No one would mistake me for a sophisticated wine connoisseur. I only drink sweet, white wines and I’d be just as happy with sparkling grape juice. The truth is, I don’t really like wine and it doesn’t like me. My puffy eyes the next morning are proof. And yet, sometimes I still drink it. Why? ‘Cause I want to.
I thought of that as I was implementing a new time management system I picked up from motivational speaker Lisa Nichols. ACIM is a course in mind discipline and the Workbook is all about building habits. Jesus tells us, “You want happiness. You want peace. You do not have them now because your mind is totally undisciplined….” (OrEd.Wkbk.20.2) With that in mind, I am always looking for new ways to get better. Lisa’s trick is to manage her time in 30 or 60 minute blocks and label each block, not by the task, but by the outcome she wants to produce. She said, “I don’t call it ‘exercising. I call it ‘snatching my sexy back’!” OK! To get myself to exercise I wrote “Do You Really Love Yourself?” It was really effective until I suddenly realized I hadn’t built in any time for “fun.”
Now, fun is a funny thing. What if you don’t feel like having fun when you come to the fun block of time? And where, I wondered, was my block of time for naps?? And what about the times when I eat too many carbs and go into a carbo-coma?
That’s when it hit me. If I’m serious about managing my time, the “ ‘cause I want to” days of drinking wine have to be over. And eating food or snacks that create brain fog and carbo-comas has to be over, too.
It turns out that time management and mental discipline are not so much about managing my time and focus as they are about releasing the things that sabotage my efforts.
(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #272, Jan. 4 2021)