No Limits | The Freedom Blog™
Are You Early or Late?
Written
by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com
“The only reason for time is so
that everything doesn’t happen at once”
Albert Einstein
“Don’t count every hour in the
day, make every hour count” Anonymous
“Death always comes too early or
too late” Old English proverb
What time is it? Are you on time? Do you have enough
time?
“Don’t waste time”, “Time
is money!”, “Be on time!”.
We’ve all been programmed by this mindset that relates
everything to the time.
But really, what is it about being early or late?
How is it really relevant to anything? I don’t mean you should be rude by being
late on purpose if you committed to a time but be aware of committing to schedules
that serve other people’s agendas and time lines…..
I feel that time is really only important if you are on a rigid schedule or have
an appointment, otherwise does it really matter? Is it really necessary to
always be aware of the time? And can you really “waste” time?
Perhaps we’ve gotten hard wired to the point where
we need to have a sense of the time to feel grounded, to feel “on schedule”.
We create a daily schedule of time sequenced events.
We get up at this time, drink our coffee at this time, go to lunch at this
time, spend “x” amount of time doing this and “y” amount of time doing that.
Whatever it is we are doing is booked into our “schedule”
and it all happens while we stay “on time”. We become hopelessly mired in a
construct of time defined activities.
It is not far removed from the old factory time
clock. You punched in when you got there and punched out when you left. The time clock ruled your day.
Maybe you aren’t consciously
keeping track but subconsciously I’ll bet you are. It is very subtle.
Start watching how often you check the time. Try to see how you are conducting your life in
a time related way, thinking about the next thing you have to do on your “timeline”.
What can you do to step off your ticking timeline,
even if only for a short while?
And how do you get away from this feeling of not
having enough time?
One
thing you can do to get a sense of how locked into timelines you may be is to try
not wearing a watch for a few days.
I
recently have and I found that after a while I didn’t refer to my watch at all…..
I mean I didn’t look at my wrist more than a couple of times and while yes, I was making a special effort to disconnect, I really only looked at my phone once
to make sure I got to the bank before 5:00. After all, banks are really factories
and they have schedules….
I
could feel myself becoming untethered and it felt good, although a few times I
felt that I was being a bad boy by playing hooky and not keeping track of the
time……
I
know this isn’t realistic for most people but if you can, try it.
The
next time you are off on holiday or can step away for a day or two, try going
about your day without a watch and try not to sneak a peek at your phone for a
time reference.
It
may surprise you to see how tethered you are to the time. But hopefully it will
also give you a sense of how you can
disconnect and use your watch as a tool instead of a tether.
Learn
to stop having to constantly punch in on that time clock on your wrist.
And
if you can, try to remember that you can’t really be early or late because you
are always at exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
