Raise your hand if you have said one of these phrases to yourself at some point in the past year:

"I didn't have the time to get groceries, so I decided to grab some take out."

"I wish I didn't have to work so much so I could go the the gym, but I just don't have the time."

"Sorry my house is such a mess, I just never have the time to clean."

"I would love to read more books, I just don't have the time."

"Maybe we can go outside and play catch tomorrow, I have to do some work stuff tonight and just don't have the time."

Yeah, me too.

I try to be the best I can but still find myself slipping back into these bad habits every now and again. I can't beat myself up about it because I am only human and will make mistakes. But, whenever I am feeling especially bad and get into a rut, I remind myself these are natural thoughts to have and to instead use a mental exercise I learned as a teacher to help students wade through the negative mental abyss:

It's not that I "don't have the time", but rather that I didn't make it a "priority".

I've picked up many neat tricks in my teaching career, and this is just one of them. Changing the vocabulary of a situation often is the difference between believing the world is control of you versus you being in control of the world. I would often counsel with my students whenever they were making excuses for they way they felt by sharing with them this mental exercise and asking them to re-evaluate.

Is it that you didn't have the time to do something, or that you didn't make it a priority?

That subtle shift in vocabulary often allows you to determine what you are really making important in your life and can lead to many subtle, and often very important, shifts in your behavior.

For instance, replace every situation I outlined in the beginning with this shift in terminology. Think about what that reveals about yourself.

"I didn't make getting groceries a priority, so I decided to grab some take out."

"I wish I didn't have to work so much so I could go the the gym more, but I just don't make that a priority."

"Sorry my house is such a mess, I just don't make it a priority to clean."

"I would love to read more books, I just don't make it a priority to read.*"

"Maybe we can go outside and play catch tomorrow, I have to do some work stuff tonight and just am not making that a priority."

It's amazing how much different you feel about yourself with a change of vocabulary like this. I'm especially mindful of this because recently I have been taking on many new tasks as a result of my job and of other external pressures related to my work. I have been getting home much later and I can feel my health, both mentally and physically deteriorating.

So, today, a day off for me, I did what I always tend to do - let my mind wander. And, it has lead me to one incontrovertible fact:

I need to make more things a priority in my life.

I really don't need to browse social media aimlessly for a few hours to decompress. I need to make my health more of a priority. I can't put off chores that make the physical space around me more orderly. I need to make it a priority. I can't let how tired I am affect the time I get to play with my kids. I need to make it a priority.

Perhaps, I can just leave the other non-important tasks I always accomplish behind to make room for these more important things in my life.

What do you think Steemit?

Am I the only one around here that falls into this "I don't have enough time" trap? Or do you sometimes too? Let me know your thoughts!

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