Make (small) time for what you love

There are so many things that we wish we could do. How many times have we told ourselves “if only I had more time to.... “ regarding something that we really love to spend time doing. For some that maybe reading books or writing, or spending time in nature, or some may want to develop their skills in their hobby like photography or any form of art. But due to a demanding job schedule or maybe because of family routine, we often can’t spend time in these passions that we have. And we resort to lamenting over the circumstances of life that are preventing us from chasing our interests.

But there’s a pitfall we commonly fall into. We focus so much on the time that we don’t have, that we lose sight of the time that we do have, even though that available time may be small.

For example, you may have a lot of interest in writing and have set up a blog. You envision yourself as a writer who churns out awesome, thoughtful long reads that can engage your readers. But hectic work/personal/family schedule doesn’t give you the long stretches of free time that you’re probably looking for. So you keep focusing on the fact that you don’t have that sort of time at your disposal.

But if you shift your perspective and accept the reality of your current circumstances, and instead of looking for long stretches of writing time, make use of the small pockets of time that you may have to yourself for writing, then you can actually produce a few lines from time to time. Now, that’s small progress compared to what you are hoping for, but it’s progress nonetheless. Interestingly, you will find that although these sessions are short in duration, you can find these short amounts of time on a more frequent basis. So small investments of time but on a consistent basis will soon add up. So coming up with that article that you want to write may not be done in a day, but at least you can get it done in a week or so. Even though this outcome is slow, isn’t it way better than just complaining and producing nothing in months?

The same can be applied for any field you may be interested in developing. May be you want to nurture a relationship with someone but can’t find time to go and visit. But at least you can make a habit of making a quick call from time to time. Perhaps you want to develop mindfulness or cultivate your spiritual and religious practices. Mark out just 5 to 10 minutes from your day to develop the practice. Don’t have enough time to head to the gym and workout for an hour? Too bad, but what’s stopping you from spending just 10 minutes each day to take a walk outside or do some stretches at home? You always wanted to read more books, so instead of targeting to read 10 pages everyday, which you're finding very hard to achieve, why not go for just 1 page? Yes, it will take a lot more time now to finish the book, but hey, at least you're reading now, right? Over time, these tiny but frequent practices will build up and bring you closer to the goals you aim for.

So make time, no matter how short, for the things that you love.