When I was 10, I wanted to learn how to paint. I ending up trying it once or twice, but I didn’t really make the time for it. When I was 13, I decided to start a business. But it was complicated and unnecessary, and I didn’t have the time — so the urge quickly faded.
When I was 16, I wanted to write a book. But between club events and schoolwork, I simply didn’t have the time to do so. So I never developed painting skills, I never started a business, and I never wrote a book.
Sure, some of those goals were probably a little ambitious. I don’t know what kind of business I would have started at age 13, but it probably wouldn’t have become a feel-good news story about an admirably successful eighth grader. But I never actually tried, so I’ll never actually know.
I don’t think anyone ever expected me to accomplish any of these quick-formed dreams. And at 10, it would have been OK that I didn’t learn how to paint, especially if this decision didn’t impact me at 13.
But I continued with the excuse of not having enough time. And maybe that would have been OK if I had stopped at some point. But I kept on blaming time, and I kept on falling short of reaching my goals.
We make this excuse constantly. “I really want to start exercising, but I don’t have time today.” “If I had time, I would volunteer at the animal shelter.” “I’ll start writing the story tomorrow.” “Maybe next week I’ll practice the guitar.” “I’m sure I’ll have time over the summer.”
However, when it comes to goal setting, timing is less of an issue than prioritizing. No matter how busy your days are, a lack of time cannot be the constant excuse to put your dreams on hold. If you want to start exercising more, then start going to the gym once a week.
Then you can work your way up to twice a week, three times, maybe even four. Make it as necessary as going to work or doing your homework.
When you make your goals a priority, you will start to realize that you do have the time. It’s just hard to recognize when we fall into an unchanging daily routine. We finish a set number of tasks per day, and schedule the most pressing assignments at the top of our to-do list. We tend to only finish exactly what we need to do and leave the rest for tomorrow.
This creates the illusion that we don’t have any time for anything else in our day, making it easy to stop pursuing a personal passion.
However, most of us consistently pick up our phone throughout the day, adding up to hours of wasted time. Or we watch that third episode, instead of working on that unfinished drawing. It’s not about completely getting rid of these much-needed breaks, but about organizing our time to pursue an individual goal.
Something that no one assigned to us, something that we don’t feel outside pressure to do, but something that will contribute to our overall happiness.
Of course, some days and some weeks are inevitably busier than others. In that case, there’s no reason to beat yourself up for not making it to the gym or forgetting to work on your passion project for 20 minutes. Sometimes, you really don’t have the time, and that’s OK.
But generally speaking, the timing excuse traps us in an excessive loop of sameness, making us unwilling to break our habits in favor of accomplishing our goals. It’s way too easy to push off the tasks without a deadline, the goals we view with secondary importance. So make them a priority. Find the time to finally accomplish them because we have the time for what’s important.
