Time as a Priority

"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar" - Robert Brault

Now that I have started this blog, the most common comment I get is "...that's great, but how do you find the time" or "...you must have a lot of spare time".  I think that this is a symptom of the busy lives we know all lead.  We are now living longer than ever, so intuitively you would think there is more time in our lives - but the opposite is true, we "don't have any time".

So how does Barack Obama deal with time?  I think it must be priorities.  We all do the things that are important to us personally, our immediate family and our closest friends. What ever is left over is then the things we "do not have time for".  You make time for the important things, or we waste time on things that are really not priorities for us.

Being more mobile that the previous generation, means that we have more choices such that we travel further away from home which in turn takes time.  It also makes us tired.  Therefore time to do the things that are creative, enjoyable or even really important to us reduces further.  Why do we feel good after a few weeks holiday?  Because we have experienced the joy of spare time.  The skill is how to create this spare time in the other 315 days of the year when we are not on holidays.

So I believe it is not a matter of "...not having the time" but of what you prioritise as important in your life.  Sure there are always periods were things that you do not love take up your valuable time, but I think it is important to recognise this and make sure you "make it up" to yourself and the important activities and people in your life.

So when I think about "...oh I don't have time", I think about Barack - Leader of the free world (fairly busy guy) or John Harrison the inventor of the marine chronometer.

The Psychology of Stress

I have been suffering a bit of mental, work related, stress lately.  My family, friends and work mates have noticed the difference in my temporament and so have I! At a kids birthday party today, a dear friend of mine told me that he undertook a heart stress test. While being hooked up to the heart monitor and waiting for the Doc to appear, his mobile phone rings.  It is a problem client and he notes his heart rate increase by 8 beats per minute.  This made me think about the psychology of stress.

I know that I handle stress badly.  It effects me physically and mentally.  I can feel my heart rate being up a lot of the time, I don't sleep well so drink more coffee and subsequentely my heart rate goes up even more! I am grumpy, self centred and have a siege mentality when it comes to any perceived threats. I am difficult to live with, and can snap over the smallest issue. A month or so ago I broke my big toe because my home printer would not work.  For all the negatives, I still think stress is a necessary part of adult life.

Without the hard times, how do you appreciate the good? Is being under pressure and getting through it just a part of your own personal definition of success? How do you measure your own personal development and progress without overcoming challenges in work or life issues? I figure that perspective is really important in times of stress and that consequences of failure need to be tempered.

So objectively I accept stress as a normal part of life knowing that it needs to be managed with an equal amount of stress free time.