One of the areas the EGO likes to penetrate is our belief system around our time, making us believe we do not have enough of it and we are not enough to get everything done!
This belief exists in almost every business I’ve consulted, and causes people to either fight to make “it” happen or flee from responsibility because they have already given up in their minds before getting started.
Think about it. When you ask people these days how they are, they often say, “Busy!” It’s as though there is something so prideful about NOT having time because we are so important and busy.
What would people do if we jokingly answered, “I’m actually quite well, thank you! Stunned about how much time I have now that I am so clear about my purpose and how to choose my time accordingly!”
That mindset-reset would blow people away, because most of us do not have that much empowerment, due to our lack of clarity around our purpose and priorities.
It’s time to practice personal leadership over our time and stop making excuses that we don’t have enough of it, or believing we are not enough to do what must be done to reach our goals. When we don’t see how we can best add value to the organization’s purpose and goals, we just stay busy – reacting to demands versus creating our schedule based on our priorities. If that’s the case, then take personal responsibility and ask yourself: “How might I have the greatest impact on the goals?”
When you ask this question, and listen for guidance from your Intuitive Self, you will be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and see the landscape that tells you how to prioritize your time. When you prioritize, you will have plenty of time to do what matters most. It is the 80-20 rule in business: 20 percent of what we do makes 80 percent of the impact. Discover what that 20 percent is, and you will have plenty of time because the rest was likely just busy-ness!
Our EGO is quick to use time as the excuse for a lack of engagement, productivity and availability. When we explain our purpose and priorities to people and ask, “How might we consider your request as well as my priorities to find a solution that works for both of us?” we are likely to find a win-win solution! This response is in contrast to saying “yes” or “no” automatically, which is what most people do. This type of reaction stifles communication and collaboration.
But because our EGO can swing from grandiosity to deprivation thinking, when it comes to its decisions around time, it can often think in terms of “all or nothing.” As a result, we shut down collaboration and innovation with a statement like, “Sure, I can do that!” or “No, I don’t have time!”
When we commit quickly without considering prior commitments, our priorities, or our goals, we are setting ourselves up to prove the EGO is right – we don’t have enough time. This is how we create a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we overload ourselves with meaningless matters and find ourselves swamped, our EGO says, “See, I am so busy and don’t have enough time!” Then when someone makes a request of us, we can self-righteously claim, “I just don’t have time – I’m so busy!”
There is a solution to stop the madness of busy-ness: By taking your chosen priorities and projects and outlining them to your goals, you help your mind align your choices accordingly. Seeing how your time is allocated to the goals makes you see and believe you can achieve what you have set out to achieve when you stay steadfast and on-track. When we don’t have our time mapped out, we flounder and say “yes” to requests and fall into the “busy and important” mindset of the EGO.
We need to acknowledge our EGO’s ways regarding time and stop the madness. We do this by remembering that we always have time for what matters most.
Challenge:
In order to make priorities clear, try using a transparent dashboard that aligns projects to the goals, and also outlines who will do what by when. This helps people to have a visual reminder of the commitments already made, and how they align to the goals. By having a visual reminder of commitments, we can also entertain changes by asking each other, “How might we move this around so we can get that done?” Since time is a resource, being transparent with our time creates a culture that is more collaborative and innovative.
-Susan K. Wehrley is the founder and CEO of BIZremedies Business Building Process, which includes her Digital Dashboard to align your priorities to your goals. She is also the author of “EGO at Work,” her new book about how to reconstruct your mindset so you can achieve your goals. You can learn more at www.BIZremedies.com or contact her at Susan@solutionsbysusan.com or (414) 581-0449.
