane, the flight was delayed. The air hostess is delivering a polite and apologetic announcement,
“Due to your 2-hour delay this evening we will be offering complimentary soft and hot drinks during your flight”
This morning I saw a young lady trip over the curb, because she was staring at her phone as she crossed the road frantically typing.
Yesterday, I visited the local coffee shop, I waited in the queue for no more that 2 minutes, the gentleman at the counters first interaction with me was “Sorry for your wait”.
Last week, I overheard a conversation between two people leaving a meeting…
Person 1; ‘How’s business’
Person 2; ‘Busy, really busy, but good busy, I was up till 11pm last night working through emails’
Person 1; ‘I know that feeling, most nights it can be past midnight when I log off’
Person 2; ‘Yeah, it’s crazy, I worked all through my holidays this year, wife wasn’t too happy’
Person 1; ‘Best get going, the office will be struggling without me’
It has happened slowly, it’s happened so gradually I am not sure I’d truly noticed the extent to which our world has changed, a little like one of your children changing gradually, bit by bit, until one day you look at them and ‘Bam!’ you notice all at once just how much they have grown up.
There are major differences, I am looking at this change differently. I am not looking at this change with the immense feeling of pride I get when I look at the changes in my children. I’m looking at it with a feeling of sadness for the world of employment my children will be entering if we don’t change our mindset, attitude and approach to time.
How exactly did our society change to such a degree that we are saying ‘sorry’ because someone waited less that 2 minutes to make a purchase? And why are we giving out free stuff in case someone goes crazy about a delay caused by what you might call ‘one of those things’. I certainly would not have wanted to board a plane that could have been unsafe, I’m sitting here actually grateful for the airlines competence. When did technology replace human connection? and when did being ‘busy’ and ‘over-worked’ become a badge of honour?
How did everything become so unbelievably urgent, rushed, and stressful?
In reality, the only thing that has changed is the way we ‘Think’ about time, not time itself. We still have the same 24 hours we’ve always had, we are just choosing to spend it differently.
And there it is…the way you spend your time is a choice.
We live in a world where we expected to do more, be more, deliver more, consume more… there is more information on the internet than you could possibly consume in a life time. We want on-demand everything! TV, Movies, you name it and it’s on demand, whilst some of these things are very nice to have, we have become the most impatient, rushed and therefore stressed out workforce to date. The line between work and home has become incredibly blurred.
We don’t plan our time in the way we should, because we can have pretty much what we want, when we want it. We have become lazy in how we choose to spend those 24 hours, it takes conscious effort to plan, emotional energy to focus and courage to push back on the stuff that adds zero value.
The pain and impact of not doing these things has such a hard and far reaching impact on the people we lead and our relationships outside of work.
So, how is it that some people manage to live a ‘Happy & Balanced’ life and others ‘Never have enough time’
Is there a trick that some of us are missing?, some sort of government secret being saved for the select few? There was definitely a time in my life where I absolutely believed that one of these must have been true!
It is so easy to lose track of all the important things life has to offer and let time slip through your fingers, our society encourages it!
What if you could ‘Think’ about time in a new way, what if you could take the 2 minutes in the queue to ‘Smell the coffee’ and enjoy the 2-hour delay at the airport as an opportunity to reflect and plan. How about you look up from your phone and reconnect with reality and start to be proud of your ability to organise your day so efficiently that you’re able to spend time on relationships and proudly wear that as your new ‘badge of honour’
Imagine treating your time with the respect it deserves, and taking your life back!
Join our event to find out how building your resilience will help you take your time back
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/build-your-resilience-ticket…
Kay x
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