“No such thing as spare time.
No such thing as free time
No such thing as down time.
All you got is life time.
Go.”
-Henry Rollins
If you “don’t have time” for “this” or “that” today, you might as well just stop reading right now because you’re about to get monkey stomped. I acknowledge life is chaotic these days. Most of us are exposed to a constant influx of info and comms via smartphone, computer, heads up displays, smart watches, and pagers, of which a small percentage is mission critical. I’ll be the first to admit it is impossible to keep up with everything.
I know I’m not the only one. I can’t tell you how many times in conversation I hear someone say:
“I DON’T HAVE TIME”
Those words are like nails on a chalkboard for me. That’s fucking bull-shit. You don’t have time? Everyone has time. It’s a shame people don’t take ownership of it. The, “I don’t have time” movement perpetuates the “victim” mentality plaguing our culture today. I have no patience for it. “Someone took my time away”, “I don’t have it.” Fuck that.
These are the same people who in the same breath will ask if you watched the F·R·I·E·N·D·S series finale rerun this week. I’m calling bull-shit on, “not having time”. GFY.
Be a man, woman, grown up; take accountability for your inability to manage your time. Or, better yet, acknowledge that whatever you didn’t have time for wasn’t a priority over what you spent your time doing instead. You better hope your boss agrees the F·R·I·E·N·D·S series finale is more important than your TPS report. I know mine does.
At PAHQ, our days are no different than those of the common folk. We have lives, families, and extracurricular commitments. We have to train, test programs, coach, take phone calls, write blogs, run accounting, travel, build software, brush our teeth, get our hair cut, raise kids, feed dogs, do yard work and most importantly SLEEP. Life is busy. Life is chaotic. There’s no good way to get anything done any more. But we all make time for our training; typically we’re getting a full day of Field Strong in. But when life creeps in and starts to take over, then we mortgage our time and take advantage of the “flex training” schedule found in Grindstone. Either way, we make time.
But I don’t let anyone here get away with that, “I don’t have time” bull-shit; not even John. Our people own up and take accountability. We aren’t victims; we don’t fall prey to excuses like sheep to wolves. We are the fucking wolves. We all have roles and responsibilities and when projects are assigned and deadlines approach, our people either get shit done, or they don’t. And on the rare occasion something flops, we never get to claim we “don’t have time.” We own up and acknowledge we didn’t make the time. Then we need to account for how, exactly, our time was allocated. You can ask any member of the team, if something sits on my desk I’ll be the first to say, “I didn’t make time for it.”
Do yourself a favor, drop the, “I don’t have time.” phrase from your vernacular. Take ownership. The sooner you do, the sooner you’ll learn how to manage your time. Power Athletes aren’t victims; they fall prey to nothing. They are wolves. No more saying, “I don’t have time.”
You have a life time.
Go.
Tagged: Aggressive / Field Strong / Grindstone / Life / Opinion / Time Managemnt
AUTHOR
John
John Welbourn is CEO of Power Athlete and host of Power Athlete Radio. He is a 9 year starter and veteran of the NFL. John was drafted with the 97th pick in 1999 NFL Draft and went on to be a starter for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999-2003, appearing in 3 NFC Championship games, and for starter for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2004-2007. In 2008, he played with the New England Patriots until an injury ended his season early with him retiring in 2009. Over the course of his career, John has started over 100 games and has 10 play-off appearances. He was a four year lettermen while playing football at the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Rhetoric in 1998. John has worked with the MLB, NFL, NHL, Olympic athletes and Military. He travels the world lecturing on performance and nutrition and records his podcast, Power Athlete Radio, every week with over 800 episodes spanning 13 years. You can catch up with John as his personal blog, Talk To Me Johnnie, on social media @johnwelbourn or at Power Athlete Radio.
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I totally want to read this, but I don’t have time.
@ingo oh you’re so funny and stole my line! Dick
@luke great article thanks
Solid article. Stop spending time updating Facebook and Instagram (or even worse, trawling through hundreds of useless updates about nothing) and get the job done.
Yea sure, I’ll remember this article when I’m up 24, 42, sometimes 72 hours because of my job. You GFY.
didn’t you choose your job?
Summers spits straight fire.
The “victim” mentality plaguing our culture today.
May be the greatest and most accurate sentence I’ve read in a very long time.
This happened to me recently
Me: Hey mate hows the training going
Friend: I’m turning into a fat mess, I have no time to train…. But did you see the Game of Thrones Finale, I watched an entire season before the finale, just to get ready for it.
Me: (Walks away)
Hell yes bro. Love it.
@luke F’ing AWESOME article. You made my morning. Simple, tell it like it is–truth. Well stated and a touch of humor. I love you guys (that most certainly includes @Cali)
Is this article open to gen pop?
yep
“This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
My boss definitely agrees that any FRIENDS episode takes precedence over anything I have sitting on my desk. #priorities
Great article, @luke!
I’ve even gone to the far extreme, and this quote from Thoreau stays with me, “Nothing can be more useful to a man than the determination not to be hurried.”
That perspective helps me always have/make the time.
I’m not really a big quote guy, nor am I a good liar, but this one popped into my head after reading this post:
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abe Lincoln
“Accept mediocrity once and that’s all you’ll ever get” Quote my grandma.
“Don’t ever be a victim” Quote my mum
The two things I constantly heard as a kid from the ladies in my life. Legends
Good article. I find myself saying this more and more the less time I have in a day. I can sit there and feel sorry for myself and make excuses or I can just stfu and get shit done. Excuses are like assholes, everyones got um, and if you’ve got more than one you have a problem.
That’s a good word.
When did everyone become SO judgemental? You don’t walk in others peoples shoes…you walk in your own. Could people do more in their day? Probably…but some people are just hanging on day by day. Some people have to work – did they choose their jobs? Well DUH, of course…but some don’t get to have the job they would love, they have the job that puts food on the table and a roof over their families head. At the end of the day, you’re right…its each individuals decision to either do something or not…like it was yours to try and shame people who are just ‘hanging on’…Well done, you must be SO proud!
Linda, the article is encouraging individuals to take ownership of their choices rather than assume the role of a victim.
The sooner one takes ownership the sooner they’ll decide whether the effort required to make change is worth it. If it’s not, good on them, they’ve made that choice.
And there is no shame in choosing family or work over training, work, or anything else. That’s a choice to make time for the former, and not make time for the latter. It’s not the wrong choice, just acknowledge you made it, that’s all.
Personal accountability is hard to find these days, that’s the real shame.
Denzel and talking about wolves reminded me of this. Great article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnNT6zceYEM
GREAT FLICK Montalvo! Thanks for reading.
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