Episode 848 Boundaries Create Freedom
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 848 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:07]Eric Brotman: [00:00:07] I'm Eric Brotman from the don't retire graduate podcast. 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 treasuries to live out your calling. Having the ability to plan for the future is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.
[00:00:32] Scott Maderer: [00:00:32] In other words, if you ask me how much I can get done in an hour, I always tend to overestimate that. Ironically, we also tend to underestimate how much we can get done in a longer period of time, like a month or a year. This idea of concentrated focus and doing a small amount each and every day. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:01:00] [00:00:59] If 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 yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:21]And today's episode about developing your influence by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why boundaries around your time creates more freedom. Not less. I share why we often think that this isn't true. And I also share how you can begin to create boundaries around your time. As we talk about stewarding your time.
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[00:02:08] One of those paradoxes around time is the idea of creating boundaries to create more, flexibility, more freedom, more ability to be spontaneous and do what you want, whatever you want to do it. It's an irony because most of us believe that if I create a schedule, if I create a plan, if I go through life with a plan, then by definition, I'm limiting what I can do.
[00:02:34]I'm putting handcuffs on, you'll hear people say this about a money budget. You'll hear people say this about planning your day and don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that you need to plan every single minute of every single day for the rest of your life. But the interesting thing is when you begin to learn to create boundaries, one of which includes creating some sort of plan or schedule, you actually get more [00:03:00] freedom because in part it helps us create other kinds of boundaries that let us focus in on the things that really are the most important.
[00:03:11]We think it's not true because by definition we think if we put something down on paper, if we say this is the way it's going to be then that's the way it has to be in any sort of deviation from this as either a failure or any deviation from, it means that we're not allowed to deviate.
[00:03:28] We're breaking the rules. We've got to sit down and do everything just the way we laid it out. Or why bother lay get out to begin with. And yet the truth is that if you're the one that created the boundaries, you're also the one that can adjust those boundaries and make shifts in them as well. But you're not going.
[00:03:49] Two, unless you choose to see that's the interesting thing, creating those boundaries gives you the power of choice. It gives you the ability to know [00:04:00] what your choices are and to make those choices clearly and completely and upfront. See the truth is if you sit down and you create a schedule and you create blocks of time that you set aside for particular purposes, or for particular projects are particular needs, then you can decide to work within those blocks or not.
[00:04:22] You have a clear delineation, but if those blocks are aligned with what you've decided are the most important things in your life, then why wouldn't you actually spend your time doing what you said? You're going to do, creating a clearly divine schedule actually gives you flexibility and freedom within those boundaries yourself.
[00:04:44] Plus it gives you the ability to know what are you giving up? What are you doing changing. If you make a decision to change what you're doing and by seeing what you can give up and what you get, you can make more informed decisions. You can make free [00:05:00] decisions without guilt. And that brings us to, you need to make clear yes.
[00:05:04] And no decisions. We all have a tendency to say yes to way too many things, especially if it's brought to us by people that we care about. But the truth is every time you say yes, by definition, you're saying no to other. Things you have to weigh it. How much time and energy is this? Yes. Going to take, how many resources is this going to take?
[00:05:28] When do they need to know by what's going on? What are the unintended consequences of saying yes to this decision? What am I saying no, to when I say yes, what will I lose? If I say yes, As well as if I say no, see, we generally only focus on the no side of that equation. We don't actually pay attention to the fact that saying yes, actually causes us to lose other things as well.
[00:05:54] The other thing you have to do is you have to recognize and set boundaries around [00:06:00] expectations and not just the expectations of other people, but your own expectations as well. How quickly can you do something? Under promise and over deliver. You hear about that in business all the time. The idea of not trying to kill yourself, but making sure that, what can you realistically and truly do we have a tendency to overestimate what we can get done in any sort of period of time that short.
[00:06:28] In other words, if you ask me how much I can get done in an hour, I always tend to overestimate that. Ironically, we also tend to. Underestimate how much we can get done in a longer period of time, like a month or a year. This idea of concentrated focus and doing a small amount each and every day, really compounds and adds up in a way that we don't really understand.
[00:06:55] So we look at an hour and we say, I can get 10 things done when realistically, [00:07:00] anyone could only get three or maybe four of those things done. But then we look at a year and we say, there's no way I could write that book. But the truth is if you wrote simply five pages a day, That would be a lot of writing by the end of a year.
[00:07:16] And five pages is something that's much more manageable than writing a book. So we underestimate what we can do in a very long period of time. And we overestimate what we can do in a short period of time. And because of that, We set expectations for ourselves and we don't communicate clear expectations to others around these areas.
[00:07:37] And because of that, we end up not setting good boundaries around our time and taking on too much and then being stressed out and burned out. This is why it's so important to establish the schedule and the systems and the processes that will allow us to manage ourselves. So that we use our time to the best [00:08:00] of our ability.
[00:08:01] Thanks for listening.
[00:08:03]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 listened, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time.
[00:08:46] Until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.