Are you one of the multitude of people out there who never have enough time? Time seems to be one of our scarcest commodities – the one we tend to protect the most. It’s hard (or impossible) to get it all done, much less have time for anything else. People stay up late, get up early, put important things at the bottom of the list – all to get the “urgent” things done.
Scarcity? No way!
What would you say if I told you this was all part of a scarcity mentality? You’d probably point to the long lists of tasks, many with deadlines, that are screaming for your attention. But in my experience, thinking something isn’t there is self-fulfilling. In other words, if you don’t think it’s there, it won’t be.
It’s not just about time.
I’ve seen that be true for people looking for love. They typically say there aren’t any good single ones left. And of course, they don’t find them. The same seems to be true with money. If someone thinks there is not enough money, no amount will be enough. They may set a target amount they want to earn or have in the bank, but when they reach that goal, they don’t get the emotion they expected, so they raise the amount. Spoiler alert: it will never be enough.
But back to time…
The same is true with time. If you don’t think there’s enough time, your brain will find ways to make you right about that. And there are lots of ways this could happen. Here are a few:
- You take longer with tasks than you need to.
- Unimportant tasks start filling up your time.
- You get distracted by other events or other people’s priorities.
- You don’t prioritize the tasks to align with your goals.
- You feel you aren’t valuable if you aren’t super-busy. (Doing vs being – it’s a whole other blog post!)
Are you getting the picture?
These are all caused by various combinations of behaviors and beliefs. There are strategies and tools out there that can help with the behaviors. Find a coach who specializes in that if you are at your wit’s end. They can help you get into better habits, and support you while you create new patterns of behaviors. But that may not be enough.
What about the beliefs?
It may be that there are also some subconscious beliefs contributing to the situation. The scarcity ones? Probably. But there may be others as well. There could be a fear of success that is helping self-sabotage. Or maybe low self-worth makes it difficult to set priorities and boundaries, and enforce those. And of course – there’s the whole value of being super-busy belief. All sorts of beliefs could be actively working against you.
What can you do?
Start thinking about what you want your life to feel like regarding time. Then think of examples of how life would be once this is true for you. In each example, get really detailed about how this would look, what you and others would be saying, and especially how you would feel. Immerse yourself in each example. I have seen this make a difference for people.
If that doesn’t work?
If visualization doesn’t completely resolve the issue, find someone to help change those beliefs. You don’t need to live like this for the rest of your life. To find out more about how I help my clients with this, book a call here. I’m always happy to help.
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