The Have To's and the Want To's

When you're young, you pretty much do what you want to with your time every day, but then something happens. You grow up. You acquire obligations. To Do Lists. You have to work. Or maybe you have school work to complete. And so the things you most want to do get pushed to the back of the shelf, behind everything else that's more important, and when you structure your time, there's no room for the "want to's." In fact, they won't even be visible anymore. This is a mistake, in my opinion, because you never forget what used to make you happy, and you'll resent the new responsibilities that have crowded these things out of your life.    

Guilt. You know this voice, right?"You can't __________(fill in the blank) today because you have to go to work, buy groceries, clean the house, do the laundry, do your assignment, mow the yard. . ." The list is endless. You've heard the saying: "Work first, play later." But what if you work all the time, and there's no free time? What if by the time you finish "the have to's" you're too exhausted for the "want to's"? There has to be a balance. Otherwise, you won't be very happy.

I'm not saying you should ditch the demands of life and act irresponsibly. What I'm saying is, don't let daily demands take over every minute of your day and night. How many of us never squander our time? I don't think too many. And the culprit behind this "wasting time" is often because we don't want to do something, so we do nothing.

What if you scheduled time every day to do what you wanted? Maybe then the "Have to's" wouldn't seem so bad. Even a small amount of time could make a difference. Twenty minutes. A half hour. Even an hour. And when the voice of guilt tries to convince you it's wrong to take that time, ignore it. Listen to your inner voice. It's usually right.