Who owns your time?

Happy Summer! The weather is getting warmer and I’m feeling the need…. the need…. for freedom!

A priority in my ideal life design is having expanses of time to do with what I will, when the whim comes to me. aka FREEDOM!

What characteristics are valuable for *you* in your ideal life design?

What kind of business or life schedule have you created to honor your values?

Time management is a myth. We can’t manage time, we all get 24 hours in a day. We can only manage our activities. There’s a glorification of “busy” in our culture that is perpetuated by our constant access to media and devices. I often see people resigning themselves to the fact that they’re so busy that they can’t do what they really want to do.

It breaks my heart, actually, because those are most often the givers and the nurturers and they don’t see a way to break out of the cycle…. which is why they often never get around to giving and nurturing themselves.

Sound familiar?

No one owns your time but you. You get to determine who and what activities will receive your time…. but you can’t do that until you know what your values and priorities are. That’s the place to start because once you’re connected to what matters to you, that’s when you’ll feel the motivation to set a healthy boundary around it so you ensure it happens.

Here are examples of how I protect my values and priorities with my schedule:

In my practice, there used to be a time where I would accommodate an early morning session time for a client. But I realized after a while that I just wasn’t as sharp or engaged with my clients at earlier times. For me, it doesn’t matter how early I get up, there is simply something in my brain DNA that doesn’t kick-in until 10am.

Once I started honoring that, I felt so much more EASE! I can engage more deeply and effectively with my clients. It also gives me precious “noodling” time in my mornings where I can choose to journal, go for a JOYride, walk, or just fiddle around on Facebook…. whatever I feel like doing.

I also use “time-blocking” to set my intention for my ideal week. Monday afternoons are for my Discovery Calls and Monday evenings are session time for my corporate professional clients. Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday at 10am/12pm/2pm/4pm are my entrepreneur client sessions because I like to have some down time in between each session and the space to go longer if we need to.

Monday mornings is my “Manifestation Monday’s” practice where I honor the inflow and outflow of money, leads, opportunities, and contributions. Tuesday-Thursday evenings and Friday-Sunday is my “time off” where I can play with ideas, take a JOYride, write articles or book outlines, or go out dancing or to hear music.

The fact is, when you set an intention for what’s important to you AND when you set aside time in your week for those things – it’s easier to set a healthy boundary around it to make sure it happens. It creates a “time container” that represents your values and priorities.

What is the picture of **your** ideal week?

Would you like to set a “everyone has dinner together” night in your family? Choose what works for you and your family: Maybe the evening gets determined on Sunday nights for that week, after everyone knows their schedule. Maybe you want to set every Wednesday night as family dinner night so everybody can schedule around it.

Would you like to set aside some creative time in your business schedule? Or commit to yourself that you won’t work on weekends during the summer? Or you find yourself scrambling to publish your newsletter every week and want to schedule an hour each week to write it? Or you’re in job search and want to spend 30-minutes a day networking on LinkedIn.

“The paradox of discipline is that it enables creativity.”

By creating a framework in your schedule, it serves as an organizer of sorts. It communicates your intention to the Universe and creates an “organizing bin” to receive what you’ve chosen. In the same breath, it ‘frees up’ your mind and time to PLAY within your framework. Your creativity opens up which is what we, as soul-powered beings, are wired to do!

I just communicated a new summer availability to my clients. I’m compressing my client sessions into two weeks of each month so I can take the other two weeks to write, travel, and enjoy my new home during the summer (more on that exciting news next week!). I’m setting that intention so I can be more of a contribution to myself personally AND more of a contribution to the world to get those books out from inside of me!

I encourage you to honor yourself, your priorities, and your values in order to create the framework for your life, career, and business that works for you. By doing so, you’re expressing your self-value, setting healthy boundaries around your choices, and setting your intention so that the Universe can conspire to support you.

Christine

P.S. – If you know you need to honor yourself and your needs better but can’t seem to get out of a rut to make changes, click here to set up a free Discovery Call to talk about potentially working with me… I’d love to help you show up more fully in your life and work!