Gain Time & Energy
Recently I read a great book "Four Thousand Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman. I’m sharing some ideas from that, plus some of my own.
The average 80 year old lives about 4000 weeks.
I’m Rhys Dwyer and I already used up about 3000 weeks, which means that I’ve got about 1000 weeks left, maybe 2000 if I make it through to 100 year old!
It doesn’t sound much when you put it like that.
And isn’t it so cruel that the older we get, the faster the time seems to go? Not only am I in to my last 1000 or so weeks, but they are going to flash by much faster than the previous ones. How is that fair?!
I’m going to give you a tip to slow down the rate at which time passes below. Conversely, if slowing down time is the worst thing you could possibly imagine, then you probably haven’t even read this far through the text. Read on!
Realise that we may not have a thousand weeks left - it could all be over next week, or tomorrow. Nothing is guaranteed.
It pays to remember that none of us is here forever. That our time is limited.
Rather than being depressing it is actually liberating. Because it helps us to focus on spending our remaining time wisely.
Which brings me to TO DO Lists
We all have them right? I was discussing this with a client recently.
Don’t you find that the more efficient you get at crossing things off the list, the more things get added on to the list? You end up spending your life in a blind rush from here to there.
So you get to the end of another one of your precious remaining weeks feeling stressed, wondering where the time went, and what you really achieved?!
We just said our time is limited. It’s your choice how to spend it.
Make up a new list of the 10 or 20 things you REALLY WANT to do in your remaining weeks. These are the things that INSPIRE you the most. They could be things you want to see, they could be a major project, or they could be some regular activity that you particularly enjoy - painting, listening to music, walking in the bush or on the beach, swimming (one of mine), travel, volunteering, or attending social gatherings.
Then take your list and rank it from the most important to you, the things you are most passionate about, to the least. Bigger projects can usually be broken down into do-able chunks.
Then pick the TOP FIVE things and put them at the top of your TO DO list for this week. Only do those five things. Trying to do too many things just means none of them get finished.
Do NOT do any of the other one’s from 6 to 20, ever. Because they weren’t important enough to you to make it on to your top 5, and they will just distract you from your top 5. It’s your life, and your choice whether to spend your remaining weeks on the things that matter most to you or not.
Remember that a choice to do a thing necessarily means that you are also choosing not to do another thing. Be comfortable with that. Even if you had 4000 years you wouldn’t get to see all the sights in the world, or do all the things you might do. At any moment there’s going to be a fork in the road and you need to choose left or right. Make the best decision for you in that moment, then put it behind you.
Do you lack energy?
WORRY is one of the biggest drains on our energy.
You just created a To Do list with the top 5 most important things, but many of us are not here actually doing them with presence.
Instead we are worrying about what we might have missed off the list? Or thinking about getting to the next thing on the list. Or wondering about how to tackle number 4 when we’re still on number 1?
If you’re doing that then energy will just drain out of you and you won’t enjoy your life.
How Do We Gain Energy?
By doing the opposite.
Be PRESENT.
Just be with task number one on your list. After all, you decided this was the most important thing. And if that thing is minding your grand-daughter after school, then all power to you. Just give her your absolute and full attention and have fun with that. She will sense that love and attention and she will respond to it too.
Forget about number 4 on the list. Just be here in this moment, with the grand-daughter. Sure you might be tired afterwards, but you’ll be pleasantly tired. You will have given her your greatest gift, your time. Doesn’t that feel great?!
If it’s flower arranging, being in the garden or in nature, then really pay attention to the trees, the flowers, the birds. Listen, smell, feel, watch intently. Be completely present, as you pull those weeds. Someone mentioned recently how while they were weeding the other day, a family of Blackbirds with fledglings landed on the lawn next to her, so she was able to delight in that unexpected interaction, just paying attention.
Being completely present with what you’re doing will fill your ENERGY well up. These small moments are the key to fulfillment in life!
I said that I was going to give you a tip on how to slow down the passing of time? Well it’s the same thing:
Be completely present with what you’re doing in that moment. Always.
When you do that you enjoy it more, and you do it better. You’ll be spending quality time, time will slow down for you. You’ll gain mental energy, which will lead to physical energy. Take pride in doing your thing well, as best you can, whatever your best happens to be today.
“Experience life with twice the usual intensity and your experience of life would be twice as full as it currently is, and would be remembered as having lasted twice as long.”
Oliver Burkeman
But you may need some help putting the theory into practice.
Zero Balancing bodywork is used by many of my clients, as a gateway to stopping thinking, interrupting the worry habit, and beginning to learn to stay present.
It’s also a great antidote to stress by releasing tension from deep bones and joints while they take their time out, their “me-time”.
Rhys Dwyer
Certified Zero Balancer
Present Moment Awareness Coach
Cranial Sacral Techniques
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