What if there wasn't more time?

Time - the most valuable resource we all have and something that many of us often spend without thinking about it.

When we do think about it we often see it as distant, unlimited in a way, a concept with an end far away that isn't tangible, or as something there is a lack of.

• Not enough time in the day
• No time for this or that
• Something to be suspended for another, often undefined, time. 

How does that help us when we are trying to make progress towards goals or build a life we want?

How can we use the concept of time to understand how to make decisons?

• There is no time like the present
• There is no yesterday or tomorrow, only now.
• Memento mori

These are phrases and sayings we can recognise and understand at a level but what do we do with them?

I'm a fan of James Bond films, one of the most moving quotes from the last film No Time to Die is this.

"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time".

I think it says that we need to try to be present, to enjoy as many moments of time as possible pursuing the things that matter and are important to us. 

To be able to say - at the end of our time - I lived, fully, without fear where possible, with love and with people who I loved and who loved me.

To know that we were brave and gave things our best shot if they held with our values and what we wanted to do and how we wanted to feel.

Who am I to do that?

And yet our internal imposter syndrome prevents us at times from making choices about how we will spend this wonderful thing that we have with its finite amount.

Imposter syndrome prevents us from making progress, holds us back from big decisions, tells us we are not worthy, or our experiences are not important enough.

It stops us applying for jobs we think are too grand for us, it stops us talking to people from fear of rejection, it stops us telling those around us how we really feel, it stops us being brave and sharing our changes of direction. 

Instead it limits us by creating worries and projections of the future that are negative.

We rarely imagine our new idea will be well received, that people we know will applaud us, that when we share ourselves with the world people will celebrate that. 

No, we instead focus on the idea that others will find our idea or new direction too new and uncomfortable in relation to the us they know today. They will ask "who does he or she think they are?", they will reject the new version of ourselves and our identity as an imposter and so we impose that on ourselves first.

We imagine our job applications will be rejected, or that we will not live up to expectations. We imagine that in this future that we aim for we are not good enough somehow, we won't make the grade. So we stop or pause and lose momentum and sometimes even give up.

What if it didnt have to be like that?

What if you could understand that the "risks" are small and the possibilities are endless instead.

What if you could change your belief - this projection of an unknown future - to a positive one?

• Everyone will love my idea, people I know will be proud of me, there will be curiosity and interest.
• I will help people with my new idea or plan or goal and so it will be well received by those who I want to reach.
• My experiences are more than enough to be successful if I put in the effort.
• I will match enough of the job criteria and if I need to learn more on the job I'll do that because I am good enough.

Are you right in having these positive views? Will they change the outcome and the future?

Perhaps, perhaps not, but they are also just a projection of a future that doesn''t yet exist. So it doesn't matter to be right, any more or any less than the negative version does. It's not real, it's just a view of the future.

You might as well have a positive belief than a negative one if both are made up anyway.

I don't mean to say live life without the idea of consequenses or in a reckless manner. I also don't mean to live in fantasy. But if we understand the roots of this imposter within us and allow that understanding to shape how we look forward couldn't it help us change how we end up spending our time?

Couldn't it help us be brave, take the chances, send the letters, apply for the jobs, tell people we love them, build the businesses we want, try the hard things and aim for the clouds.

Wouldn't that give us a feeling of satsifaction, that we took that step, we tried, we dared to fail, we gave it a go and our best shot. Even if it didn't work out exactly as we imagined or hoped. 

In anything we do we learn. "To love and to learn" as I've paraphrased Ann Rice in my Meet me page here. In a way isn't this a better way to live than to stop ourselves pursuing our dreams and goals because we project the future and don't believe in our place in it, our value in it?

We're all on a clock, for most people we don't know when it will stop. At my age, on average, I should have about 350 months of time left if all goes well. Around 1500 weeks.

I'd like to think I use them well and don't try to let falsely held limiting beliefs let me waste the opportunities I have to do so. 

The future doesn't yet exist, create it beautifully is my ethos for a reason. 

All the best /Scott