Time is an interesting thing. We claim we need more of it, suffer from a lack of it, waste it, and say it goes by too fast. We measure it, mark it on calendars and celebrate its passing. But what is really going on with this thing we call time? Of course, clock time is necessary for practical day to day matters. What I am really referring to is psychological time – this is the dwelling in our minds on the past or the future. The act of which creates suffering and inhibits our ability to be present in this moment. This is important to understand because the efficacy of our efforts depends on it.
As we start off this brand-new year, we have things we’d like to achieve or changes we’d like to make. When it comes to what you are seeking to achieve or habits you want to break, time is not what you need. As a matter of fact, it would serve us greatly to drop the idea of “needing time” to make any change a reality. We don’t need time to make a change, we need to take a different action in this moment, and then the next, and then the next. It is always only about the action we take right now and it’s always now. Can we find a case where this is not true? When we bring up the past or future, we are doing this mentally right now.
Where is the past or future? Only in our imagined mental picture show in which we replay scenarios or imagine future ones. How does this help us create a new way of acting and being? Of course it doesn’t. It keeps us from claiming our power in the present because our energy and focus is mentally tied up with ghosts of the past or projections of an unknown future.
In regards to making changes it can only be done in the present moment. New patterns, habits and growth come from the repeated action of a new behavior. This takes you in a different direction, one choice at a time in each present moment. Do this repeatedly and you will change your life. That’s it, no time required. The recipe is presence and awareness in the NOW plus the courage to choose a new action. We are creatures of habit. Letting go of ingrained ways of being, thinking and acting isn’t easy. That’s where the courage comes into play.
We either continue our patterned conditioned way of being and acting or alter the path by making a different choice in this moment. Time is not a factor at all. This is not hard to see, but it may be difficult to overcome our resistance to admitting it. We often put things off we know would serve us because it’s easier to talk about a transformation than to actually dive head first into one. Hence all the talk about when we get more time, or when things settle down, or any other number of time delay tactics we all use.
Let this be the year we stop using these tactics. One choice at a time we can take a step in the direction we want to move. Once we take the first step the next one is easier and then the momentum starts to build, carrying us in the direction of our goal. It all starts with that first step, taken right now, the only time there ever is. It’s always now. We do ourselves a disservice by thinking time is needed or waiting will make things easier, clearer or better.
If you know you want to eat better, lose weight, start a meditation practice, whatever it is – what would waiting do to make those things a reality in your life? Nothing. That’s the point. It’s an outdated story we are telling ourselves with no basis in truth. The conditioned self likes the status quo. It prefers to talk about change and growth but is not a big fan of action or dissolving its preferred comfortable patterns.
Real change of any kind has to move from mental thought to an action. Without action nothing changes. We could have a great understanding of nutrition and healthy eating, but if we don’t take any action on that knowledge, what good is it? Information, time and analysis without action are the death of your evolution.
Only action taken right now moves the needle. All the knowledge in the world won’t make a bit of difference if we don’t take a different action. Let this be the year for you to do whatever it is you’ve been sitting on, thinking about or waiting for the right time. The time for the change you want to make is now.
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