When times are hard, everything just feels more difficult.
I read this morning that here in New Hampshire the State is facing the prospect of lay-offs in order to address budget deficits. On the federal level, a new administration is working to get up to speed and address looming issues.
When I read headlines about lay-offs and cut-backs, I often think about the hundreds and thousands of individual lives that are jarred and jostled off track by these upheavals. Fiscal worries are endemic everywhere.
How do you respond, when times are hard?
Have you ever thought about how this affects your time choices and your experience of your time?
Economic constraints affect choices about time in many ways. For one thing, the range of available choices may be dramatically curtailed. In lean times, decisions about things like vacations, new educational pursuits, or new appliances may not even make it to the table. Your focus is on the basics.
In addition, when livelihoods are precarious, people often (quite wisely) spend time planning for contingencies. “What if’s” have an immediacy that they don’t in more prosperous times.
And what about feelings?
Worries may eat up time that in the past was spent on other pursuits. This can be a very challenging time trap. Not only does worry take time, it also saps your energy and creativity right when you need them most. A key time choice is to recognize the debilitating effect of this and use self-talk, time boundaries, and self-discipline to turn your mind away from nagging anxieties.
As you contemplate the current economic terrain, you may feel drawn to simplify your life. Maybe you’ll discover that what once felt like necessities are actually luxuries! Whenever you simplify and de-clutter your life, you experience time in a different way. Interestingly, simplification expands your experience of your moments, much as silence and stillness do.
Finally, whatever challenges the current crisis brings your way, an attitude of gratitude will bring you through. Pause in ANY moment and think of something for which you feel genuinely grateful. I guarantee that your energy and your moment will be transformed!
Are you directly affected by our current economic crisis? How does it affect your time choices? Would you like to be able to approach this differently? I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
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