“Beware of the barrenness of an overcrowded life.” – Anonymous
A lie we’ve all bought into is the belief that we can cram 30 hours worth of things to do in a 24-hour period. That’s what I like to call “living on borrowed time.” And it is the best way to create frustration and stress in your life.
Somehow we have come to believe the 24-hour equation doesn’t apply to us. The question we are all asking is “How do we find more time?” The truth is you are busy today, you’ll be busy tomorrow and more than likely you will be busy 10 years from now. We live in a busy, on-the-go world.
The actual question we should be asking is not how do we find more time, but rather, how do we use our time in a way that is effective and not stressful? Choosing to over-book your daily schedule is a bad habit, but not without solutions.
When we choose to live as if there are 30 hours in the day, there are some real symptoms that manifest in our lives. It becomes like an illness that eats away at the very heart of us as women. Let’s look at the five side-effects of living on borrowed time.
Side-effect #1: No mental down time
When we push ourselves to cram so much into so little, there becomes no time for downtime. Our minds are not allowed to rest. We are constantly engaged. With every ding, beep and ring of our smart phones, we are instantaneously linked with our social media, our email, our text messaging, our businesses, our bank account and more. The result is we don’t know how to stop, be still and silence our minds. We feel as if we must constantly be on the go, be connected and be accessible.
Side-effect #2: No forgiveness for our efforts
We can’t get it all done. When we are trying to tackle too much, we fall short and begin doubting our abilities, our motives, our self. We tell ourselves we are not capable, and we measure ourselves against the mom, the wife, the business woman who we think can do no wrong. What becomes our solution to that shortcoming? Many times the answer is to do more. A viscous cycle starts to spin out of control as we jump from thing to another, finding the things that make us feel good about ourselves and our efforts. Once we can’t juggle all the balls, we beat ourselves us for it and look for the next thing to add to the to-do list, and the cycle begins again.
Side-effect #3: We settle
As the cycle continues to circle around our efforts, our failure and then our self deprecation, we begin to think this is just how life functions. We become comfortable in our stress, in our ragged emotional and mental state. We believe the lie that this is what life is and we have to deal with it. We believe we are the ones to change, not our schedules or our belief systems. We settle for the hurried, frantic, sporadic life we are living without any regard to the abundant life God said he wanted for us.
Side-effect #4: We’re robbed
Nasty self talk, negative emotions and unrealistic expectations rob us of our peace and joy in life. We are left feeling empty, drained and exhausted. In this sickness that we operate out of, there is no fulfillment. We lose our identity, our goals and our dreams. We choose to live from one appointment to another, wearing a million different hats that are not truly suited for our unique heads. We try to be all things to all people, and in the middle, we have lost the ability to know what we want.
Side-effect #6: We can’t connect
When our schedules become so full that we are sprinting from one thing to the next, we don’t have time to notice anyone around us. It becomes impossible for us to connect with others who might be hurting, lonely or depressed. We can’t connect with ourselves, missing out on discovering how we feel or think in a situation. We can’t connect with God because time is so precious, who’s got the extra minutes in the day for prayer and Bible reading? If life is really about the people in it and not just the days you can cross off the calendar, then connections are incredibly crucial to that feeling of worth, belonging and self esteem. Losing connections means we lose a piece of what makes who we are.
Although there are many side-effects when you choose to live on borrowed time, there are solutions that can counteract (we’ll go over that in part 2). The solutions are very simple. However, I must warn you….it may mean changing your perspective and embracing a radical set of concepts that are like nothing anyone you know is operating from.
Christie Browning is a writer, speaker and business coach. She owns reVision which exists to encourage, empower and inspire women. Learn more about reVision at www.revisionforwomen.com
The actual question we should be asking is not how do we find more time, but rather, how do we use our time in a way that is effective and not stressful? Choosing to over-book your daily schedule is a bad habit, but not without solutions.
When we choose to live as if there are 30 hours in the day, there are some real symptoms that manifest in our lives. It becomes like an illness that eats away at the very heart of us as women. Let’s look at the five side-effects of living on borrowed time.
Side-effect #1: No mental down time
When we push ourselves to cram so much into so little, there becomes no time for downtime. Our minds are not allowed to rest. We are constantly engaged. With every ding, beep and ring of our smart phones, we are instantaneously linked with our social media, our email, our text messaging, our businesses, our bank account and more. The result is we don’t know how to stop, be still and silence our minds. We feel as if we must constantly be on the go, be connected and be accessible.
Side-effect #2: No forgiveness for our efforts
We can’t get it all done. When we are trying to tackle too much, we fall short and begin doubting our abilities, our motives, our self. We tell ourselves we are not capable, and we measure ourselves against the mom, the wife, the business woman who we think can do no wrong. What becomes our solution to that shortcoming? Many times the answer is to do more. A viscous cycle starts to spin out of control as we jump from thing to another, finding the things that make us feel good about ourselves and our efforts. Once we can’t juggle all the balls, we beat ourselves us for it and look for the next thing to add to the to-do list, and the cycle begins again.
Side-effect #3: We settle
As the cycle continues to circle around our efforts, our failure and then our self deprecation, we begin to think this is just how life functions. We become comfortable in our stress, in our ragged emotional and mental state. We believe the lie that this is what life is and we have to deal with it. We believe we are the ones to change, not our schedules or our belief systems. We settle for the hurried, frantic, sporadic life we are living without any regard to the abundant life God said he wanted for us.
Side-effect #4: We’re robbed
Nasty self talk, negative emotions and unrealistic expectations rob us of our peace and joy in life. We are left feeling empty, drained and exhausted. In this sickness that we operate out of, there is no fulfillment. We lose our identity, our goals and our dreams. We choose to live from one appointment to another, wearing a million different hats that are not truly suited for our unique heads. We try to be all things to all people, and in the middle, we have lost the ability to know what we want.
Side-effect #6: We can’t connect
When our schedules become so full that we are sprinting from one thing to the next, we don’t have time to notice anyone around us. It becomes impossible for us to connect with others who might be hurting, lonely or depressed. We can’t connect with ourselves, missing out on discovering how we feel or think in a situation. We can’t connect with God because time is so precious, who’s got the extra minutes in the day for prayer and Bible reading? If life is really about the people in it and not just the days you can cross off the calendar, then connections are incredibly crucial to that feeling of worth, belonging and self esteem. Losing connections means we lose a piece of what makes who we are.
Although there are many side-effects when you choose to live on borrowed time, there are solutions that can counteract (we’ll go over that in part 2). The solutions are very simple. However, I must warn you….it may mean changing your perspective and embracing a radical set of concepts that are like nothing anyone you know is operating from.
Christie Browning is a writer, speaker and business coach. She owns reVision which exists to encourage, empower and inspire women. Learn more about reVision at www.revisionforwomen.com
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