July 28

Can You Really “Make Time” for What Matters Most?

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There will never be a “good time” to do this. And if I wait until I’m ready, I never will.

Better to let my baby tree have its childhood while the summer is still fresh. True that most people will be going back to school soon; but to me, August is a lazy halcyon month of leisurely possibilities. Now is when I decide what projects will get the bulk of my time and effort come fall.

I wonder at the seasons of life.

Are they pre-determined like the physical seasons of the year?

Do we have some unseen internal clock that knows instinctively when it's time for things to change? 

Sometimes I feel so, for myself anyway. Perhaps the seasons of life have less to do with predictable, regular time intervals and are more about a ripeness of experience and understanding. It is “time” when we are ready, and not before. 

We can think we are ready all we like - we can “fake it until we make it,” and use big-mouth motivation by telling all our acquaintances what we’re planning to do - but until the quiet voice inside says so, we will not be able to budge an inch. 

Heaven knows I’ve tried to make things happen under my own willpower and strength.

It only resulted in extreme burn-out, disappointment, and loss of heart. I thought I wasn’t capable of fulfilling my goals. I thought I must be “too …” fill in the blank. Lazy, naive, inexperienced…. Not committed enough, not believing enough, not SOMETHING enough.

But the thing is, while everything in life has a spiritual element, there is also an equal physical element. And both spiritual and physical operate under laws that were set up when God founded the earth. 

These Laws of Being, these principles, are the Deep Magic that underpin everything in our world, and no one can work against them. 

I think perhaps the principle of time is a Deep Magic. 

My sisters are beginning to say I have ADHD or autism or both - I don’t care to label myself. But apparently “time blindness” is a thing.

I wonder.

We “keep time” with a clock that is set on the division of days into a 24 hour period: each hour is 60 minutes, each minute is 60 seconds. But who decided that? Why are our lives governed by multiples of 4 and 6? This clock time seems very arbitrary. 

I play games with myself when I can see a clock: and it has to be an analog clock - I only understand time in the context of other time. A random number on a digital clock doesn’t mean anything to me. 

I get stuck on increments of 15 minutes (a quarter of an hour… another multiple of 4). 

If I’m working on something and look up at the clock and see that it’s 3:50, I’ll say, “oh I should keep working on this until 4:00” … even if I’m done with my task and spending another 10 minutes on it won’t improve anything. 

I’ll wait to start my next task until the clock reaches a quarter-hour mark (00, 15, 30, 45), and if I get absorbed in what I’m doing to waste time until it’s time to start and miss the quarter hour mark, I’ll wait some more until the next quarter hour mark. 

Meanwhile the task I’m waiting to start really only takes 10-15 minutes objectively so I could’ve completed it twice in the time I’ve spent waiting. 

That’s the other thing about time for me: I grossly overestimate what I can do in a day (or week, or month), and grossly underestimate what I can get done in 15 minutes to an hour. 

Of course it’s important to have a sense of time in order to meet with other people - these days saying you’ll find them when the first snow falls is far too vague to have dinner with somebody - but I often wonder what would happen if I got rid of all the clocks for a day or two and just saw what would happen.

I wonder how long it would really take me to complete my tasks; if I would spend waiting time between each one or if I would just get started on the next as soon as I’m done with the first. 

When I’m NOT obsessively keeping one eye on the clock, I get things done far faster than I thought myself capable of - I seem to unlock “flow time” or even to “make time.”

I wonder at these phrases. Words have meaning and power - after all, God spoke the world into existence. I wonder if saying “I have no time” makes it true, or if I start saying “I make time for what I need” actually would stretch the fabric of the space-time continuum. 

Or if I’m getting too metaphysical and I should get my head out of the clouds because I’ve spent about 45 minutes writing this already and I have to start work in 15, so I’d better hurry up and wait until it’s time to start.

Abigail Jackson Daniels

I'm a chronic entrepreneur, author, coach, and figurer-outer. You can think of me as a Loveable Nerdy Scientist and Professional Guinea Pig (kinda like Tim Ferriss… but less crazy).

I have a background in music, teaching, management, accounting, agriculture, homesteading, herbalism, textile arts, birthing, and about 1,000 other interests. ;) My goal is always to learn how to live the best, most fulfilled life possible and help others do the same.


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