And yet again, I ran out of time ⏰

On any given day, I have in my mind a list of things I want to accomplish. These things will include work tasks and projects, but also stuff that needs to be done because I’m a mother, plus house chores and personal stuff. I might start the day with a well meaning intention that that evening, come nine o’clock, I will be doing something that’s not an obligation. Taxi servicing will have ceased, kitchen will be tidy, emails will be sent, and my time is my own.

Time for an honest reflection.

Nine times out of ten, I fail.

I’m not telling you this because I want you to think I am a productivity hero, but because there is an important lesson about time here.

There is never enough time.

You will never get to the bottom of your obligations.

Every day, every season has its limitations.

I am learning the profound truth that if I continue to slog through responsibilities and to-do lists, and I don’t alter my unhealthy relationship with time, I will continue to try and control it, and yet it will inevitably remain my taskmaster.

No mere mortal has ever won a fight against time.

We just get the limited time we get, and the limited control over it that we get.

In the words of Oliver Burkeman - “If you spend your life fighting the truth of this situation, all that happens is that you feel more rushed and overwhelmed and impatient – until one day time decisively wins the fight, as it was always destined to do. (In other words: you die.)”

So, instead of trying to control it, what can we do instead?

Embrace our limits. I’ve written about this before and I’ll write about it again.

Every day has its limits.

Every person has its limits.

Every season has its limits.

Rather than constantly pushing against them (like I know I do at times), rather than doing whatever we can to trick the system or max out the time we have, there is freedom in actually stopping to accept that we are humans with limits.

We are incredible and can achieve and be so much, but we also have limits. Some things can’t be done without a cost to something else - there’s a limit.

What are the limits of your personality?

What are the limits of your season?

What are the limits of this very day?

There’s something incredible freeing about going through this process. It can be as freeing as the important work of removing some of the unnecessary limitations we keep placing upon ourselves.

(Time is not one of those by the way and we need to stop fracking for it).

I hope this encourages you to give yourself a break and take a moment to accept, and indeed, embrace the limitations on your life.

Love,

Hannah x