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By: Joseph Norman
Stop running through your life in the dark with reckless abandon! Do you have focus? Are you being mindful of the time and energy you are expending during the day? If you haven’t asked yourself that question, then you’re probably not!
The truth is we only have so much focused energy that we can use each day. That being said, many of us spend it in frivolous activities or we use it in a way that is unproductive relative to our goals or ambitions. How many times have you gotten up from your computer and said, “Wow, where did that last hour go?” It could be YouTube, CNN.com, or Facebook that you just wasted your time on. Either way, it was not used wisely and you’re no closer to accomplishing your objectives then you were before!
My challenge to you this week is to be mindful of where you are allocating your time. Dr. Nathaniel Branden, psychotherapist and pioneer of self-esteem psychology often has clients do a series of sentence completion exercises to help them live more consciously.
For example, he might give you this stem:
“If I bring 5% more consciousness to my daily activities, I will...”
And, another stem might be:
“If I am 5% more mindful of where I allocate my time and energy, I will...”
Give those two a try a few mornings this week. Complete the sentence five times each morning without regard to repeats from the day before. At the end of the week review the results! Did you make progress towards living more consciously?
The purpose of this exercise is to help you understand that it’s okay to do less if it means you do it impeccably! Don’t let yourself get a reputation of taking on too much and having things slip through the cracks. Instead be known as the person that gets thing done in a fantastic way!
The truth is we only have so much focused energy that we can use each day. That being said, many of us spend it in frivolous activities or we use it in a way that is unproductive relative to our goals or ambitions. How many times have you gotten up from your computer and said, “Wow, where did that last hour go?” It could be YouTube, CNN.com, or Facebook that you just wasted your time on. Either way, it was not used wisely and you’re no closer to accomplishing your objectives then you were before!
My challenge to you this week is to be mindful of where you are allocating your time. Dr. Nathaniel Branden, psychotherapist and pioneer of self-esteem psychology often has clients do a series of sentence completion exercises to help them live more consciously.
For example, he might give you this stem:
“If I bring 5% more consciousness to my daily activities, I will...”
And, another stem might be:
“If I am 5% more mindful of where I allocate my time and energy, I will...”
Give those two a try a few mornings this week. Complete the sentence five times each morning without regard to repeats from the day before. At the end of the week review the results! Did you make progress towards living more consciously?
The purpose of this exercise is to help you understand that it’s okay to do less if it means you do it impeccably! Don’t let yourself get a reputation of taking on too much and having things slip through the cracks. Instead be known as the person that gets thing done in a fantastic way!
