How to Beat the “I Don’t Have Time” Excuse

“I don’t have time” is one of the most common excuses in order to not follow your passion. And it might seem like a valid excuse in most cases, but it really isn’t.

Some time ago I was talking with a friend and we both agreed being happy with our job. It wasn’t terribly exciting, but it was ok. We were able to wake up every morning and go out and do the stuff we had to do. It didn’t make us bitter or depress. It wasn’t bad, it was ok.

You see, the thing is, what you do for the most of your day it shouldn’t suppose to feel just ok. It is supposed to feel great; you should wake up every morning before the alarm goes off because you feel exited about the things you have to do. You suppose to feel disappointed when your body is too tired to go on and force you go to bed at night for your own sake, because you want to continue doing whatever is you are doing. This is what living passionately feels like. We all have read about it and it’s frankly annoying.

Because, if we are lucky, we feel just ok and we don’t like people telling us that ok is not good enough.

But “Ok”, unfortunately, is not good enough.

But, what Passion?

Everyone says you must follow your passion and is true, you must. But what you do when you don’t know what your passion is?

Maybe be a fireman? Or a police man? Maybe an astronaut? How could I know if I have never been any of those things? So I figure, if I had never wanted to be a fireman, then that cannot be my passion of mine, right? So what then?

A widely known technique that I find incredibly useful is to think what I would do with my life if I had all the resources in the world. Not only money, but also time and relationships. And then I realized that what I wanted to do if I find myself in that situation was to write and connect with people. This was my passion then? It is for now and here I am doing my best and enjoying it immensely.

Just remember not to confuse “follow your passion” with living a purpose driven life. Even when these two are fundamentally connected, it’s not the same thing.

 

What To Do If You Are Not Madonna, i.e. Take Action

But the first thought that came to my mind was “I don’t have time”. The “I don’t have money” excuse didn’t bother to appear because my subconscious knew too well that in today’s world to write doesn’t necessarily require an investment. We have free blogging, self publishing and even Twitter and Facebook.

(The point of this article applies as well to the “I don’t have money” excuse, but we will dive specifically into that in other occasion)

But the “I don’t have time” excuse was a whole different thing. Because I actually didn’t have time to become J.K. Rowling, I thought.

This excuse is borne out of a failure to analyze objectively the matter. We have heard the amazing stories of some people who sold their houses or let it all behind to go to New York or Hollywood in the pursuing of their passion, in a Madonna kind of way. Very interesting and remarkable, but this is not how 99% of people live their life purpose. When you hear or read about these stories you consciously or subconsciously think “I am not that person, I cannot do that! I guess the passionate life is for other kind a people, is not for me” But the thing is, it is for you. All you have to do is to take immediate action. Right now does not matter how small it is, whatever you do is better that to remain still and any action you take right now will take you closer to fulfill your dreams.

The best thing about taking action, as small as it might be, is that when we do something we are passionate about, we don’t give much attention to the scale of our endeavor. A fireman feels just as good as if he saves 50 people out fire, than if he saves 1 person.

 

3/4

I realized that for 3/4 of my days I was busy either doing something which I wasn’t particularly passionate about or sleeping. Again, it wasn’t bad, it was just OK.

But if I manage to do something extremely rewarding with the other 1/4 left, it compensated the time spent in routine activities. Actually, it didn’t just compensate, but it complemented nicely. I was more productive throughout the day or even the following days.

When I understood this it became clear to me that I had to come up with a plan.

 

One Hour to Rule Them All

So, of course you might not be able to quit your job and go to a rock band camp for 10 years to become Mike Jagger, but you do have time to sign yourself in a guitar class on Saturdays or even to take online classes.

You see, Stephen King didn’t quit her job to write Carrie in 3 months. He didn’t had time, but he manages to find a few spare minutes here and there knowing that even when it didn’t seem to mean much at first, sooner or later those minutes will become a full length novel, and all that came after. Thanks God he didn’t though “I cannot do this; I cannot afford to be a writer. I have a full time job and a family to watch. No, the writing thing is for people who has time”

So I know you might not have time, but make the effort to set aside one hour every day to be dedicated to your wildest dream. If you cannot set aside one hour every day, then set aside 30 minutes 5 times a week. Wake up one hour early or go to bed one hour later every night if necessary, or eat your lunch in just 15 minutes. It’s an effort, but your dreams worth it.

 

But I Suck

During the time that you have set aside for your passion or dream, allow yourself to be immersed in it. If is writing, then write whatever comes to your mind; if is music, then allow yourself to sing or play all you can without thinking about how good or how bad you are. At this stage that does not matter. That’s what practice is about.

To think that you would start a new activity and that you will be good at it just because, is honestly delusional. You suppose to be bad and that’s the reason why you have set aside your “passion hour”.

 

Time Flies Anyway

Just bear in mind that an hour or 30 minutes a day won’t make a terrible difference in your schedule, but after 6 months that would equal 180 hours of practices (at a rate of 1 daily hour) you will be much more skilled in whatever you have committed to do. You will be certainly much more skilled that what you are today.

If you don’t set aside the time, the 6 months will pass anyway and after it passes, you will be the same person you are today. The time will have gone and you and your schedule will be the same, but no new knowledge, no new skill and no sense of fulfillment and no closer to your dream, just you and your busy schedule.

We usually find ourselves more and more busy every day (see Be Better by Doing Less) and unless a dramatic event disrupts your life, in a year you will have less free time that what you have today. So saying to yourself “I don’t have time right now” is not delaying your opportunity to have a passionate life, is giving up on it.

Our eager for passion and fulfillment is easily pleased, at least at the beginning. It doesn’t request that you jump into a burning building tomorrow. A little passion everyday can make you heart go a long way.