Tiffany Moore: Making Time for What Matters

Today's post is the fifth in my guest post series: Making Time for What Matters. Be sure to read the pieces by Rachel Cole, Rachelle Mee-Chapman, Emily McKhann, and Peter Deitz too!

Tiffany Moore is a coach, artist, change agent and magic maker who lives in the Bay Area and believes that everyone can live their happiest, most sparkly life, starting now. This year, Tiffany realized one of her dreams when she co-founded Teahouse Studio, a creative workshop space in Berkeley. You can connect with her through website, Facebook and Twitter.

I hear it from nearly everyone I know: If only I had more time, I could...

You get to fill in the blanks:

• travel more 
• eat better
• exercise
• finally start {that hobby} that I've always been dreaming of
• go back to school
• start my own business

If only I had more time.

The truth is that there is only a finite amount of time that exists in the world. Each day has 24 hours. Each hour has 60 minutes. That's not going to change.

Let's revisit that list above. All of the things listed are important. They all touch on dreams, big dreams, dreams that get swept under the rug of mundane everyday life.

“But I don't have a choice,” you might say - I have to work/pay the bills/take care of the kids/do chores...

Yes, you have to do that. You're right. Life happens.

Newsflash: you still get to choose and you still get to do what matters.

How? Here are three steps to really clearing out your schedule and making time for what matters:

1. Get really clear on what matters to you.

What are those scary things you're avoiding? What dreams do you have that you've been quieting for years? What is something that seems so crazy that it thrills you and terrifies you at the same time? These are pretty good clues about what matters.

2. Start small

In the beginning of trying to carve out time, starting small is key. What can you spend 10 minutes a day on? Start there, and see how it feels. After a week, you will already have spent an hour working towards your goal.

3. Turn off the TV. Or internet. Or whatever your distraction-of-choice may be

We have become a culture of information junkies. Silence is boring. But what could happen if you were alone with your thoughts for an hour a day? What might come up if you sat with silence, or let your own mind come up with something to do? I'm not a TV nazi who thinks that people shouldn't watch anything (full disclosure: I'm currently addicted to Mad Men on Netflix), but when you sit down to watch, just be aware if you're doing it mindfully and deliberately, or if you're doing it as a way to zone out, to become distracted, to take your attention away from what *really* matters.

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