One of the challenges of being a leadership coach and being your own boss with no one watching over your activities, is the temptation to get pulled away from the mission and respond to everyone who wants your attention.
This quote I put in my book Time Warrior is more true for coaches than anyone I know:
“You will never ‘find’ time for anything,
if you want time you must make it.” ~ Charles Buxton
And just how do you make time?
It’s made in your mind. Paradoxically, by slowing down. By creating your day. By being ruthless, with great swings and swipes of your samurai sword. You discover a brutal grace.
Cutting out the unnecessary, instead of letting your freedom abuse you, and letting people use you.
Why do you let all these other people clutter up your day? Because you want to please them? Because you believe their approval is everything?
I have never experienced a greater time-waster than people-pleasing. My nervous habit of scurrying around trying to win the approval of others. Answering all their texts and emails and media messages the minute they come in, taking their every call, fulfilling every request… interrupting myself and my own dream over and over.
There’s no time left for creation. For achievement.
I had to learn to get a grip. Relax into focus. Get on the path and stay there. It takes practice, but the rewards are great. And no, you don’t lose any friends or the respect of others. Quite the opposite.
