[Neurons] 2009 Meta Reflections #51

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Meta Reflections #51

November 23, 2009

 

 

 

DO YOU HAVE TIME 

OR DOES TIME "HAVE" YOU?

 

 

Some people live their lives in such a way that they feel victimized by
time.   How about you?  Do you ever feel victimized by time?   Have you ever
suffered from time victimization?  I'm amazed at how many people are, and
how many feel, victimized by time.  And how would you know if you have
experienced this?  Some of the signs of time victimization are statements
such as the following: 




"I don't have enough time."   "There's never enough time."

"Time just gets away from me and I'm left running from one project to the
next, doing things in a way that means that they are incomplete or far below
the quality with which I want to do them."

"I need to balance my work and life.  It is all out of balance."

"Time stresses me out and by the end of the day (or week) I feel drained of
my vitality."

 

I'm especially amazed by it when people frame their choice in terms of
"work-life balance."  The very phrase work-life balance seems to fragment
time into either work or life.  And in doing so, it seems to generate the
classic zero-sum game so that it puts a person on the horns of a dilemma as
if a person has to choose one or the other.  What if there are other choices
about this?

 

Now, at one level, all of this is an expression of unsanity.  After all,
there is no such thing as "time" as an external force, let alone a force
seeking to victimize you.  Minutes are not vicious.  Hours are not
horrendous horrors that lurk around in the dark seeking to do harm.  If no
one else will speak up for minutes, hours, or even days, then I will.  They
have done nothing wrong.  They have been blamed and scapegoated when all
along they have been minding their own business and not trespassing on your
responsibilities at all.  So leave them alone!

 

The problem here is actually two-fold: first, your frame about time and
second, your ineffective use of scheduling events.

 

While these, and many other statements, indicate a sense of being a victim
of time (as if time was a thing and consciously chose to do things to
people), they also indicate an either-or thinking that there's a dichotomy
between work and home life or relationship, and that the choice was one of
either-or.  The zero-sum game presupposed by these statements position work
and life-outside-of-work as a see-saw- as one goes up the other goes down.
More for one means less for the other.

 

One frame by implication here is that less of one is better for the other.
No wonder this way of framing things inevitably sets up an internal
conflict-personal life or work.  One or the other.  Which will it be?

 

There's a solution to this.   Using Self-Actualization Psychology, the
solution is to create a holistic synergy of the two.  Instead of
dichotomizing work and home (work and play) as opposites, we seek instead to
create a synergy from both.  In this case, we seek to think about work as an
enjoyable part of a well-rounded life, and a well-rounded life including a
way to express one's talents and competencies in one's work and source of
wealth creation.  Instead of viewing "time" as a scarce resource, you can
create an integrated view that focuses on using your energies effectively
for the people and the work you care about.  And when you frame things in
that way, you can now ask a whole new series of questions.

How can I make my personal life more effective and satisfying?

How can I improve the quality of both my relationships and work at the same
time?

How can I tear down the artificial boundaries between work and family?

 

Peter Drucker (1967/ 2006) in his classic The Effective Executive, says,
"Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a
time." (p. 100).  About this kind of concentration he says we first need to
focus on doing well one thing at a time.  Drucker also comments that a busy
person is an ineffective person. 

"It is concentration in which all faculties are focused on one achievement.
Few people can perform with excellence three major tasks simultaneously.
Concentration is necessary precisely because the executive faces so many
tasks clamoring to be done.   This is the 'secret' of those people who 'do
so many things' and apparently so many difficult things.  They do only one
at a time." (p. 103)

 

In September of this year (2009) I was back in Colorado for a few days and I
heard a report on National Radio Broadcast of an interview with a researcher
on multi-tasking.  His primary discovery was that multi-tasking impairs
cognitive functions.  His research had shown that it actually lowers a
person's IQ by 11 points.  When you multi-task and make it a habitual way of
operating, you become a sucker for irrelevant information and over time, it
results in you become slower and slower in changing tasks.

 

Time- are you the master of it or does it master you?  Is it your construct
or do you just represent and frame it in a way that leads you to giving all
of your power away to that idea?  Time, as a human construct, is just
that-something we invent and then forget that we invented it.  If that
describes you, then the first step to mastery over your sense of time is to
realize that it is your invention.  Do that and you can begin to change your
orientation to it as if it is a real thing out there.  Do that and you can
begin to learn how to manage your concept, your representations, and your
belief frames about "time."  And you can do so with energy, playfulness, and
vitality.

 

To your highest and best experiences in and with time!

 

 

 

 

Unleashing Leadership Workshop

 

The latest book in the Self-Actualization Series and in the Meta-Coach
series is Unleashing Leadership: Self-Actualizing Leaders and Companies
(2009).   As a leadership development workshop, discover how to identify
your leadership potentials and unleash them --- whether for self-leadership
or leadership in an opportunity that awaits you.

 

Dec. 11-13, Imola, Italy

            Sponsored by Bless You --- Nicola Riva and Lucia Giovannini

            Nicola at blessyou.it 

            Special gathering on Dec. 14 for Meta-Coaches and NS trainers 

at the home of Nicola and Lucia.

 

 

 

 

--- Meta-Coach Trainings coming 2009 - 2010

                        

1) Australia

       November 19, 20-27 - Coaching Mastery.  Sydney, Australia

      Sponsors: Laureli Blyth and Heidi Heron                  

      Heidi at nlpworldwide.com              Laureli at nlpworldwide.com 

 

 

2) China --- 2010

      Meta-Coaching in two parts --   January 17-22 and May 9-14  (6 days
each time): 

Includes also Module II (Coaching Genius).  

            Guangzhou, China:  Sponsor: Team Huang --- supported by
Neuro-Semantic Trainers: 

Mandy Chai and Wilkie Choi   For Chinese---   yeshow at 163.net .  For English
speakers: 

Mandy Chai: chaimansun at yahoo.com.hk 

 

 

3) Mexico --- 2010

     In two parts --- March 4-7 (March 3 for Team Leaders) and April 15-18
(April 14 for Team Leaders). 

     Sponsor: Salom Change Dynamics-  www.salomchd.com  (55) 30930687 ---
emilia at salomchd.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

(ISNS) International Society of Neuro-Semantics

The International Meta-Coach System

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA

1 970-523-7877

      <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com 

       <http://www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com/>
www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com 

       <http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

       <http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org

       <http://www.ns-video.com/> www.ns-video.com 

 

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Hall are sent out every Monday and meta-Coach Reflections sent out every
Wednesdday to the Meta-Coaches egroup.  Contact Dr. Hall at  meta@ acsol.net


 

 

 

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