Episode 1018: Taking Responsibility for Your Time

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1018 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Guang Ming Whitley: I'm warming Whitley. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to build the skills to last a lifetime is key.

[00:00:22] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:29] Scott Maderer: but you can begin to look at your schedule this week and say, what are the things that are taking up too much of my time? That aren't the important things for me to be doing that maybe I can delegate or I can get rid of and dump, or I can just do and get more efficient. What do I need to do? What are the 10 things I can spend some time on this week that make next week better?

[00:00:54] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If [00:01:00] you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world

[00:01:20] in today's episode about investing in yourself by stewarding your time. I talk with you about how you need to take responsibility, but not accept. For your time also share five specific ways. You can begin to take responsibility for your time. And I share why this is an empowering way to face your time concerns as we talk about stewarding your time.

[00:01:44] Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it. Just taking too long. It turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come [00:02:00] back to support the show. Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/.

[00:02:10] Are you the one who's taking charge of your life or are you just reacting to it? That's one of those questions that I was asked pretty early on in my life. Somebody else asked me that and to tell you the truth at that point in my life, when I was younger, I was just reacting to it. I wasn't really taking control of my life.

[00:02:36] And that was literally what I was probably around 10, 11, 12 years old. And I began to think about this idea of taking responsibility for ourselves. And I've got friends. When I talk about taking self responsibility, one of the pushbacks that we get is about that means that you have to accept fault that it's your fault [00:03:00] and people will talk about it's not my fault, or I don't want to have it as being my fault.

[00:03:08] And the truth is that when your environment changes, when things happen to you, you always have a choice. You can either attribute those things that are happening, whether they're good, or whether they're bad to things that you have some sense of control over. Or you can say that these are things that come from outside.

[00:03:29] They're external forces. They're outside of my control. And I'm not saying that you can control everything. That's not the point. The point is there are things that happen to you that are completely outside of your control. And then there are things that are happening to you that are fully within your control.

[00:03:50] The difference. And the problem is when we don't recognize, which is which when we begin to give up control over things, that we [00:04:00] actually have some sense of control over. When we do that, we begin. To S to realize that we begin to create a victim mentality where everything happens to us, or we create a situation where we try to control everything, even those things that are completely uncontrollable and that creates frustration and fear and anger.

[00:04:27] See the difference about fault or responsibility is it about the past or the present? Whatever you take responsibility, you're saying, what action can I take now at this moment, regardless of what happened before, regardless of whether it was something that I could control or not, what am I going to do now?

[00:04:49] We're fault is usually about the past. It's about saying I've done this or this happened in the past, and this is the fault. This is where [00:05:00] the fault lies. It's a matter of whether you're past focused or future focused. Maybe if you look at this current situation and it's unfavorable, maybe something went wrong.

[00:05:15] And you say that it's your fault because you are seeing that as taking personal responsibility. But the truth is if you never moved to action, you're not really taking responsibility. You're wallowing in the faults. You're staying in the past. It's not a matter of saying, are you to blame? You may be to blame.

[00:05:39] You may not be to blame, but it is your responsibility regardless to take control and decide what action you're going to take in your life. So what are some of the ways that you can act actively take responsibility for your time and the way you use? Because [00:06:00] that's one area where we tend to struggle.

[00:06:04] One, you can actually look at your relationship with time with this same filter. Look at time as a way of what are you actively doing to take control of your time thing? Instead of things like I don't have enough time say, what can I do to make. More time. What can I do to choose differently, to prioritize differently, to say yes to, or say no?

[00:06:37] As part of that, you also have to stop blaming others. Don't look to whether or not other people have control over your time. Even if you're working an hourly job and you have to report to work and your boss tells you what time you show up and what time you go home. The truth is. Even there you have authority, you have action.

[00:06:58] My son right now is [00:07:00] working an hourly job and he's frustrated because at times they change his schedule. They don't call them up and ask him, they just change his schedule. And now he's I've got to show up and I point out to him. No, technically. You can choose not to. Now you may have consequences to that, and those may be consequences.

[00:07:16] You don't like, but you can also choose to get into their job. You can choose to have a proactive conversation with your boss and say, this isn't going to work. And this is how we have to do it. Instead. There's all sorts of choices you can make. But as long as he just blames his boss and gets frustrated with it, then nothing really changes.

[00:07:36] Third had related to that, you can be proactive. You can look not at what's coming and just react to it, but you can begin to look forward and think to yourself, what are the things that you can do today that may change the future? What can you do today? That may [00:08:00] change the way your time is next week.

[00:08:03] Odds are good. You're not going to change your schedule for tomorrow, today, but you can begin to look at your schedule this week and say, what are the things that are taking up too much of my time? That aren't the important things for me to be doing that maybe I can delegate or I can get rid of and dump.

[00:08:20] Or I can just do and get more efficient with what do I need to do? What are the 10 things I can spend some time on this week that make next week better? Part of it is setting goals too, and being smart about them. And I've talked before about setting smart goals, envision the real life that you want and set realistic goals that have realistic time bound.

[00:08:48] Barriers and boundaries to them. And the last one may not sound like it has to do with time, but the fifth one is actually practice. Some self love, have [00:09:00] some self compassion for yourself. Recognize that the truth is if you think of yourself as lazy or someone who's never good with their time or someone who's all too busy.

[00:09:13] The way we talk to ourself has a lot to do with the way we're empowered to act in life. You need to give yourself some grace. But also practice, phrasing and talking to yourself in a way that builds you up because the truth is when you begin to take responsibility for yourself and your actions and your time, then you are empowered to make real change.

[00:09:44] To make real choices to look and see what can I do differently now that will pay off five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. And for the rest of my life, that is why facing your time head on is [00:10:00] so empowering. Thanks for listening.

[00:10:03] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series

[00:10:28] by

[00:10:29] Scott Maderer: going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.

[00:10:48] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.