January 2022

January Thought of the Month

"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."

~ C.S. Lewis

Who hasn't ended a year, a month, or even a work day wondering where the time went? I don't remember thinking that when I was a child, except when summer was ending and school about to start. It's all a matter of perception because time itself moves at the same steady pace it always has. We have crammed so much into our days that we've lost control of our time.

Life demands a lot of us, from job responsibilities to family obligations to personal needs. These to do lists are always expanding, in part because some rollover into the next year on top of the new things we add. Reasonably there are 16 hours a day to do what needs to be done. We sacrifice sleep hours to accomplish more, but that can only go so far. There simply isn't enough time to accomplish all of the goals we set for ourselves. And that translates into the false perception that time has flown by without us.

To change that, we need to adjust the way we think about and set our goals. As you plan for 2022, first consider how much time you'll have available for the tasks you're going to set as new year's resolutions. If you take a week (168 hours) and subtract time for your job, sleep, dealing with daily family and home demands, as well as "me time," that leaves about 30 hours (1620 hours for the year) to devote to your goals.

Next, list your goals, including how much time you think each will take. Compare that total to the actual time you have to work with (does the result surprise you?). Now you have a foundation to make your goal list more achievable and set daily/weekly/monthly calendar to keep you on schedule.

When you set more realistic goals to fit into the hours you actually have to accomplish them, time will stop getting away from you. It will become the tool for accomplishment it was always meant to be.

[Thought and image design by Elaine C. Oldham]