Never enough time or money?

Is there never enough time or money?

Q1. Is There Never Enough Time or Money to do the Things you’d Love to do?

We often use metaphors to describe our relationship with time and money, especially if that relationship is not as healthy as it could be.

e.g. “money just slips through my fingers”, “money burns a hole in my pocket”, “time flies”, “the day dragged by” etc.

When we use metaphors like these, its harder to assume our part in it; the metaphors imply that the money or time have created the actions! This can leave us feeling powerless to change the situation.

Here’s a scenario:

I accompany my friend Linda to buy a new outfit for a wedding. I don’t need anything, so I’m there to help her choose. Later when we are leaving the shop, Linda is happy to have found what she went in for and I leave carrying a bag of clothes that I really don’t need and probably don’t really want either. The money “has just slipped through my fingers”! In coaching, we would refer to Linda’s spending as ‘conscious’ (she chose in advance) and mine as ‘unconscious’ (it was an impulse spend). I have since learned the powerful lesson, of creating a conscious relationship with money and now I get much satisfaction from helping my clients learn it for themselves.

Time is very similar; we say at the end of the day “where has the time gone?” when we realise that we have not done that which we planned to do.

As a first step to creating a more conscious relationship with both time and money we will focus on money today. Here’s something very simple you can do –

Money Diary

1. In a notebook, track every penny of your spending for 4 weeks; mark it cash, card or contactless.

2. Look back and evaluate what were worthy spends and what were impulsive spends. See if a pattern emerges e.g. do you spend impulsively at certain times, in certain moods etc. Having this information helps you to self-correct. If you prefer, there are many apps available to track spending.

“I don’t have the time or the money to …“, is the number one reason, I hear from my clients, for not doing the things they’d love to do.

What if you were to find out that it’s how you currently make use of the time and money available to you, that is the number one cause for not doing the things you’d love to do? If that is so, you can start doing something about it today!

If you’d prefer to do this with the support of a coach, I’d be delighted to hear from you. If you’d like to join my latest group and you live in the Dundee/Perth/Blairgowrie area, please get in touch on 07973 521 624 and we will see if it’s for you.

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