After I decided to once again hit pause on Empty Your Cup, I was sad, but I also felt an immediate sense of inner peace. I instantly knew that, now, I had enough time. None of my problems had yet disappeared, but deep in my gut, I had conviction that with the additional space and effort, I’d get a handle on everything.
Will that be true? Or am I just telling myself a story? It’s too soon to tell, but the pivot re-emphasizes a lesson I’ve already learned a few times: The feeling of having enough time is more important than how much time you actually have.
If whatever schedule you’ve set for yourself gets you to say, “I just know I’ll never be able to complete all of this,” then every day, you’ll behave like someone who’s fighting a losing battle — and those people tend to act like they’ve already lost. In reality, you might actually be able to achieve more than you think you can — but right now, that doesn’t matter. What matters is how you feel and how you’ll act as a result.
When I’m behind, I spend more time fretting, which, ironically, puts me more behind. When I’m ahead of the curve, that spurs me on to try and finish early. If you function in a similar way, I encourage you: Plan your life around feeling that you have enough time, not what you rationally think is physically possible.
Nothing motivates us more than hope, and no one has more hope than he who strongly believes he can win.