You Will Find The Time To Do What You Want To Do

I read this sentence about 9 months ago and was affronted by its bluntness. “You don’t understand,” I wanted to yell at the author who wrote it! “That is just the problem, I DON’T have the time to do what I want to do!”

Then an unexpected thought crept into my head. “What if he is right?” I blinked, scowled, and then let the phrase plunk into the depths of my subconscious and waited.

“Is he right? It can’t be that simple! I mean I have real things that are really taking up my time! I don’t even watch TV; how could I be wasting my time?”

Then I started to notice things. I noticed myself having unscheduled hours here and there. I also noticed I had a habit of scheduling my days with events just so I would stay busy. I noticed I committed to things just because they were good things and other people needed me.

I found myself dawdling on Facebook, or obsessively checking email, constantly looking at Instagram pictures, or texting people when I didn’t know what to do with myself.

I just generally wasted time.

“Rats, he is right!” I begrudgingly admitted. “I do have the time to do what I want to do!”

The real problem Isn’t that we don’t have time. It is this: we are afraid.

I was afraid to commit. I was afraid to face my fears. I was afraid to figure out what I really wanted in life. I was afraid to make a decision and move in a direction.

It is easier to complain than to take action and do something. Action takes guts.

You see when you do things you stand out. You are held accountable and people see you. This is a place many people never venture. It is easier to blend into the crowd. You don’t get criticized there. People don’t question your decisions or see you fall because, well, you never fall.

But if you never fall, you also never have the privilege of getting back up. Your story has no depth, no draw. You just become a non-remembered person.

If we know what we want, then we can do the things which will get us to the place we truly want to go! It is that easy.

I did find the time to do what I wanted to do and I continue to do so. I now get up very early, commit to less activities, plan farther in advance, and plan my free time very precisely.

And the wonderful and truly fascinating thing is I am making progress!!!!! And progress is truly the most fulfilling feeling in the world! I am writing a book one word, one paragraph, one page, and one picture at a time. And it is happening!!!

Here is a progress update:

My writing is complete with the first editing also complete. I realized with my last book, the editing and formatting can take a huge chunk of time, much longer than you think it will.

I am illustrating this book myself which has been fascinatingly fun and scary. The illustrations are almost complete. (Does anyone have advice on transferring artwork to a book? Let me know in the comments!)

I contacted two printers and asked them both many questions about the printing process and then picked the better option.

I now need to transfer my documents from Google Docs to Scrivener for additional editing. I didn’t realize when I started, Google Docs is great for small documents but very poor for writing a book.

Question: Do you have a message you want to get out to the world? Have you ever considered writing a book?

p.s. I have never shared so openly about a project before and I will tell you after it is done whether this was helpful or not. So far, the extra pressure of other people knowing what I am doing has given me an extra push to speed up the process. I do know keeping the idea quiet until the project was well underway was a very good thing!