Become aware with how you spend your time.
With tons of distractions in front of us, mainly in the form of our phones, the internet, television and social media, we can find ourselves caught up and engaged with things that actually aren’t satisfying to our souls.
Even the creators of some social media apps discourage their own children from being consumed with what the world is falling prey too. So why do we not see the damage these addicting forms of entertainment can be for ourselves?
I challenge you to do something I’ve caught wind of from either a book I read or a podcast I heard on creating good habits, and that is to track what you do with your time. Our phones have the ability to track our use of apps on them and that can be a good starting place, maybe even a good wake up call.
Now take your recorded information and subtract the time spent on things just for your entertainment, not forgetting that almost all social media is a form of entertainment.
Evaluate how you feel about the time you are giving away to things that only bring you temporary satisfaction. If you don’t like how you’ve been spending your time, then take time to list out all the activities you’d rather be doing with your time instead.
For myself, this was engaging in a good book, studying Mandarin, connecting well with family and friends, attending a gardening class with my husband and picking up my guitar again. It was an evaluation of the lifestyle I wanted to live that brought me joy, good memories, purpose and living my life fully.
When we choose to focus on how we really want to live and what types of choices we want to make that build up our lives well, we will begin to leave behind those things meant to steal our energy and time.
Live your life well and start today.