How To Make Time To Do What You Love

How often do you 'plan' to do things and never follow through?

How many of those things are things you LOVE to do?

This has really become a hot topic for me now that I am self-employed. Prioritizing.

It is so easy to just power through life and not make time for the things we love. We fill our days with obligations and things we 'need' to do in place of things we love to do. If you stop and take a close look at how you spend your time, would you make changes?

I've been bird dogging my time since I've been working on my own and found that I have a healthy balance of obligations and genuine desires in my every day life. It varies by day but it balances out each the week. There is never a shortage of things we are obligated to do. However, it can be a challenge to work in the things we love to do.  Here are three techniques I use to achieve this balance:

Identify

Do you even know what you love to do? I do. And I can honestly say that over the years it's morphed and changed. Identifying activities that you love takes time and trial. Don't miss an opportunity to understand your desires. Be observant to your body's cues. Last year, I would have told you that I don't like to run if you'd asked me. Then my daughter asked me to run a 5K with her and I started training. It was painful yet fulfilling. I loved the actual races I ran last year so much so that I have committed to 5 races this year with the first one being in 4 weeks. Had I not tried it, I would have never figured myself to be a runner. 



Articulate

Declaring what you love is just as important as identifying it. Once you know, you must say it. One of my favorite parts in the movie Elf  is when Buddy The Elf declares, "I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care who knows about it!" That is the same enthusiasm we should have in stating our desires.  Journal if you're not comfortable shouting it. It doesn't matter how you articulate it, just as long as you do actually express it. It cannot become real until it gets from your head and heart to paper or to your lips.


Enlist

Get the folks you do life with in on your desires! It is really difficult to make time for something that no one knows about. My running is a priority now and everyone in my life knows it. I've also recently declared that I am writing a book. I've already asked for accountability from an old college friend and lined up an editor. Without question, I follow through on the my dream to write a book now more than any other time before simply because I've enlisted some help to keep it high on my priority list.

That's my list. What are techniques you use to work in more things you love vs. things you need to do?