Monday Mindset: Bending Time

These are short , little snippets of thoughts , reflections that I share with you on a weekly basis , that are focused around mindset things that we can do to live our best lives , to live an intentional life , and I invite you to not just listen to these for yourself and how they apply to you and your life , but consider sharing them with other people too .

Consider sharing them with your students every Monday and having a conversation about it and doing a reflection together , because I think a lot of these thoughts , these topics , these questions are just a part of being human , and sometimes being human can feel lonely and to know that other people are struggling through some of the same challenges that you are and are

benefiting from having these types of conversations is hugely powerful in allowing us to get to be the best version of ourselves , to take who we are and who we be and who we show up in the world as to that next level . So I really hope that you enjoy these Monday Mindsets and , if you do , let us know over on our Instagram at ebacademics .

Thanks so much for listening and let's dive into our Monday Mindset . All right , you guys are probably like bending time . Really , caitlin , where are we going with these Monday Mindsets on the podcast ? But I think that this is really going to be helpful for a lot of you . Raise your hand in the abyss of wherever you're listening to this podcast episode .

If you've ever said to yourself I don't have enough time to do that , fill in the blank . I don't have enough time to fill in the blank . I say this all the time . I don't have enough time to eat vegetables . If you know me , I don't have enough time to make dinner . I don't have enough time to eat .

I wish I could just sit here and someone could put a drink in front of me that had all the nutrients , everything . I could just drink it so I could just keep working right , because I love it so much . And we all make this excuse of time .

But how could we look at time differently to actually harness the power of time , to actually maybe have a little bit of control over time ? And I think I believe it comes down to thinking about time from the perspective of .

Time is not an outside force impacting you If you look at it from a perspective of it's an internal thing that I am the source of time . I am the source of time because , when all is said and done , you always think about this . We always make time for that which is important to us . We always make time for that which is important to us .

And you sit back and you think about what are the things that I make time for in my life . I think about what are my non-negotiables in life . Then , going to the gym Hands down , non-negotiable . Don't even try to talk to me about it . I will be at the gym every single day . It is a non-discussion point .

And so , for me , I will bend time , I will figure out a way to make sure that I am going to the gym for an hour every single day , no matter what has to happen . So , for me , I don't have time . To go to the gym is no longer me relinquishing my power to time , which , let's be honest , it's the only thing that we cannot get more of .

We cannot get more of time . I'll talk about that in just a second . But I'm not giving my power away to time .

Instead , I'm harnessing the power of my desires , of the things that I actually want to accomplish , of the things that actually are important to me , and I am figuring out a way to make it happen and , by the way in which I do that , it's a practical thing that you can do is I schedule in to my calendar on a weekly basis .

So , if you're planning using the batch planning method , I schedule in the things of that which are important to me . So , for example , my husband is going out of town this week , so I'm responsible for the household duties . Granted , I only have one kid . I don't know what it's like to have two . I don't know what it's like to have four .

I have a kid and now a dog . I had two dogs , but now I have one , and I can't go to the gym at six am , like I normally do , because I'm taking old school . Well , you better believe I am figuring out a way to go to the gym regardless .

I'm changing my calendar here , I'm making this adjustment there , and I'm doing that in advance , because that is something that is of incredible value and importance to me . So I am making myself the source of time for this thing that I care about .

So you can think about this in the same way for you and your life and the things that are super important to you . How can you bend time in that way to make it work for you . And I think that a lot of us look at time from this constraint perspective . How many of us say like I wish there were just more hours in a day .

I wish I just had more time , there were more hours in a day . But we're not gaining anything by saying that Nothing's changing , by saying that what's happening instead is we're kind of blaming time for why we're not able to do what we wanna do . And this is something that I call radical responsibility , that I am very passionate about .

I am responsible for my life . I'm not gonna be a victim to anything . Timing one of those things , external sources , circumstances , forces , whatever . Yes , there are things that are difficult . Yes , there are things that are hard , but I'm not gonna be a victim to them . And so here with time , I'm not blaming time for why I can't do what I wanna do .

Instead , I'm harnessing the power of how I get to figure out a way to bend time in my favor , because what happens is time limits what's possible for you . When you say I don't have enough time to do this , you're limiting what's possible for you . You're putting a constraint on your future .

I did this for forever , until really this past year , where I started to look at harnessing time differently . So , if you think about the instances in your life where you are in a flow state , you're just dialed in , you're having fun , right ? We all hear the phrase time flies when you're having fun because you're in that enjoyment , fun , flow state .

We also all know what time feels like when it drags on forever . It's like watching water boil , right . However , whatever project we're working on , that is miserable , right . Or when I'm on a plane , it's like time feels like it lasts forever because I don't wanna be there . I'd rather be anywhere else in the world , right , because I'm afraid of flying .

And so I think about those instances . Well , how can I harness the power of those thoughts , those feelings and those ways of being to actually have time working my favor ? And so what I will do is I will create a constraint around time to operate in my favor . Let me tell you what I mean by this .

Let's say that I have a set amount of tasks that I need to complete within a day , but man , I'm looking at that calendar and all that to-do list . I'm like dude , that is gonna take me my entire day . Well , what I've just done is I've put in my brain the thought that this is gonna take me my entire day . And guess what's gonna happen ?

It's probably gonna take me my entire day because that's what I've told myself . That's the reality that I'm subconsciously just gonna go create for myself .

But if I look at that to-do list and I look at it from curiosity , I say huh , I wonder if I took these tasks and these tasks and grouped them together and I turned on music and I set a timer for an hour and I pushed go , how much faster am I gonna work ? How much more efficient am I gonna be ?

How much more am I gonna actually harness the power of time constraints to make myself operate in a quicker way to get this done so that I can actually leave at 3.30 to go get my son from school as opposed to picking him up at 5.30 .

And I'm drained and exhausted because I allowed the day to drag on because of the belief that I told myself before I sat down to even do it . So it's again as we're kind of going into this radical way of thinking in 2024 on the podcast . This is a radical way of thinking about bending time and if you're able to harness the power of time in your favor .

No longer is . I don't have time and excuse . You set non-negotiables , you set parameters , you turn on music , you set a timer and you get into that flow state so you can operate at a high level for a short burst of time and then you're not constrained by time outside of that .

So we're almost using constraints to eliminate constraints , which I think is really cool . So I hope that that's helpful for you . If you have any takeaways from this , please share over on our Instagram at Ebay Academic . Send me a direct message . I'm the one responding in our direct messages .

I would love to hear from you and your thoughts on this , and if you're like dude Caitlyn , this is just a no from me I invite you to think about why . Why is that the thought that you're having ? How is it , in a way , how is that maybe not serving you ? I guess would be my question . I always think about that .

If I'm resistant to something or I'm like I don't know about that , what is that about myself that's making me think that , and is there maybe something that I can learn about myself from having that thought ? So , really just being aware of the thoughts that we're telling ourselves on a consistent basis to bring about peace in our own lives .

All right , hopefully this serves you . Here's to another great week of living intentionally .