Are you spending your time meaningfully?

I hear people all the time speak about how they wished they could live our their dreams.  They want to be wealthy, they want to have nice homes, cars, and a great nesteg.  They want to be debt-free and put their children through college.  They want to retire young and die happy.  I also see people pass up opportunities all the time that could put them on the path to those things they truly seek.  I heard a wonderful acronym for poor once...I will share it now:

P-Passing

O-Over

O-Opportunities

R-Repeatedly

The really ironic thing is that people pass the opportunities over, in large part, because they feel they don't have the time to pursue them.  They say, "Oh, I will work on my dream, once my husband or wife achieve theirs." or "I will do it when the kids can take better care of themselves."  Or "I am working too much right now, I can't take the time to go after my dreams, I have bills to pay."  Now, while it is a good thing to support the spouse's dream, or wishing the children were older, and it's okay to work those extra hours on the job (for some people at least).  That does not mean that you can't work on your dream too.  Even if it's for a few minutes to an hour each day. Really, for all the things that we can accomplish in this life, a lot of what we afford to do depends on how well we manage our time.

Take my life for example.  I worked a full-time job, ran a small business part-time, went to school full-time to earn a master's degree (which I accomplished), wrote and published a book, all while being a single mother.  What did that look like for me?  Well, I didn't get a chance to watch as much reality television.  I didn't have as much time to spend with negative people (which does affect you- whether you believe it or not), and I didn't have time to take on tasks for other people, so that THEY could have the laissez-faire lifestyle they were dreaming of.  I had two steady streams of income (which have now become 5), I learned a lot- and I taught my child a very valuable lesson, which is no matter what your circumstances are, you can do better!  Of all of my accomplishments, the last one is the one which I most savor.

The good news in all of this is, that YOU can accomplish the same things and more!  You simply need to start by assessing how you use your time.  Once you determine where the time is going, you can decide what things you need to delegate- what things are just wasting time, and where you can add more time to your day.  For instance, if you turn off your television for 15 minutes a day extra- five days a week, you add 1 hour and 5 minutes to your week- an hour that you can spend working a business, taking a class, or just reading for information. Just imagine if you illiminated 1 hour a day, five days a week from watching television, or doing some other leisurely activity that you participate in all the time.  That's 5 hours that you can use doing something else.

There are plenty of books which have been written on the subject.  Stephen Covey, has produced a lot of great information that can make you more effective in managing your time and resources- but this kind of information has been made available across the span of our age.  A quick way to assess where your time is going is to take a week- to jot down all of the things you do in a day, and evaluate how long those things take you.  Make an update on a schedule or appointment page at least once every hour.  At the end of the week, go back and look it over- then ask yourself, "How much of this, did I really need to be doing?  What benefit did I get from it, and could I have spent the time doing something more meaninful?"  Finally, ask yourself, "What things could have been delegated and what things could have waited?  I am sure that you will be surprised at where your time goes, and seeing it written out will more than likely spark a fire in you to change some things.  Remember, if you want something different, you will have to do something different often times to get it...why not start by making a difference by managing your time better?  It's a sure fire way to help you gain the success you seek!

You can find the Savior in your work!

As children we dream, and we often dream really big!  We aspire to do great things or to help a lot of people.  If we believe that we don't have enough as children, then we tend to hope for having enormous wealth in our adult lives.  Some of us will even begin to map out a way as children to live our dreams.

But as we get older and it is necessary for us to take on responsibility, we can start to become disconnected to what's really important and as a result, we lose the memory of the dreams we had as children.  Our minds become so cluttered with things of only surface importance and we can even forget how to dream.  While in this dreamless state, we often do one of two things: Either we become so complacent that we simply settle for the life we have (though subconsciously it's not the one we want), or two we get restless enough about our situation to make a change.

I have found myself representing both groups in the past. Being a part of the latter group is what changed my life for the better. The biggest dissatisfaction that I had with my life way back then was that I wanted to work for myself. I wanted to be able to live life on my terms all the time. My biggest fear was that without a job where I depended on someone else to write my paycheck, I would wind up with nothing, being forgotten by the world. Until one day, while working at the worst job I have ever had, it hit me! All of the anguish I had while working there was a lot of work! I was tired all the time. I didn't still didn't have all the things I wanted, and there was nothing that the company I worked for was going to do to change that. Those were my problems, not theirs.

I was able to rationalize with myself and say, "Hmm...if you are going to work hard for someone, let it be for yourself!  What do the people in charge here have that you don't have or can't get?"  I took a giant leap of faith, and here I sit.  A successful business owner, working way successfully through a multitude of projects.  I am now happy to get to bed late at night, and can rise early in the morning refreshed, because I decided to go out and do what I love.  We get so caught up focusing on the results of something, that we never realize what a wonderful journey we took to get there!  Sure, I have made mistakes and will undoubtedly make more...its okay...because I am doing what I love to do it doesn't feel like work...and even if it did, it sure still beats the heck out of "working hard" with anguish and disgust for someone who doesn't appreciate it.  As long as you remember that you can take God on your journey, wherever you choose to go- you will find that arriving at the destination is not nearly as enjoyable as is being touched in a powerful way by our Lord and Savior because you "worked" to get there.