The title of this post makes me cringe a little bit, and I hope it made you feel the same way. It's a phrase we hear every day from everyone around us, including ourselves. We are busy, busy, busy, caught up in the activities of our kids, our friends, our spouses, and ourselves. It's so hard to have time for anything, or feel like you can add one more thing to your plate. If I got a dollar every time I heard that phrase, or said it myself, I'd be living it up in the Bahamas with all the time I could ever want.
I don't remember when it happened, but somewhere in the midst of working full time while running a photography business (and a couple little other things), I started saying this a LOT. And not just as a way to not do something else - I used it as a complaint. I spoke it so much I was almost bragging.
"I just don't have the time for anything else."
"Between all the things I've got going on, I just don't have time for that."
"I wish I had more time."
"How does he/she seem to have so much time for things?"
On and on it went. I love being busy, and when I was telling everyone over and over about how much time I didn't have, I was holding busyness on a pedestal for the world to see. Who was I impressing? No one.
You see, I realized that we all have time. When we say no to one thing, we are saying yes to something else. If I say no to a wedding, I might be saying yes to a free Saturday to visit my family. When I say no to a night out, I might be saying yes spending the night curled up on the couch with a good book. Either way, we fill our time with something, and the beautiful thing is that most of the time, we get to choose what that something is.
For the most part, I no longer tell people that "I don't have time" for something. The truth is, I'm making time for something else. I don't always make the right choices - and neither will you - but every no is a yes to something else. Our time will be filled and we are the ones who fill it.
So let's be honest with ourselves and everyone around us. Instead of saying that you don't have time, realize that you aren't making time for that particular activity. And that's ok! Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Just because you want to say yes to an activity instead of rest doesn't mean that's what is best for you. But above all, remember that you have time for whatever it is you want to do. Some things you choose to make time for, and some things you don't.
Let's stop glorifying busyness. Let's stop pretending like everyone else is less busy than we are. Time is in our hands. Let's use it wisely.
