End Time Poverty

Many organizations struggle with deadlines, follow through, accountability and overwhelm.  And often I’ve found at the heart of these challenges a common shared language…

• I don’t have enough time.
• There’s never enough hours in the day!
• I have a zillion things to do.
• So much to do, so little time.

A few months ago, I found myself constantly using these phrases and feeling exasperated, overwhelmed, behind and trapped.

I was living into my self-created reality that I was at the mercy of time.

Time is the socially acceptable scapegoat– it’s the one in which your fellow co-workers, friends and family will commiserate.

But what if you couldn’t use it as an excuse – ever?  Just today count how many times you use it or hear others use it.  It’s an epidemic.

It wasn’t until I chose to take the time to pause and self-reflect that I got clear: I’m not a victim of time and I need to stop pretending that time rules my life.

Time has no power.  It’s simply a construct, it’s a circumstance many of us have socially contracted to agree to (kind of like the lanes on the road or paper as money.)

I have power.  My team has power.  We choose to believe in minutes, hours and 7-day weeks.  We use this belief to powerfully organize our efforts to accomplish the work we want to create.

We all have 168 hours/week.  No more, no less.  These hours are yours – yours to spend, to leverage, to create, to savor.

They are also yours to waste and fritter kvetching about how there’s not more of them.  Been there, done that.  And there’s a social scapegoat magnet that will pull you back to do it again, and again – think the Twilight Zone.

Here’s a “Time Goodness Touchstones” list I put together to keep myself from going to the dark side of “not enough time.” If you struggle with your relationship with time, I recommend shifting your time paradigm and creating your own touchstones.  Because your team is a reflection of you, when you shift your relationship with time, so will your team.

PS – Check out my great chat with Kevin Kruse on The LEADx Show Click here to listen to the podcast, or click here to read on Forbes. And don’t forget to grab a copy of Culture Works while you’re at it–also available on Amazon.