Time!! Time!! Time!!

This has always been a pet peeve of mine. I’ve noticed it even more in just the last few weeks. I hear people say over and over, “I don’t have time for this.” They never seem to be able to get to this errand or that errand. A wise man once said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

I gave a friend this software 3 years ago for use in his business. I explained it all to him. He kept saying that I didn’t understand because I didn’t own my own business like he did. He just did NOT have the time to try it out. I would respond by re-explaining to him how useful it would be to him, how easy it was to use and how much time he would save. He would only mumble a half-hearted promise to try it out on the second Tuesday of the following week.

Fast forward to last month. He calls me on a Thursday evening and he informs me that he needs to use this software for a job and he needs to have it ready at 8AM Friday. I was on the phone with him for 2 hours (I should’ve just driven down there and done it for him) and we got a small percentage of it done. He became fairly competent with it in that time believe it or not. Long story short, he got an extension and I helped him over the weekend. Afterwards, he had a new respect for the software.

Everyone wakes to the same sun. Everybody falls asleep to the same moon. (Don’t give me any crap about the North Pole) Everyone gets 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 12 months in a year. And they tell you, “Well, you don’t understand, you’re not as busy as I am.” Fuck you!! Everyone is busy in their own way. Spouse, kids, work, so on and so on. No one HAS time to spend on this or that unless you’re a teen spending your last free summer between High School and University. But if something is important to you…you MAKE time. “But Bhagwan Joe,” you say, “you just told us that everyone gets the same amount of time. How could one just MAKE time?” I’ll tell you how and it doesn’t involve a Flux Capacitor or Phase Inducer. You make time in your day for lunch with a friend. You make time in your day to attend your son’s baseball game. You make time in your day to watch the Food Network.

This past weekend, I was part of an extremely disorganized graduation party. They hadn’t given the DJ a list of music (not a single song) prior to the event, the powerpoint presentations of the grads were a disaster and they kept giving the poor caterers contradictory instructions. It turned out well but the parents who were supposedly in charge had NO time for anything prior to the event. One was a surgeon and could only meet with one of the vendors for five minutes, in the hospital parking lot. The other three were busy…I dunno…running Microsoft, balancing the State budget and/or running for President, I’m guessing. I swear they reminded me of the Wizard of Oz because one needed a brain, the other a heart and the other some courage. Idiots. “I’m too busy.” “I have no time.”

Think about it. If one of these persons was going to get married or graduate or even fuel up your car, they’d do it. They’d make time. They’d find a way to fit it into their schedule. That block of time would be cleared in their smartphone or their Franklin Covey organizer. It all comes down to priorities. If something is important to you, you make time for it, you make time for someone.