You have the same number of hours in a day as Beyoncé. Whoever thought of this line is a genius. It is very true, and probably something a lot of us need to remember or be reminded of every day. We look up to people who inspire us; whether that be a celebrity, someone in our family or friendship circle who is doing really well, or maybe even just someone you follow on social media who you look up to or admire. I personally think it is really important to have people who inspire and motivate us, but sometimes we can get caught up in the idea that their lives and achievements are ultimately impossible for us, so we just look on from afar, admire their lives and wish we had similar things (or maybe even wish we were them!) whilst our own lives are passing us by.
This post is in collaboration with Adexe, who have recently released their ‘Your Time is Now’ campaign, which is all about taking ownership. This campaign is something I really related to, as I am certainly guilty of doing all of those things I just mentioned; it’s so easy to forget that we have the same number of hours in the day as everyone else, and it is down to us to use them to their full potential.
One of my biggest struggles is making time. My weeks are so busy – fitting in a full time job, daily gym sessions, attending events, blogging most evenings and trying to see friends and family (not to mention the boring stuff like cleaning, cooking and washing), the days fly by and before I know it another week is over. If you lead a busy lifestyle it is so easy to get stuck in the habit of trying to keep your head above water with daily tasks, that it can be hard to take a step back, make time for ourselves and really reflect on our lives and if we are making the most of the time we have.
I find that most of the time this is me, and actually I have realised that I am just floating along with life speeding by at a million miles an hour, and I’m probably not using my time how I should be. I try to publish blog posts twice a week, every week, and even when I have a crazy busy schedule I almost always still manage to get them out, but am I really living up to my full potential?
Truth is, I want to grow. I want to learn and develop, become bigger and better, connect with more people and grow my brand, and just uploading 2 blog posts a week probably isn’t going to get me to where I really want to be. I mean it might, but there is so much more I could be doing with my time to improve my blog and better my posts, rather than getting stuck in the routine of being so busy that I just need to get 2 posts out and then I can start planning the the next two.
‘Sharpen your saw’, is a phrase from the book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People’, where the example is a woodcutter who is sawing for several days straight and becomes less and less productive. The process of cutting dulls the blade, so the solution is to sharpen the saw. The issue is that the woodcutter wants to reach his goal of sawing the trees down as soon as possible, so keeps going with the dull blade. However, if he stopped and spent some of his time sharpening the blade, although this is extra time, the blade would be sharper and therefore more effective, and he would become more productive again; therefore reaching his goal.
That might seem like an odd reference, but what I am trying to get at is that for me; I need to take time for myself to develop my blog and my brand, and build on the skills that I want. Sometimes this might mean missing a blog post once in a while, but the time I would have put into this post can be spent investing in something that is really going to push me and help me reach my goals. For me this could be reading a book or attending a class, improving my site and understanding the stats, or trying a new area I haven’t explored yet like film and YouTube. These are all things I want to do but always say ‘I don’t have time’ for them, when I actually do, I just need to make the time.
For you this might be investing time in something totally different depending on your goals, but I find that it is so common that we can get caught up in trying to get as much done as possible that the quality of what we are doing can take a hit, and all we really need to do is invest our time wisely.
You can shop my watch here.
LL x
*This post is in collaboration with Adexe. As ever, all opinions are my own.
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