You Don't Need More Time to Change Your Life…

You Don't Need More Time to Change Your Life. You Need to Use the Time You Have.

Waiting until you have more time will not get you closer to the life you want. Learning how to make progress with the time you already have will.

I had a conversation on the soccer field last night that reminded me just how often we convince ourselves we can't begin something because our lives are already too full.

One of the dads from my youngest daughter's team last year came over to say hello. We hadn't seen each other much this season, and we started catching up on life. He and his wife have five children, all involved in sports, and like so many families I know, their schedules are packed.

He's been talking to me for a while about wanting to buy a business. He's been working for someone else for years, he's tired of it, and he knows he wants something different.

But when I asked him how things were going, he sounded exhausted.

Not unhappy necessarily. Just tired.

There was so much happening in his life that he couldn't seem to find the energy to move forward with this thing he really wanted.

And I understood exactly what he meant.

I've had plenty of seasons where the responsibilities seem endless. Between running businesses, teaching, raising children, managing sports schedules, and everything else that comes with the life we've created, there are days when I'm tired too.

But I've also learned to look at those responsibilities a little differently.

I get to run businesses from home. I get to be involved in my children's lives. I get to create things, pursue opportunities, and build a life that allows me a level of flexibility I once dreamed about.

Are some days exhausting?

Absolutely.

But I don't want to lose sight of the fact that so much of what I'm responsible for today is something I once wanted.

That shift in perspective matters.

As we continued talking, he mentioned that he'd been speaking with his pastor about trusting God's timing.

And I told him I thought that was a beautiful thing.

Because I genuinely believe God's perspective is far greater than ours. We see this tiny little sliver of time, and we have all these expectations about when things should happen and how they're supposed to unfold.

Meanwhile, God sees the entire picture.

I've had plenty of things happen on a timeline that was very different from the one I would have chosen. And while I haven't always enjoyed waiting, I can recognize how much I've grown during those seasons.

But here's where I challenged him.

Trusting God's timing doesn't mean you stop taking action.

There's a parable I love about a man who rows people across a lake in a little boat.

He has two oars. One is labeled Faith, and the other is labeled Works.

One day, a passenger asks him why he has those words written on his oars.

So the man demonstrates.

He rows using only the Faith oar, and the boat goes in a circle.

Then he switches and rows using only the Works oar, and the boat goes in a circle in the opposite direction.

But when he uses both oars together, the boat moves forward.

And I love that visual because I can see myself in it.

I'm a works person.

Tell me what needs to be done, and I will figure out how to get it done. I love creating, building, taking action, and moving toward the things I want.

My faith, on the other hand, has required a little more development.

Because sometimes I fall into the trap of believing I can do everything myself.

And what I've come to understand is that when faith and action work together, I don't have to force everything to happen according to my timeline.

I can trust the bigger picture while still taking responsibility for the work that's mine to do.

So I asked him a question.

What are you actually doing to move toward buying this business?

And he admitted that he didn't feel like he was making much progress.

So I gave him a challenge.

Spend fifteen minutes a day working toward it.

Not three hours.

Not an entire evening researching businesses.

Not some elaborate plan that requires him to rearrange his family's entire schedule.

Fifteen minutes.

Because I think we've become so accustomed to believing that meaningful progress requires massive amounts of time that we dismiss the smaller opportunities sitting right in front of us.

But let me ask you something.

Have you ever had your mother-in-law call and tell you she's fifteen minutes away?

Because if you've got children and your house looks like a tornado came through it, I promise you, you're about to discover exactly how much can be accomplished in fifteen minutes.

Suddenly you're moving through that house with a very clear objective.

You're not wandering around wondering what to do next. You're not checking your phone every three minutes or deciding whether you feel like cleaning.

You're getting things done.

Will the house be perfect?

Probably not.

But it will look a whole lot different than it did fifteen minutes earlier.

And that's my point.

The amount of time you have matters a whole lot less when you know exactly what you're using it for.

I've built businesses this way.

When my children were little, I didn't always have two uninterrupted hours to sit at a desk and work. Some days I had ten minutes. Sometimes I was sitting in the school pickup line. Other times I was working while the kids were napping.

I used the time I had.

And I made progress.

Even today, I run portions of my businesses in fifteen- to twenty-minute pockets. I've learned how long certain tasks take, and I can move through them pretty efficiently when I'm focused.

I know how long it takes me to write an Instagram post. I know approximately how long it takes to fold laundry. I even know that I can put two French braids in my youngest daughter's hair in about five minutes.

Is that a slightly ridiculous thing to know?

Maybe.

But that's how my brain works.

And it's helped me recognize that a lot of the things we tell ourselves require enormous amounts of time really don't.

Now, I'm not suggesting you can build an entire business in fifteen minutes or that every goal can be accomplished by squeezing another task into an already overwhelming schedule.

Some things absolutely require more time, energy, support, and resources.

But that's not the question I'm asking.

I'm asking whether you're using the time that's available to you to move toward the things you say you want.

Because there's a difference between recognizing that you have real responsibilities and using those responsibilities as the reason you never begin.

And I think a lot of us have become very comfortable telling ourselves we'll start when life settles down.

When the kids are older.

When work gets easier.

When we have more money.

When we have more energy.

When the timing is finally right.

But what if the timing you're waiting for never looks the way you imagined?

What if the opportunity to begin is actually sitting in the fifteen minutes you have today?

This is something I used to teach in one of my earliest business courses for moms. I knew these women were already carrying enormous mental loads. Telling them they needed to find two additional hours every day to build a business wasn't going to help them.

So we started smaller.

Fifteen to twenty minutes.

Something manageable. Something they could actually begin doing.

And that's still how I approach so much of what I create today.

Because the goal isn't to fill every available moment with work.

I actually love my downtime.

The goal is to become intentional enough with the time I'm working that I can enjoy the rest of my life without constantly feeling like I'm behind.

And that requires clarity.

You have to know where you're headed.

You have to know which actions will actually move you in that direction.

And you have to be willing to do those things consistently, even when you can't devote an entire afternoon to them.

This is a big part of the work I do with my private coaching clients.

We get clear on the vision, look at what's actually standing in the way, and identify the shifts that allow them to start moving forward without making everything unnecessarily complicated.

Because sometimes you don't need another strategy, another course, or another six months of preparation.

Sometimes you need to decide that the thing you keep talking about matters enough to put fifteen minutes on your calendar.

And then follow through.

You can trust God's timing and still take action today.

You can have an incredibly full life and still make progress toward something new.

And you can create meaningful change without requiring yourself to overhaul everything overnight.

So here's my challenge.

What is the thing you've been postponing because you don't have enough time?

And what could you do in fifteen minutes today that would move you closer to it?

Start there.

If you have a vision for your life or business but keep getting caught in the gap between what you want and what you're actually doing, message me.

Let's get clear on where you're headed, identify what's keeping you stuck, and start creating the kind of progress that changes your life.