No one has had time since…well…the beginning of time. Truth is, it’s always been there, it’s just filled with useless stuff.
Saying there is no time is just a cheap excuse to make ourselves feel better about not taking action. To be honest – it aggravates the hell out of me.
I used to say it all the time about playing the drums. In my teens I used to play all day, every day. Then college and being an adult took me away from becoming the next Tommy Lee. That’s OK, I wasn’t looking forward to having women throw themselves at me and rolling in my millions anyway.
Next thing you know; it’s been 10 years since I’ve ripped it up on the skins.
People would ask me if I still played and I would always say “I don’t have time”. And much to my agitation, everyone’s knee jerk response was “make time”.
Brilliant advice. What’s next are you going to tell me to be myself? Ass.
One day I got sick of hearing their canned response and I started saying “It isn’t a priority right now”. Conversation over.
Instead of sounding like I was indirectly looking for their 2 cents on how to fit the drums in my schedule, the person got the hint that playing the drums wasn’t that important to me.
Saying “it wasn’t a priority” also did something else for me, it started putting everything in a hierarchy. There is now order in the chaos that is my life.
Priorities get the time, everything else gets pushed to the side.
Saying the drums weren’t a priority is fine, I could live a perfectly acceptable life without them. But what happens when “not a priority” extends to things that bring a real benefit to your life?
For instance:
I don’t have time to exercise. = Exercising isn’t a priority right now.
I don’t have time to cook a healthy meal. = Eating healthy isn’t a priority right now.
I don’t have time to read. = Getting more betterer isn’t a priority right now.
Suddenly you look like an out of shape idiot. Burns a little, right?
Let’s channel our inner Houdini and make time appear. Rather than give you the solid advice of “make time” like I got, let’s dig a little and get to some actual stuff you can use today.
The first step in changing something is to get aware of what you’re doing. When I got my dad to lose 40lbs, getting him aware of what he was eating really has been the single most important part of his transformation.
Your task is to simply keep track of what you do for a few days. Break it down to 30 minute intervals. You’ll be shocked where your time goes.
10 hours a week on Facebook?
10 hours a week watching TV?
90 minutes a week pooping?
How the hell can you still tell me you don’t have time for a 10-minute workout when you spend 90 minutes on the toilet?
You might say I have a slightly skewed view of priorities because of this site, which is fine – but to me, my health is #1.
If you think about it, health controls everything else. If you are sick a lot, then you can’t (and shouldn’t) hang out with friends and family. Being sick also leads to a whole host of other problems like higher medical bills, more medications and lost time.
Health is the keystone in the arch that is your life. Without it everything crumbles.
You might be able to skip work outs or eat like crap for a while but eventually poor health choices will catch up with you and usually by then it’s too late.
After health, everything else should fall in line. Create your own hierarchy and fit those things into your daily schedule. Ask yourself “How does this benefit me or make me better?”
If it makes you better or makes you happy then there should be time in your day for it, otherwise save it for after your priorities are done.
Exercising for the sake of exercising is good but not sustainable. The motivation will wane and you’ll miss workouts. Set a goal with a deadline.
The goal will give you the extra kick in the ass when you have zero motivation. Just make it realistic. Getting abs in 2 weeks when you are at 20% body fat is not realistic.
A goal could be something as simple as reading for 20 minutes a day. Every day is a deadline and you have a quantifiable task.
I used to think goals were stupid and only try-hards set them. Then I realized I was just like a dead body floating down a river.
Don’t expect to flip your world on its head and it not be tough. The best thing to do is to keep the change small and the bar of success ridiculous low.
Say you want to start reading more because you are tired of being stupid (That’s where I was in the beginning of 2016). Just aim for one page a day. We are taking no more than 5 minutes to get smarter.
Hell, you can read that one page while you’re sitting on the toilet for those 90 minutes a week.
After building the habit, those 5 minutes will turn to 10, 15 and 20 minutes. Next thing you know you own a Barnes and Nobles member card and take Instagram pics of your book deliveries.
Get rid of “I don’t have time” excuse and replace it with “It’s not a priority right now”.
What is something you’ve been wanting to do but “haven’t had time” to do?
What’s the first step you are going to take to make that thing a priority today?
If you know someone who could benefit from this article, please share it on Facebook or Twitter. 2 out of 3 people are obese today, let’s start a change.
Dave
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