All You Have Is Time

“I don’t have time.”

You’ve said those words. So have I. You think that you don’t have enough time quite often too, don’t you? But the one thing you do have is time. And you have enough time, too. You may be missing something else.

What you may be lacking is enough time to do all the things to which you have committed yourself and your time. You may have said “yes” to too many small things that are now crowding out what’s really important. We always find time for what believe is most important—even when most of the time what we perceive to be important now isn’t important long-term. Enough time is a question of your values and your priorities.

You may also not enough courage to say “no” when people make requests of you. It’s tough to tell people “no,” especially when you have the ability to help them. It takes a certain level of confidence and comfort in one’s own skin to say “no.” Lacking this courage is one reason you may feel you don’t have enough time.

A lack of energy can make you feel as if you have a lack of time. You might feel that you can’t get up and exercise or write or read or pray because you don’t have the energy. You might feel as if you need the sleep. But getting up and doing any of these things can change your life and positive ways that are hard to imagine. And more than a few of them will multiply your energy.

You have enough time now to do all kinds of things. Looking at a short time, you can feel the stress of not having enough of it. To straighten out your perception of not having enough time, you have to look at longer periods. You aren’t going to have enough time to do all of the things you want to do, contribute all you want to contribute, and spend time with the ones you love. At some point in the future, you are going to wish you had more time.

To avoid wishing for more time later, you need to make better decisions about what you do with your time now. All you have is time. What will you do with it?