Are Your Desires Worth Half of Your Free Time?

Perhaps long ago, you decided to unplug. You now limit the time you spend digitally or electronically connected. Good for you! Your mental, emotional, and physical well-being have probably improved considerably.

In either of those scenarios, how much time do you dedicate to your dreams and desires?

Seriously consider that. Don’t automatically think you don’t have enough free time. Don't fall back on that ready-made excuse so many people use to justify not living the life they desire.

Do this instead. For one solid week, keep track of your spare time. This includes those occasions when you have only a few minutes to spare. Add it all up and you might be surprised at how much free time you have.

Give Half of Your Spare Time to Frivolous Things and the Other Half to Your Dreams and Desires

When you are tracking your spare time, make sure you include the considerable investment you make in streaming your favorite Netflix series. What does the hour count on your phone look like? How many 10-minute slices of your day are spent waiting for something to happen? What about the time between something you just finished and something else you will begin?

JK Rowling was a single mother when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. She was living below the poverty level and had to depend on public transportation to get around. Her day was filled with looking for jobs and working, waiting on and riding trains, and being a mom.

With very few chunks of significant time available, she wrote whenever she had a few minutes to spare. The first book of the bestselling series of all time was written on scraps of paper, backs of napkins, and anything else she had available to her. If a thought entered her mind, she took a minute to write it down. She didn't gripe about having no time. Instead, she made do with the available time she had.

Can't you do the same?

If you performed the exercise earlier where you tracked how much spare time you have, look at that information. Cut the amount of spare time in half. Allow yourself to spend half of your free time doing whatever you like. You don't have to justify any of that time. It can add value to your life or not. Do with it what you will.

With the rest of that time, get busy taking action on your dreams and desires. This still gives you a significant amount of time in your life where you can relax and recharge. It also dedicates much of your time to creating your dream life.

If you don't make time to act on your deepest desires, they will only ever be desires. To make them a reality requires time and effort. You have the time. Now, make the effort.