You Have Time

I had a dream not too long ago. I woke up and remembered I had met myself in the dream, but 20 years older. It was really fascinating experiencing a meeting with myself in the future. A lot of the details were odd, like sometimes only dreams can be, but the one thing that made me remember this dream was the advise I gave myself.

The advise was in the form of a golden watch, handed to me by my future self with the words spoken by a calm and confident voice: You have time.

I spent time trying to think about this through the following week, and it makes so much sense to me. We stress so much today. Quarterly results. Fitting everything into a crowded week. So much expectations not only set by ourselves, but added on by looking at everyone else and what they are able to squeeze into their week. Adding requirements and demands until you are trying to meet such an unrealistic level of accomplishment and delivery.

YOU HAVE TIME. You always have time. You DON'T HAVE TO make a decision right away. You DON"T HAVE TO take it or leave it. You DON'T HAVE TO give a response or send that email right away. And above all, you don't have to achieve everything at once.

Just think about this: who would you respect more

1) the person who stays long hours, work work work, and always get stressed, and makes a ton of activities with their kids over the weekend, and has a perfectly planned out and mapped out life

2) the person who stands up in a meeting and says, hey I am really sorry that we have to postpone this meeting as we did not get to a unified conclusion in time, but I really want to go and get my kids from school today. And then over the weekend spends time with their kids rather than driving them to different sports and acting activities everywhere.

There is a time and place for everything. YOU DON"T HAVE TO DO IT ALL IN THE SAME WEEK...or month....or year.

What I feel so many young parents try to do is to reach that impossible bar of accomplishment and success in everything at once. Each thing has its time and place.

YOU HAVE TIME. Time to think. To breathe. And to just be.