Passion Struck with John R. Miles - I Don’t Have Time Syndrome w/ John R. Miles Episode 27

Episode Date: May 14, 2021

In this episode, John discusses one of the most common obstacles he confronts with passion seekers - the I don't have time syndrome. I’m sure you’ve run into this person: The person who says, “I don’t have time for that” or “I’m way too busy to spend my time doing that.” In fact, that person may be you currently, and you know exactly how they feel. John discusses how growth seekers often, over and over, allow themselves to subsist in a chronic passion-less lifestyle driven by the choices that take them further from their dreams. He provides 4 ways to understand if you have a time management problem and provides some of the most common time wasters. And much more. Enjoy!! What You Will Learn In this Episode We All Have One Precious Commodity We Waste Something All Too Common In People He Has Mentored What You Are Potentially Giving Up Are Your Priorities in Alignment 3 Ways You Can Recognize If You Have A Time Problem The Most Common Time Wasters Changing How We Talk About Time Why Wasting Your Time Is The Problem Quotes From John R. Miles "A lack of time is not the problem wasting time and filling your life with unimportant things is the problem." "Figure out what is most important to you, not what others think not what others are doing, not what others are telling you." "You have control over your life, your choices, how you allocate your time, and what you give it to." " I think the underlying assumption when it comes to Time management is that for every activity you engage in, you are by default, giving up the ability to engage in every other possible activity. And, that is where so many get stuck." "In essence, I think rather than a time allocation problem, what most people face is a prioritization problem." Follow Passion Struck on Instagram -https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast -- Human performance coach, veteran, multi-industry CEO, and Author John R. Miles is on a mission to make passion go viral by helping growth seekers to overcome their fear, self-doubt, and adversity. He loves taking his own life experiences, lessons from his time as a CEO and Fortune 50 C-Level Executive, and the truths he has learned to help make other's lives better. His new podcast Passion Struck provides inspirational interviews and powerful guidance for people to take their lives to the next level. Watch as these high achievers weigh in on life's biggest questions and challenges as we journey on the path to becoming passion-struck. -- Follow John R. Miles Here: Website - https://passionstruck.com/ ​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_r_miles ​​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr ​​ Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles ​ John's Website: https://johnrmiles.com/ ​- John's New eBook - The Passion Struck Framework https://passionstruck.com/coaching/​    

Everyone has the same amount of time. We're each given the same 24 hours. Figure out what is most important to you, not what others think, not what others are doing, not what others are telling you, and make what is important to you the priority. Spend the time up front, assessing your life and where you wanna go.

Prioritize and actually give yourself more free time in the long run. A lack of time is not the problem. Wasting time and filling your life with unimportant things is the problem. Welcome to the Passion Struck Podcast. My name is John Miles, a former combat veteran and multi industry CEO, turned entrepreneur and human performance expert. Each week we showcase an inspirational person or message that helps you unlock your hidden potential and unleash your creativity and leadership abilities. Thank you for joining us today on the show

and let's get igniting. Hello, visionaries, creators, leaders, entrepreneurs and growth seekers of all types. I'm John Miles and I wanted to welcome you the momentum Friday in episode 26 of the Passion Start podcast. Before I go into today's topic, I did wanna give a huge shout out

to all my fans who are out there for helping our vision of making passion go viral globally, morality. Did you know that since February, we have already had over 25,000 downloads of the podcast, brought the different podcast channels, and now we have also surpassed 50,000 views on our YouTube channel, John Armiles, and I couldn't do any of that without your support. Thank you so much to each and every one of you. Do you know what I find interesting? Everyone in the world is given the exact same allocation

of a single resource. Do you know what it is? Time. No matter who you are, where you live and what you do, everyone is given the same allocation of 24 hours. And it's up to you to fill out that time with what you want to do in your time, leisure, and activities. And I can tell you this is one of the biggest areas as I'm working with clients,

that I constantly hear feedback for work on my passion. I don't have time to make the changes that I need to make, or I don't have time to work on myself. Earlier this week, I was interviewing Abigail Barnes for an upcoming episode of the Passion Start podcast. And she is a time management coach, and in our discussion, she has a formula called 888, and if you break it down into its simplest components, her formula says that you have eight hours to sleep,

eight hours to work, and eight hours to live your life. And when I heard that, to me, it was rather eye-opening. Because most people start looking at that and say, I have eight hours to live my life. No, I don't. I've got fours to do. I've got kids to take care of. It worked more than eight hours.

I worked 10 or 12 hours. And I certainly don't get eight hours to sleep. If that is what I'm to talk to you about today. The I don't have time syndrome that is plaguing so many people globally. And I'm going to end this intro by giving you a couple quotes from well-known author Brian Tracy who has written over 80 books, many of which discuss high management. Of course, one, he says, high management is really personal management, life management and management of yourself. And in a second quote, he says, it's not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else

in life depends. Because if you can learn to master your time, you can become Ashingstrap. And that is what I'm going to talk to you about today. Now let's get on with this episode. Throughout my career, I have been lucky to coach literally thousands of different leaders. And I remember the story of one of the most promising ones who worked for me when I was at Lowe's. And she was a young, up-and-coming leader who I thought had so much possibility. She was intelligent, she was a go-getter, and I thought she had limitless potential.

But month would come and month would go and I would see her stock in the same patterns. And we would have membership discussions and she would come to me talking about what her aspirations were. But in each one of those conversations she would always tell me that she didn't have time to focus on the improvements that she needed to make, take her to the next level. And I'm sure you as well have run into this person. The person who says, I don't have time for this, or I'm too busy to spend my time doing that, heck, you may have even been that person once, or you may be them right now. This may be the current situation that you are exactly in and it's how you feel in this exact moment. What is worse is that people over and over allow themselves to

subsist in a marginless lifestyle, driven by choices that continue to be made on a daily basis. And if you haven't listened to my episode from a few weeks ago on the power of choice, this is a great episode for you to get a foundation on choices that you make in your daily life. And I urge you to listen to it because I go through the importance of preparing yourself for the most important choices that you can make when that time is dependent. And you can make a career or life changing the choice in your life. But let's get back to talking about your time choices. I think the underlying assumption when it comes to time management is that for every activity you engage in, you are by default giving up the ability to engage in every other possible

activity. And that's where so many of us get stuck. For example, if I take a nap, I can't be doing my homework if you're a student. I can't be cleaning the house. I can't be doing work. I can't be doing other chores. I can't be watching TV. I can't be writing a book and so on and so forth. There is an opportunity cost to every single decision that you make and every activity that you participate in. In essence, I think rather than a time allocation problem, what most people face is a prioritization problem. Think about it this way.

In the same way most Americans and many around the world don't have an income problem. It's more of an allocation problem in time. Management is the same thing. Most individuals I find through all my coaching have an inability to make decisions on the most important things in their lives and isn't that just so ironic because if they're not proactively addressed, society and the universe around you will make those decisions for you.

And this is just like my episode from last week on Living a Pinball Life, where I discussed how so many out there, instead of playing the game of pinball and mastering it, let the game master themselves and become so overcome by the distractions that the game throws at them that they are unable even when close to mastering

even the most simple aspects of the game. And our lives are so much just like that. And time management makes up a huge component of it, especially when we don't prioritize it. So I then have to ask, are you allowing your boss, media companies, advertisements, your spouse, your kids, or anyone else to make their priorities, your priorities?

Do they even line up with what you value? Having worked with lots and lots of leaders and entrepreneurs over the year, there are a few common things that I hear come up every single time. I don't have time to work out. I don't have time to read and better myself. I don't have time to listen to a podcast. I don't have time to continually learn.

I don't have time to look into finances and plan out my 401k or where I'm going to allocate my retirement money. I don't even have time to keep myself organized. How in the world am I going to spend more time to mediate, spend time with God, spend time with the universe, do yoga when I can't even find time to do the most basic things in my life today. Problem for so many is they want to have time for these things, but they just have other things that are more urgent in the moment. And this is something I have talked about time and time again. People value what is urgent so much more than what is really important and the main thing that could truly make their

life different, more positive, achieve so many of the aspirations that they want. So I want to give you three ways that you can recognize and address if you have a time problem. First is step back and take a look at your life and think about what is most important for you. Realize you have control over your life, your choices, how you allocate your time and what you give it to. Secondly, get rid of the unimportant things.

Be commit to those things that are cluttering up your life. I often call it doing the mosquito audit. Another episode that I did previously, if you wanna go back and hear that one out, but there are people, activities, interests, and other things that are consuming your time, that are taking you down paths of being time sucks for activities that are not leading you anywhere,

instead of activities that can take you to where you aspire to be. And the first step in achieving that is to audit those things out and to start making some short-term changes. And the last way to do this is to have a mentor or coach who you can be completely honest with. You can find out by working with them, do you really have a time issue?

And if so, what do you do about it? And then can keep you honest and keeping you on track and helping you prioritize. That's why when I talk about the passion strike process, I talk about the first two important steps are a setting your current brutal reality and then prioritizing the steps that you want to take to get out of it. When you do that, you will realize that prioritization and allocation can lead to a much more robust and efficient allocation of it. When you do that, you will realize that prioritization and allocation can lead to a much more robust and efficient allocation of time, allowing you actually to get more done and have much more free time than you could ever believe. Did you know that Forbes Magazine recently cited that 70% of

individuals who do personal development masterminds and one-on-one coaching benefited from better work performance, increased communication skills and overall better relationships. And we at PassionStruck are obsessed with self-development, coaching, and mentorship. That is why we've created a free resource to help you unlock your hidden potential. Because people doing great things in business and

life are just like you, only they've had a coach along the way. And we've got that covered too. Let us show you the systems and frameworks that we teach for both minded individuals to help them step into their sharp edges, execute on their passion journeys and get predictable results time and time again. Go to passionstruck.com slash coaching right now and let's get igniting. So now I'm going to give you some of the most common time-waisters. Those things that keep us from getting the most important things in our lives done. Are you ready to hear them? Well, the number one thing is watching TV.

Did you know the average American spends over five hours a day doing just that? Can you imagine that? If you go back to that 888 cycle I talked about, where eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, eight hours of living your life, and five hours of that 24 hour cycle are allocated for the average person watching TV.

The second one is reading and surfing the internet. The third is running common errands. The fourth is driving or traveling or commuting to and from work or in work related activities. The next is non-productive reading. This is reading things that absolutely have no bearing on what is important in your life. A six-area in your life where you may be wasting time

is getting ready, or playing video games, or consuming the news, or doing inefficient cleaning or housework, and I could keep going on and on. But that will give you some ideas where you can think about in your own life. What are some major time sucks for you that are keeping you from doing things that are important to you and important in growing your passion? And don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting here bashing all these activities. We all need leisure in our life. We all need to do some of the things that I'm talking about like running errands.

We all watch TV. It's how you perfect those habits in your life so that you're allocating the time appropriately and prioritizing what matters most to you and matches where you want to go in your life for your so be it. In fact, being intentional about conscientiously participating in all the activities that I mentioned above can actually be quite entertaining when you do it. The second technique that we can use for time management

is changing the way that we talk about not having enough time. Consider this, how often have you heard someone say, I don't have enough time to spend with my wife and kids because I'm working too much. But if you're truly honest with yourself, your reality is probably something more like this. I could spend time with my kids, but doing work is a greater priority for me

than spending time with them. Doesn't sound too good, does it? Or how many times have you heard this? I would exercise, but I'm way too busy and I don't have time for that. Instead, why don't you look at it this way? Exercise is just not a priority for me. I would rather spend my time reading, watching TV,

circling the web, or doing just about anything else than that. And when you look at it in those different ways, it really does make, how you're managing your time look completely different, doesn't it? The other thing that creeps up, when you start looking at time and what people are doing it is examining two people who have equal responsibility, whereas one doesn't seem like they have time for anything, and the other seems to have just plenty of time to live their life outside of that responsibility. Think about surgical residents, or it could be two new attorneys working in one of the big law firms, in both cases, they're working tons and tons of hours.

However, it always appears that one of them seems much more relaxed and free with their time. Why is that? Or it could be two graduate students, both in the same course, where one is completely stressed out with their time, and the other seems to be just handling it in stride. I believe in all these situations, it comes down to prioritization and organization. In essence, it's building and maintaining an efficient lifestyle, and this means removing the non-important from your life from those 24 hours. And that's one of the biggest ways that you can take back time and get out of the I don't have time syndrome.

To finish up, I want to reiterate, everyone has the same amount of time. We're each given the same 24 hours. Figure out what is most important to you, not what others think, not what others are doing, not what others are telling you, and make what is important to you the priority. Spend the time up front assessing your life and where you want to go. Prioritize and actually give yourself more free time in the long run. A lack of time is not the problem. Wasting time and filling your life with unimportant things is the problem. Thank you for spending time with me today on this episode of I don't have enough time and I hope through that discussion I was able to really give

you an overview of time management and why it is really about prioritization and assessing what you do with your time. Being present in the moment and being mindful about keeping what is important in your life, the main thing instead of what is urgent. And leading up to this episode, I covered a number of topics that you can go back and relisten to or rewatch our YouTube channel. I went over last week, how to stop living a pinball life. In the week before that, I discussed six ways that you could find your passion. And the episode part of that, I went over the power of choice.

But everything I'm trying to do is to continue to build up and you activities and mindset shifts that you can start doing that can take you further and further down this path of achieving a passion-struck life. And if you would really like some help along that path, we are here to help you. And if you are struggling with time management and figuring out how to assess and prioritize your life and getting yourself out of the rut you're in. We are here to help. That's what the PassionStruck brand is all about. I give these inspirational messages and

interviews to help give you tips along the way. But we are also here to give you individual coaching or if you own a business to help you build out the strategy, the prioritizations, to create a passion-struck culture as well. And like always, I wanna thank each and every one of you for taking the time because I realize how important it is. Time time with me, week in and week out, listening or watching this show.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And now go out and focus on what's important instead of what's urgent. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please subscribe

to the PassionStrike podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast ad. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes, and you're sharing it with three of your most growth-minded friends, so they can post it as well to their social accounts

and help us grow our PassionStrike community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our mission, you can go to passionstruck.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, look at our tools, and also download the show notes for today's episode. Additionally, you can listen to us every Tuesday and Friday for even more inspiring content. And remember, make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges. Thank you again for joining us. you