Celebrating Time

Image via Wikipedia

No other time of the year is quite as remarkable as your birthday. It’s the anniversary of your coming into full being on the planet. If that’s not reason to celebrate!

The best part is when others are joyful and congratulate you for another year as the person you are. And that’s pretty darn special.

The truth is birthdays wouldn’t be possible without a team of people making sure you make it here.

And so to my mom, my dad, my sisters, the doctors and nurses on staff (not to mention the people who made sure the place was clean), I say thank you. Because without you, things wouldn’t quite have worked out as they did.

Life, from beginning to end, is a team effort.

Here’s one for the team. Thank you all for making my birthday (yesterday) a most incredibly special one. I was overwhelemd with the number of people on Facebook alone who took the time to wish me well.

Blessings to you all!

Why it’s not about time, but what you do with it

Imagine being made up of milliseconds like pixels in a picture. Every second counts and forms who we are.

 

Image from Smashing Magazine

Yet so many of us combat time as if it is something to beat. In truth, what we are doing is beating up ourselves.

„If only I had more time…“ is a common phrase among people in general. Our collective time starvation has us running at an unsustainable pace. As your information delivery systems get faster, so do we. The trouble is we can’t run any faster than we are.

The result is giving in to the temptation to multitask, something our brains literally cannot do. Oprah agrees. Think No Phone Zone and all.

‘Time’ and ‘being busy’ are a mindset. Time  is a construct into which we are born. We’ve made up the notion of time to structure our lives. But since we are defined by two time notations (our date of birth and the date of our passing), we live as if it is real. Since we act as if it exists, it might be a good idea to establish a more positive relationship with this thing called time so you have more of it. Because after all, don’t you want more of what you’re made of?

It’s not about creating more time. It’s about looking at the things you do within the time that you have.

Time abundance is having more than enough time to do what is required to fulfill your ultimate purpose. If you are so busy reacting to the things around you instead of putting yourself into proactive mode, you will always be at the beck and call of your surroundings.

Are you checking your emails twenty times a day? Are you subscribed to more newsletters than you can manage in a day? Do you really need to be copied on every single intra-office correspondence?

Tip #1:

Prioritize. The Eisenhower principle states there are urgent/non-urgent and important/non-important things.

There are also urgent/non-important things (the phone ringing ~anything that demands your immediate attention).

There are urgent/important things (that pending annual sales meeting).

There are non-urgent/important things (working toward your annual goals).

There are non-urgent/non-important things (surfing the Internet to ‘relax’. Like TV, it won’t relax you, but places you in a mild state of depression).

Tip #2:

Make your list of immediate to-dos. Most likely, there are four or five things on that list. Everything else can wait or be delegated.

Tip #3:

If you are overwhelmed, one of several things needs to happen:

1)    Delegate

2)    Say ‘no’ (or ‘here’s what I can do…’)

3)    Manage expectations

4)    Examine your habits

5)    Focus

6)    Avoid procrastination/last-minute rushes

7)    Take a time-out (a well-rested manager is a productive one)

8)    Stop multitasking. Who won the race, the tortoise or the hare?

9)    Take a vacation to rescucitate your ability ot handle stress.

10)  Re-examine your personal relationship with time. How often do you say you don’t have any?

If you do these things, I promise you won’t yearn for that extra hour because, in truth, time abundance will be yours.

The power of slow is about being the master of your own ship. It’s your life. What are you going to do with it?

Related articles

• How NOT to Multitask – Work Simpler and Saner | zen habits (zenhabits.net)
• Prioritizing Projects (brighthub.com)
• A Case for Singletasking: The One-Task-At-a-Time Method (lifehacker.com)

Survey Time ~ It’s a question of time

In my travels I have had the pleasure of interviewing some amazing people about their relationship with time. From Bikram Choudhury to Deepak Chopra to Rosanne Cash, I’ve asked them all the same questions.

Now it’s your turn! Take this thirty-second survey to find out how you relate to time. I’ll be revealing the results in a little while so please participate. Your voice counts!

On Savoring

According to research in the area of positive psychology, savoring can literally expand our sense of time. It is the scooping up of life moments that gives us meaning.

If you’ve ever watched a show such as American Idol, the winners will tell you it was like being in a state of shock. It is a timeless feeling so overwhelming it cannot be savored. While many of us look for that next ‘kick’, the smaller moments such as breathing the smell of your freshly cut grass or cuddling a pet that keep us grounded and most happy. We cannot live in a constant state of adrenaline. It is, in fact, unhealthy to do so.

Life offers us all kinds of choices. This morning I was faced with a simple one. Either I could take the convenient route and drive my car to a local bakery or I could embrace the power of slow and ride my bike.

Which would be the more savoring activity? A car ride offers protection from the elements while a bike ride allows you to experience so much more: the breeze, the dust, the pavement, the cow dung-strewn fields. The fingers of verdant grass literally beckoned me outdoors.

The air’s chill did not deter me as I swung my leg over the saddle of my mountain bike. I used to ride 26 KM a day to and from University. I felt my younger self rekindled.

“I will have a chocolate croissant!” I exclaimed, giggling ferociously into the wind. It was all downhill on the way. In fact, I made it to my favorite bakery within twenty minutes.

Trying hard not to press my nose to the glass, I scanned the remaining baked goods. It was 9 am for pete’s sake! Not a chocolate croissant in sight. I mocked myself for my false bravery as I pointed to an apple danish.

“I’ll have that one.” I mustered a smile.

The ride back was a little more vigorous, but surprisingly less so than I remember (that indoor spinning class this past winter helped). I clamped the bag under my hand as I pumped my way back up the hill, savoring the anticipation of a nice cup of Joe with my danish.

It made the entire experience so much more enjoyable. The journey is the destination ~with a good baked good tucked into your palm, even better!

How will you savor a moment in your day?

Time Relationship and the Marshmellow Game

It’s not just me. Time perceptions really do inform how we live our lives. According to John Byrd and Philip Zimbardo, two psychologists from California, children’s ability to delay gratification led to improved standardized test performance later in life.

Wow. A marshmellow today or two tomorrow. Which one would you pick?

Desiderata Days ~ Rights

One powerful thing I’ve learned from my mother is taking delight in everyone I meet. While some people are more agreeable than others, there is good in everyone. Practice speaking to that goodness when you meet someone new. You might be surprised at what they have to offer.

Max Ehrmann says:

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

We all have  a right to be  here. What will you do with your time?

Daylight Saving Time ~ Does it Save Time?

Remember that cool car Michael J Fox drove in the movie, ‘Back to the Future’, that ultra-suave time machine that allowed him to not only look cool on screen, but also impact events in past and future? On Sunday, March 14 at 2 a.m., we’ll be wishing we looked that dapper. Daylight Saving Time has more of a bewildering effect on our organism than anything else. It is mini jet-lag at its best.

Every year it’s the same old story. We switch the clocks, blink bleary-eyed out the window, and wonder why it’s still dark outside. We battle with our own instincts to curl up into the fetal position for one more round of sleep.

Let’s look at it positively. It is the one moment of the year in which we get to jump forward an hour with a simple twist of the clock. A minor inconvenience of modern life, Daylight Saving Time is meant to save energy. While most of our lives is spent on some level of clock combat as we try to beat more into our schedules, Daylight Saving Time has more to do with war than you might know.

Daylight Saving Time was first instituted during World War I in the United States to take advantage of the longer daylight hours for war production between the months of April and October. During World War II the time change was reinstated for the same reasons. Between the wars, the federal government allowed each State to decide whether or not to observe the time change. It wasn’t until 1966 that the Uniform Time Act standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time. During the Bush Administration, Daylight Saving Time was extended by four weeks after the Energy Policy Act was passed in 2005. By 2007, forty-seven and one-half states, with the exception of Arizona, Hawaii and the Eastern Time Zone of Indiana that do not observe the time change, got to spring forward in March instead of April.

Side bar

Time Resources:

Time around the world:  www.worldtimeserver.com

Time-saving tips:  www.PowerofSlow.org

Virtual calendar: www.google.com/calendar

Biological Age: www.realage.com/

If changing the clock gives you the blues, you are not alone. According to an informal poll on PowerofSlow.org, most people reported feeling groggy and disoriented for a few days after the clocks turn forward. According to research presented in the Journal of Applied Psychology in September 2009, job-related injuries soar right after Daylight Saving Time. Although it is intended to save energy, in some cases changing the clock costs people sleep, thereby leaving them lethargic and more accident-prone.

To ensure you keep a spring in your step, consider these tips to offset the effects of this year’s clock change:

1. Progressively go to bed a few minutes earlier a week before the clock change.
2. Be sure you get sufficient exposure to natural light. Your body’s circadian rhythm depends on it.
3. Not only the time change, but also the change in weather can affect your immune system. Eat vitamin-rich foods. A rule of thumb is to eat one thing in its natural state with every meal (yes, lettuce on your sandwich counts!).
4. Sleep with the shades up for a few days so it is easier to get up in the morning.
5. Research at the University of Sussex has shown that reading for just six minutes can reduce your stress level by sixty-eight percent.  Integrate some reading time into your routine before you go to sleep.

Our relationship with time impacts every other relationship we have. When we feel rushed and time-starved, we enjoy our lives less. Daylight Saving Time is a great opportunity to embrace the notion of time abundance, even as we seemingly ‘lose an hour’.  Time abundance is a mindset that says you have more than enough time to fulfill your ultimate purpose. Just know you are only temporarily without the hour this March because you get it back in October. Besides, if we are all still around in 2012, you get to jump for joy for a whole extra day on February 29^th. Now that’s reason enough to leap through the year!

New Poll: What’s Your Favorite Time of Day?

Leave a comment and tell me why! Oh, and Happy Friday, All. You’ve made it.

Is Time your Darth Vader?

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve rediscovered a certain fondness for 80’s music and childhood movies such as Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. The sights and sounds of my childhood bring me back to a moment in time when I wasn’t saddled by imminent concerns such as paying the bills or having insurance. It was a time of black and white, of evil and good, of Darth Vader and Obi-Wan.

For many of us, time itself represents a certain lack in our lives. We rush about in a time-starved state, yet rarely do we ask ourselves ‘What’s the rush?’ As I sat down with my kids to watch Star Wars with them for their first time this week, I was shocked to learn they already knew the characters. Although they had never seen the actual movie before, they had played a Star Wars video game at a friend’s house.

I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. Where was the mystery of discovering the Empire and all its weirdish characters if you’ve already seen them in a predetermined video game? It made me realize my children’s memories will be distinctly different than mine. Such is the nature of time. And that’s okay, too.

The memories my children will hold are of taking a walk by moonlight through the snow in the Alps. They will recall the moment right before opening their Christmas presents and the smell of the wood smoke as they ate pickles in front of the fire.

Each of us owns our own moment in time. The discovery might be different, but the excitement is still the same.

As 2010 unfolds, I am reminded of the social contract we have made with the clock. It is our choice as to whether we view time as good (Obi-Wan) or evil (Darth Vader). Either way, may the force in the power of slow be with you!

The Gift of Time

So often we rush in a blur of activity, uncertain where our lives are taking us. It seems as though we are in reactive mode, being more the dealers than the designers of our days.

Giving someone the gift of your time is tremendous. It is a present as you are present with them. Over the past two weeks I have spent extraordinary moments with friends, family and strangers while touring the East Coast presenting my new book, The Power of Slow to various audiences and forums. It is as though I have experienced the gathering of the minds on a global scale.

No matter who you are, you make a difference. As my uncle said yesterday, our bodies are sojourners of the spirit. May we dance together to the beat of our personal metronome and remember always what is most important.

Feed your inner fire. The world needs you and all the talents you bring. Give your gift of time today. It is the most precious thing you could ever do.