An Insight Into Balancing the Have-To’s Of Life With Also Doing the Tasks Related to Our Goals in Order to Make Real Effective Change

I am really switching up the style and content of the blog today. So far, the posts are quite specific on approaches or particular techniques and resources Ferris’ offers to accomplish the 4 Hour-Workweek. Today it’s all different and for any new readers this post is likely out of context so you might want to catch up a bit in the archives section and then come back here. I want to share an insider look if you will on my thoughts about balancing life and some of the things I’ve considered recently about why it is often quite difficult to make change. Of course I know in many cases our own level of discipline and motivation for change can wane and certainly change over time. When we face our greatest challenges to change, it may appear at times as if we’ll never win the battle to change our unhealthy, unproductive or simply down-right irritating habits and behaviours. However, there are times when we have great enthusiasm, commitment and drive to make change, and we are very committed. Yet despite our resolve, there appears barriers to our change or at least circumstances that appear outside our locus of control. In the last while, I have tried to more fully understand these forces, our own ability and willingness to make change versus our apparent barriers, things we must do or things outside of our control impeding our progress. This idea is particularly at the forefront of my thoughts when I am attempting to stay on track in how I spend my time, on what I decide is important and how badly I really want to make some specific changes in my life, primarily in my professional life. Although the same thoughts are not lost of some other personal issues such as healthy living, eating right and exercising regularly.

Making and Adhering to a Clear Intention

In the spirit of working less and doing more or having more free time, our conversation recently has focused on establishing concrete time allotments that we are committing to work each day and in my case, the number of hours per week that are ‘allowed’ for work. If you recall, I made a statement of 45 hours per week – no more and never on Sundays (especially during the NFL season). Additionally, we’ve talked about examining whether or not the tasks we are prioritizing and spending time on each day are directly related to specific goals. Ideally, such goals are facilitating the manifestation of important, profound and life-fulfilling events, things or people in our lives. When focused attention is placed on specific tasks, given allotted time and also have  an impact in helping shape and create our goals, we are all capable of spectacular manifesting in our lives.

But What About

No doubt some of you are sternly interjecting into the conversation that the amount of work time each week along with what you must spend time doing in the whole of your life does not facilitate particular goals. Rather, many tasks and priorities are simply have-to’s, without any attachment to the grandeur of your life-goals but nevertheless absolutely necessary. For example, our roles as a parent, care-taker or provider often requires a great deal of time, sometimes presents an overwhelming number of things to do; however they are part of our responsibilities regardless of whether or not they are related to any goals. Certainly for many of us, how well we fulfill our roles and the job we do as s parent, son, daughter, friend, co-worker and/or employee, to name just a few is very important to us and we are always striving to do better. Therefore, reducing the amount of time we work in our lives occurs within the larger context of the time our roles and responsibilities also take up. It is very difficult for a mother with young dependent children to ‘shorten’ the work day when she already works a flexible schedule so she may drop her children off at daycare or school and then be available to pick them up at the end of the school-day or at least with minimal after-school care. She already works a shorten day thus, must work each day of the week to put in a full-time number of hours. Also challenging is that scenario for a single-parent attempting the same schedule or the number of parents having to accomplish full-time hours by putting 2 jobs together – and the list goes on. These are real-life situations, choices, barriers depending on each individual but no matter what the situation looks like today, we must turn our attention back to what we can do and not create a mental road-block in moving forward. Change can and will happen over time.

Regardless of How it Appears

Right now I struggle to learn and implement new ideas and strategies regarding how I work, establish new habits to become more effective and continue to see change in the areas where I either wasted time or lost potential time where I could have really got more accomplished and specifically in areas related to a goal on my Dreamline worksheet. I too struggle with balancing my down-time, family and social time with all there is to do; however, I am slowly establishing the habit that each day for at least 30 minutes of doing a task that relates to a Dreamline goal. Sometimes life necessitates I tend to all the other have-to’s but in a way it can draw the parallel between what I am doing and dieting. Just because I have one brownie at the meeting does not mean I blow off the whole day of eating well. Similarly, when I have a lot of have to’s, I let it go, focus on why the have to or how I choose to spend certain time, perhaps the family time bonds me with my child and I am grateful for that. I  remain diligent in concentrating  some time dedicated to a Dreamline goal within the next 72 hours when things get to hectic and seemingly off course. That way, in the grand scheme of things, I may not always progress at the pace I would like but I do continue to move forward over time. What I am beginning to see is that over time a new way of doing things is emerging and the new or altered approach is establishing habits priorities and a process that is truly creating effective change (even when it seems painstakingly slow).

Thanks for reading a different type of posting today and I hope there is a nugget in there somewhere for you….

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