Every Monday morning, we start the week with our coaching call. We check-in on everyone’s previous week and talk about what lies ahead. This week centred around our children; how busy their lives are, the things that they like to do and the challenges that many of them have coming up before the end of the academic year. So how do we balance supporting those in our lives who we love and cherish, without losing ourselves in everybody else’s commitments? This month’s article is about encouraging you to find the time for YOU!
Now the interesting thing here is working out what we actually want to do with that time! It’s very easy to fill it with jobs – domestic tasks, shopping, cleaning, tackling the basket of ironing, buying birthday presents, going to the post office, all those ‘just jobs’ that seem little and insignificant that then mount up and take an inordinate amount of time to actually do!
My question to you is, if you had an afternoon to yourself, what would you do with it? If you had an hour after the children have gone to school in the morning, how would you spend it if those jobs weren’t even on the list and that decision was only about what would top you up?
Maybe you’d go for a swim, perhaps spend time outside walking with the dog. You might curl up with a cup of hot coffee in your favourite mug and read a really good book. Perhaps you’ll catch up on a boxset or even go back to bed for half an hour! Fancy?! Maybe this all feels like an impossibility for you! No way!
It’s all too easy to get caught up in being the facilitator of everybody else’s life. That brings its rewards, yes, but we can spend our time bouncing from one task to another, taking children from this club to the next commitment, making sure the house is running well, or giving all of our time to work. But when we do get some time or are we too exhausted to even think about what to do with it by then?
We live in a fast-paced world. Look at your mobile phone. These days you don’t have to run down the battery, to plug in and wait for a full recharge. We drop it onto a fast charging pad, 20 minutes later, we can grab and go. How much of that translates to our modern lifestyle? There are merits in slowing down; having time and the space to process life differently. We think differently, so act differently and our outcomes can be different too.
This doesn’t just apply to families with children. Are you looking after elderly relatives, dropping in on a neighbour or involved in something that takes up more of your time than your initial offer of support meant? It’s very easy to give away a time but not so easy to take it back again without feeling selfish.
So what would time and space mean to you? What do you need to think differently about and what would you like to find some time for? When we’re in our own lives it can be difficult to spot the gaps, hard to see the potential for taking time out. It can be difficult to break the cycles of commitment and duty that we feel.
If that resonates with you and you need some support, get in touch. Let’s see how we can help you to find some time for YOU!