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I’ve heard a lot recently variations on this phrase:

“I don’t have time to learn how to…”, followed by topics from statistics to cooking to reading to marketing.

Office clock

The reality should read more like this phrase:

“I am unwilling to make the time to learn how to…”, followed by the topics. The reality is that there is likely time each day. There may not necessarily be a lot of time, but there are a few minutes here and there. There are times such as commutes. There are times such as breaks. There are leisure times that you could temporarily repurpose to learn what would help you move forward, from TV to video games to other activities. You could even temporarily accept a loss of a few minutes of sleep by waking up earlier in order to make the progress that you need to make.

More important, when you rephrase “I don’t have” to “I am unwilling to make”, you take ownership of the problem. You redefine it as a conscious choice rather than as something circumstantial, which in turn gives you the power to make a change, to make a decision, to make a different choice.

What could you make the time for? What would be worth making the time for?


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