As you look back on your past, do you have this feeling that you have WASTED a lot of your time? That you haven’t spent it the way you had hoped? That you got caught up in the chaos of life and have just been “going with the flow” instead of using your time intentionally? I know I feel that way!
Time is our most valuable commodity. So, how do we STOP wasting it?
My church here in Tallahassee has started a series called WASTED.
Perfect for football season in a college town, huh?
But in all seriousness, how applicable to ANYONE? I think we have all had the feeling once or twice in our life, where deep down we know we have WASTED.Wasted our time, our money, our talent, ect..
Yesterday, we talked about how to NOT to waste our time. I instantly knew I was going to get a lot our of it as soon as the pastor began speaking.
This website has always been about living a healthy and fit lifestyle. And even though in the past it has focused mostly on workouts and healthy recipes, I would love to begin incorporating other aspects of a healthy life, like subjects like this! I believe in total health: mind, body, and soul. So I would love to offer some insight on things I’m learning myself throughout the weeks like this 🙂
What are your thoughts? Is this something you’d like to see occasionally?
I really would LOVE your feedback!
But back to how NOT to waste your time..
It’s pretty simple actually. Something I STRUGGLE with constantly. Something I have put on my “new years resolutions list” for the last two years now (like you may have seen in THIS post/video of my 2015 goals!). Something that no matter how much I realize I need to work on, never seems to get too much better.
BE FULLY PRESENT IN THE MOMENT.
See, this world is RIGGED to distract us; to cause us unnecessary stress and anxiety of the future.
The capability of multi-tasking is too highly looked upon, when sometimes, single-tasking is what we really need to be doing.
Our society almost gives us this sense that if we don’t have our day planned out minute by minute, we aren’t going to be successful. That if we aren’t worrying about what is next to come..in the next hour, the next day, the next year..that we aren’t a driven human being that has goals.
But there is a problem with this way of living. This perspective leads to constantly living in the future.
To constantly feeling so stressed, worried, and full of anxiety of the future, that we are constantly THINKING about just that, the future, instead of being fully present in the moment.
And it’s surely anything but HEALTHY
I don’t know about you, but I plead guilty on this one. I always feel there is so much to be done. I plan my days hour by hour. I am already thinking of the next thing I need to do or what I want to say next while in a conversation with someone. And I barely am aware of what I eat at meals at times because of multi-tasking..all things that DON’T lead to a healthy and happy lifestyle.
As I have tried to become better at this lately, it has only made me realize how BAD I am at doing so. How ADD I am when it comes to trying to simply be fully in the moment.
I have constant impulses to plunge into the next thing on my to-do list, that I often MISS what is right in front of me.
And guess what? All this time spent stressing, planning, and worrying about the future..has only led to me WASTING MY PRESENT TIME.
What would happen if I would live being fully present in the NOW?? Enjoying my surroundings, the conversation that is randomly started between me and another person, and focusing on the task at hand??
I think it would lead to feeling that my time was much more FILLED. Filled with relationships and conversations that had value, filled with a sense of productivity in the things that TRULY mattered.. just simply put, filled with MEANING.
But instead, we miss entire seasons of our lives, because we are constantly thinking and planning the season ahead of us.
We miss people that we were meant to talk to, meant to help, meant to change their life..because our minds were too busy in the future.
(and on a side note: being fully present while you are around food is also VERY helpful if you find yourself over eating and ruining your health goals!)
God places SO many things in my path daily that I know I must miss because of “being too busy”, both mentally and physically. Sometimes I’m just feeling tired, and don’t want to begin a conversation with someone I know I should. Sometimes I’m stressed out about a future event, and waste my present time worrying about it instead of truly listening and being present in my surroundings.
I check out either mentally or physically in the present moment, because I am living in the future.
Unfortunately, I feel as if I missed a lot of things placed in my path for a reason. I feel as if I have wasted much of my time.
Feel the same??
You can only save someone drowning if you are present in that moment.
I’m choosing today to be better at just that, being FULLY PRESENT.
I’m choosing to be fully present so that I can stop wasting my time. So that I can begin living a more healthy lifestyle both mentally and physically. So that I can begin helping others. So that I can begin making an impact on the world for the best.
Who’s with me??
5 Tips on Being Fully Present:
- Do One Thing At A Time: And do it slowly and deliberately. Focus on single-tasking rather than multi-tasking. Don’t rush through the thing your doing in THAT moment. Slow and deliberately.
- Do Less: This is so ANTI our culture. But sometimes so necessary to remember. We’re constantly running around doing one thing after another, that we aren’t even thinking of what we’re doing. “But I couldn’t possibly do less, I have too much to get done”. It’s been an excuse of mine for sure in the past. But we CAN do less. And guess what? I’m confident we will be much better off.
- Take just 10 minutes at least a day to do absolutely nothing: Become aware of yourself, of your surrounding, of your thoughts..just 5 minutes a day will do SO MUCH GOOD.
- Live slowly and savor both your life and food: Take time to SLOW DOWN and enjoy your life. Crazy thought, to enjoy life actually, huh?! And with our food, when we aren’t fully present as we eat, we tend to over eat..AND not even enjoy what we did eat. At meal times, try to fully savor what you’re eating and be fully present in your life, whether that be enjoying simple moments of stillness or that yummy meal you are eating!
- When you’re talking to someone, BE FULLY THERE: As I mentioned earlier, how many times have you been in a conversation, and caught yourself either planning what you wanted to say next, thinking of the next thing you need to do, or simply not fully listening to what they are saying?? This one tip alone can CHANGE LIVES. And just show people you truly care! Trust me, people notice when you actually listen, because it is so rare these days. I know I do!
- Don’t worry about the future, be fully present: Many time we worry about things we can’t change, or don’t even happen anyways. Yet it causes us so much extra stress and steals our joy. Try to be mindful and catch yourself when you drift into the future instead of being in the present moment.
