If you are anything like me, you probably love the end of the year and the beginning of the new year.
In my opinion, it’s the perfect time to dream about things…like who you want to be this year…and what you want to do.
This is the time when we are not just physically removing a calendar from the wall and putting up a new one. We get to stop and turn the page of our life, take a step back, and really think about what we want.
Again, if you’re anything like me, there is something that is very top of mind for you as you make the transition into 2020. Something that will start moving you forward and encourage you to start building momentum.
Perhaps you’ve been thinking about the goals you didn’t achieve last year and the dreams that you still have for this year.
The Subject of Time is probably top of mind for you as well.
In regards to time and managing time, one of the things that really helped me over this past year was learning how to pause. To not feel so hurried and scurried, trying to get everything done.
For the first time in my life, I really began to embrace time. Rather than letting it control me, I became more present to the time slots that were available to me. When I was with my husband, I was able to focus solely on him. When I was with my son, I was fully present and meeting his needs as well as my own.
One of the lessons I learned about time and the stories we tell ourselves was eloquently captured by author Rosamund Stone Zander in her book, “Pathways to Possibility.” As I was reading this book I noticed an exercise about using a phrase to re-frame our ideas and stories around time.
We tend to live out the stories we believe. If we believe there’s not enough time, then we will be discouraged and tell ourselves, “There’s no way I can get ______ done.” Instantly our heart rates go up and we start feeling stressed. Our brain gets foggy and we start feeling like we are behind and will never catch up.
We live out the subconscious stories we believe.
The exercise that Rosamund suggests in her book, is to use the wording “There is more than enough time.” She suggests embracing that phrase every day and using it as a lens.
What I love about this exercise is that whenever I use that phrase…there’s more than enough time…it slows down my breathing. It helps me to relax and take a step back. To really look at what needs to be done and then break it all down into smaller doable chunks. This puts me into action faster. Go slow to go fast is another thing I learned in 2019.
I noticed that I am able to get more accomplished trusting and believing that there truly is more than enough time.
Telling myself this truth about time, keeps me centered and focused. It reminds me that I don’t have to do everything. It gives me this lens to filter my decisions. If there really is enough time, then I can easily focus on the important things…I get to do what’s important to me.
I get to slow down and take a look at where I am spending my time.
So that’s a tip I have for you, to try on the phrase…there’s more than enough time…and see how that feels throughout the week. Take note of the changes it brings.
Let me know (in the comments section) how it goes as you approach your goals via a daily plan while filtering your thoughts with the phrase…there’s more than enough time.
I have another tip for you that is tied into how we think about time. How we think about achieving the goals we have. I’d like to share this tip with you through a story.
I can’t remember where I heard this story, which seems odd to me because it has stuck with me ever since I heard it.
There was this cross country team. They were rated as one of the worst teams, and obviously weren’t performing well. Always discouraged…and yet kept trying…they just weren’t succeeding.
Then they got a new coach and the new coach called a team meeting. Instead of attempting to pump up the runners with a you can do it spirit, the coach said, “Our new saying, our new mantra, our new goal, and the value that we are going to embrace is that we run stronger and faster at the end of the race.
And so they embrace that.
They implemented it into their training. They did their practices. And every day they kept repeating we run stronger and faster at the end of every race.
Then something amazing happened. They became the team that didn’t slow up.
At the point of each race, when most runners are feeling like they are done and are not even sure they can make it…that point where they feel like they are scraping bottom, the team I’ve been telling you about, would suddenly have a burst of energy. Why? Because they believed the story, this idea that they could run stronger and faster at the end of the race.
So during every race at the very moment when their competitors began to struggle and push to the end, this team gained energy and momentum…all because of a simple phrase, a simple concept that they believed.
This story has stuck with me because it shows the power of how we think about our time and how we think about our journey. I encourage you to approach time as well as your goals from a place of rest and a place of trust.
Think about the stories you tell yourself, and don’t be afraid to re-frame those stories.
Instead of having the story of we fail, we lose, we’re not good enough…adopt a new story. When each team member adopted the new story, the new saying, we run stronger and faster at the end of every race…it changed their entire way of training, and performing when it most mattered.
When you think about your writing, what is the new story you can tell yourself that will empower you to enjoy the process and embrace where it takes you?
That’s something I want for each of you. To write a new story.
I’d like to thank everyone in my Unstoppable Writers Facebook group who participated in the thread that I pinned in our group as we reflected back through 2019 and looked forward to 2020.
I’m so excited about this group and I have some exciting things planned this year.
If you are not in the group yet, you can join us by clicking here. I’d love to hear your new story as well.
There’s more than enough time for you to write and to get that book published this year.
Perhaps the story reframe you need is that you follow through…and you write consistently so that you are improving your craft every single day.
I know at the end of last year, we talked a lot about shifting our mindset away from failing or succeeding to a growth mindset of embracing the process.
Have a great week, keep writing, and keep being unstoppable.
We get to decide that we are unstoppable.