Find the Time

A friend of mine is an author-in-waiting. She has two books inside of her just waiting to come out. She has the ideas. She knows the story. She can see the characters vividly in her mind, almost as if they are friends. When she talks about it, you can see the excitement in her eyes and hear it in her voice. If only she would sit down and write it.

She says she really wants to do it but she doesn’t have the time. I told her that I’d written 3 screenplays by devoting 30 minutes a day to writing. Some days getting through that 30 minutes was painful. I would sit and look at a blank page, and then I’d look at the timer and realize I had 27 minutes left! Other days, I couldn’t wait to write and when that buzzer went off, I couldn’t stop. Most days, I did my 30 minutes and moved on.

But I had to make the time. And if it really matters, you can make the time. I have a friend who would stop by Starbucks on the way home and take a book with her. She’d buy a bottle of water and read a chapter or two before she got home. A co-worker had a pair of tennis shoes she’d leave at work, she’d get to work about 45 minutes early, throw on her shoes and get a good half-hour of walking in before she started her day.

Me? I had a hard time working out in the evening. I had all day to talk myself out of it and dread it. Then something would happen and I’d convince myself that I had to pass on my workout. Since childhood, I’ve been a night person so when the suggestion to get up and work out was made, I’d immediately dismiss it.

As the number on the scale gradually increased, I knew I had to do something. What I had been doing was not working, so I had to do something else. I got up a half hour and did a light workout. I did that for a few weeks. Then I moved the clock back another fifteen minutes. After another two or three weeks, I moved it back one more time. I was getting up an hour earlier and working out. Me the quintessential night owl was getting up with the roosters!

If you want it bad enough, you’ll find the time and if you can’t find it, you’ll make it by getting up a little earlier or going to bed a little later. Because it would be a shame if my friend never wrote those books, or if my other friend missed out on the magic of reading or if I missed out on the benefits that I reap from consistent exercise.

Time is the treasure and you are on the hunt.