What do you want to accomplish?
- spend more time with your kids?
- write that book?
- create that piece of art or gadget that has burned in your soul for years?
No matter what you are dreaming, you — like I, have found ourselves without living that life. We have looked back at a week and realized we didn’t do anything we “wanted” to do. In fact, our focus and our actions speak in direct opposition of these wants.
WHY are our actions not matching our ambitions?
We are all human and have the same capacities to live our life and build towards our ambitions daily. Everyone is given the same amount of time in the day, and yes … life has moments and situations arise, but OVERALL there is ample time to live your authentic self.
Station in life, finances, number of jobs you work, disease, and all together … none limit you completely. If you need even one example, please take a moment to appreciate Stephen Hawking who taught, gave speeches, wrote, and brought deep research to the world at scale all enduring and eventually succumbing to the effects of Lou Gehrig’s disease. while in a wheelchair without use of his body except his face.
Don’t be a victim to yourself — here are some steps to unlock your authentic self
Know your ambitions
Literally write down and decide what you want and where you want to go. What are your near term and long term goals? These can be grand, materialistic, holistic, spiritual, based on experiences, or simply how you’d like to allocate time.
I personally write down daily my long term goals and focus. Then elaborate on what it means to hit that goal.
Account for your time
To make waves towards your goals and being truly happy, which is the result by living your authentic life, you need to know where you ARE living.
Meaning — how are you spending your time each day?
For the next few days write down how you are spending your time. I am particularly interested in time outside of work hours and sleep. Yes, please sleep — get 7–8 hours ideally. (If you are a new born, that isn’t going to happen but that’s because you are blessed to spend MORE time with that little miracle). What are you doing with the rest of the day?
For most — here is a day:
- 9 hours at work
- 8 hours sleeping
- 2 hours meals + prep
- Total committed hours thus far: 19 hours
…. this means FIVE hours for you. How are you spending this time? Are they in front of the TV watching a marathon everyday? Statistics show those who watch TV consume 3–5 hours a day (good grief).
My challenge to you —
Create space in your 5 extra hours to put in activities that fit your goals and ambitions!
Now with a knowledge of where you want to go (btw, these activities are where you find happiness, not in the completion or the medals that occur at the end), and how much time you have available. The next action is to start replacing habits — that is the unlock, don’t simply remove everything but instead swap one behavior for the next. Overtime you’ll suddenly have most of your time filled with behaviors you love.
Here is what I do with my extra 5 hours a day:
- Attend 99% of every performance my daughter is in
- Coffee and drink dates with friends to grow & learn
- A couple hours to write a week (book chapters, articles, blogs, speeches)
- 1 hour a day training — health matters
- Read research around cybersecurity, fitness, medical studies, human behavior
- Tinker — play with latest gadgets and software, and sometimes make things .. like an Alexa App
This isn’t everything, but the focus is towards my goals. Do I watch TV, see a movie, and just run around outside with tossing a ball — yes! Those are great and rare, as they are not aligned to my ambitions.
Life changes, make moves and adjust
You are a dynamic and incredible creature. The world shifts and we must too. Be kind to yourself and be patient. Write down your goals and ambitions daily. Somedays will gain more time than others, and as you live this life you may just start bumping up those goals.
I have faith in you, you should too.