Do you accept or decline?

I’m guessing that you’re asking, accept or decline what?

And that’s a great question.

You see, you’re constantly accepting or declining requests for your time and energy. However, many of these requests don’t include big, obvious buttons to accept or decline. In fact, many or even most of them are subtle, to the point of insidious, working their way under your conscious radar and stealing tiny bits of your time and energy on a daily basis.

Actually, “stealing” might be too strong a word, since you’re complicit and you do agree to your time and energy being eroded by a constant stream of requests.

And since these requests never stop, how do you find, or more importantly, take any time for yourself?

How do you prioritize your energy and time so that it allows you to accomplish things that are important to you?

You might not have any large goals that require lots of time and energy, such as climbing Mount Everest, on your to-do list, and that’s okay. But if you’re like most people, you probably have a few small goals that you’d like to achieve.  And in order to achieve them, you’re going to have to apply some degree of selfishness. You’re going to have to decide whether you accept or decline requests for your time.

And, at times, declining requests might make you unpopular. But this is the tradeoff you’ll have to be willing to make. You’re going to need to draw some hard lines in the sand if you’re ever going to carve out some ‘you time.’

Whether it’s the people around you or the device in your hand, they all want a piece of your time. And ultimately, your time is all you have. It’s your one non-renewable resource. It’s the one you have to protect most, so be very careful when someone requests your time, and decide wisely whether to accept or decline.

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