Speeding up Time: Worrying about the FUTURE

Part 2: Speeding Up Time: Worrying about the future

As we dig into our 3 part blog on our internal conflict with TIME and how to resolve it- we started with our reversal of time, where we are not present to what is happening today, but living in the past. Today we will dig into speeding up time by worrying about the future.

Fear of the unknown can create an unproductive false sense of purpose, where we scramble to plan for every possible future scenario. This racing to control an outcome that may or may not happen takes us away from what is really happening NOW. That is not to say being proactive and planning is a bad thing, but if it does not tie back to your intended goal, it is only time wasted, attached with a lot of stress and anxiety.

TIP: A powerful and curious question to break the trigger is ‘What do I/we know in this moment to be true?’ I call this ‘discernment vs judgement’, where all emotion is removed and you base the observation on fact.

For example, the gift for your loved one is lost in the courier service and may not arrive in time for the special event. What is true in this moment? You did purchase something with every intent on it arriving on time and through no fault of your own, it has been delayed. You are not sure if it will arrive on time. This does not mean, stress, worry, should you order another and pay an absurd amount of money to send, again still not knowing if it will arrive on time? OR, can you get curious and using the facts, think of another way to approach it? Maybe you will print out a picture of the item, put it in a fancy box and add humor to the note inside…it’s about the thought and caring you put into vs the timeline. It will arrive, just not as you expected it.

This week, if and when you find yourself trying to predict every single outcome of a project or initiative so that you can build the best plan ever- STOP, PAUSE and take action through the following perspective:

We know the ‘current state’ and we know the ‘desired state’, but there is a lot we will encounter on this road that may alter if the desired state is the right one- that is why we can introduce the ‘interim state’, where we can review where we have come from and see if it still aligns to where we want to go, and adjust accordingly. So based on today, and what you and/or or the project team know today, what action do you need to take?

See you next week where we look at the 3rd part in this series, ‘Stuck in time…’