Firstly, I strongly recommend that you get away from the noise of life and invest five minutes to really digest the information in this blog. You will thank yourself for these five minutes!
The intent of this blog, in fact the intent of Adapted Yoga and Pilates, is to challenge you to rethink how and why you live your everyday to allow yourself to become your best.
Imagine next Valentine’s Day looking in the mirror and feeling happy, content and confident with that person and their life as they look back at you.
When you are knee-deep in to-do lists, with everyone needing/wanting something from you every moment of your waking life, you may say, “Sure…but I don’t have the time”, or “If only I had the energy!”
I completely and utterly understand! I too have been there.
I promise if you just invest tiny baby steps into the hows and whys of running your everyday life, your outcomes will be overwhelming.
I promise if you stay true to what you want, you will achieve.
Remember consistency over a long long time (yup low and slow baby!)
Firstly…
You need to start rethinking your time. Your time is your single most valuable resource.
You cannot earn more of it and once you give it away…you will NEVER GET IT BACK.
Every human being is blessed with 168 hours a week. No more, no less. No matter who you are, what you do, how you look, how much work you have to do or how rich or poor you are; we all get 168 hours a week.
Once each one of these precious hours is up… NO ONE WILL EVER GET IT BACK. EVER AGAIN.
Why is it that some people appear to have so much time? They are well presented, hardly appear rushed, create so much in such little time and seem so…well…relaxed…
Whereas others…their life is in chaos, they are running late, they have a chaotic life/car/handbag/inbox…they never have enough time….maybe they never feel like they have enough of anything…
Who or how would you prefer to feel or be?
Once you start to respect time, it will start to respect you.
Figure out what you want and then go from there.
Think about our biggest time eaters:
- Disorganisation
- Multitasking
- Overcommitting
- Stress
- Being ‘busy’
- Lack of focus
- Guilt
- Negative self-talk
Let’s use a simple weekly task of grocery shopping to see how this all works in real life.
1. Shopping trip A
You get home from work late, feeling tired, harassed, hungry! You have spent a large percentage of the day thinking about what you are going to have for tea tonight but couldn’t quite decide (you started with salad this morning as you really want to lose weight, but as the day has gone on you really could do with a treat and you deserve it right? Anyway, you don’t have the things that you need).
You stare blankly into your cupboards and fridge. You rush to the shops…the car park is full; idiots have taken over and three people attempt to drive into you as you just want to find a carpark.
You rush into the shop. Your mind is either blank or completely overloaded: what to get…? You throw random things into your trolley, backtrack a couple of times as you realise you have forgotten something. Meanwhile you children are either trying to dive bomb under/off the trolley, killing each other or getting lost.
You get to the checkout and watch the numbers adding up…how the hell did that happen?? This was supposed to be a quick cheap shop…!?
Finally you get back to your vehicle and unload the groceries (by now you are communicating with a shrieking shrill, barely-under-control parental voice that is shaking slightly and is upsetting dogs throughout the neighbourhood).
You get home – you need a wine!!
2. Shopping trip B
You take the shopping list, that has been added to by the family after filling in with the weekly meal plan, off the fridge.
You sit down on the couch.
You open your laptop and enter your shopping online.
You use the discount code that you wrote in your diary from that email offer two weeks ago.
You look at the subtotal; mmm…a cheap shop!
You spend quality time with your partner.
You put groceries away the next day on delivery.
Need I say more?
Investing small amounts of time on planning and forward thinking will save you time.
Knowing what you actually want to achieve from your time: priceless!
Figure out what you want. Only three things.
No, you cannot consistently achieve more.
No, you are not a miracle worker (close, but not quite…).
Yes, you CAN do ANYTHING you want.
No, you CANNOT do EVERYTHING. Not right now.
It doesn’t matter what you want, as long as that is REALLY what you want.
YES…spend time and energy thinking and focusing on WHAT YOU WANT.
YES….invest time and energy identifying the things that need to be done to achieve WHAT YOU WANT.
YES… REVIEW the things that need to get done and IDENTIFY what you can delegate, ask for help with (for example, think of the grocery shop).
YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF!
YES…block time to complete the things that you need to do to achieve what you want…time with the kids, exercise…just be aware that you may need to ‘project manage’ these tasks.
Break each big task down and spread them out. For example, if you want to eat healthy for your wellbeing, you need to invest time to meal plan, shop, prepare and eat your food.
If you want a clean house you may invest 15 minutes a day cleaning out a drawer/shelf at a time.
Break your tasks into small and often, and you will climb the mountain.
Irregular bursts of inconsistent effort will decrease your productivity and motivation.
YES, YES, YES… stick to the damn plan!!
Otherwise all of the steps above will have WASTED YOUR IRREPLACEABLE TIME.
YES….SAY NO.
You know that good sleep, good food, good movement increases your energy, efficiency and effectiveness.
Make these your priorities. If you knew that you could invest $10 a week and you would get an extra $20 back a week (without any risk), you would invest the $10, wouldn’t you?
Then invest your time into getting good sleep, eating healthy and moving.
You know the habits that you have that eat up you time with little to no benefit; checking your phone, social media, tv, snacking constantly, procrastinating, stressing, and feeling guilty. Stop doing these things!!
If you knew that you only had $168 a week and you threw $20 (minimum!!) away into the rubbish every week, you would probably stop doing it straight away??
Have a think.
Do you want to stay feeling tired/stressed/busy, yet unfulfilled?
OR
Do you want to start to make small changes so that your reflection next Valentine’s day is one that you will smile back at?
If you need a hand with any of this just reach out…: rebecca@adaptedyogaandpilates.com
We have your back.