My biggest pet peeve is when people use the excuse “I don’t have time for that”. I’m guilty of using this excuse, but I’ve recently learned that that statement is completely false. When I want to do something, I make time for it. Whether that means an hour less of sleep, spending less time watching tv, or learning how to change my lifestyle habits to make the time. These three excuses are the ones I have found that have affected my life the most.
I don’t have time for working out
When people ask why I stopped working out, my go-to response was that it didn’t fit in my schedule. There just weren’t enough hours in the day for me to make it to the gym. This is a lie, after a full day of school or work, I had no desire to go put out more energy. I had the time, but I just didn’t want to go. I was able to make time to go get food with friends or go out for drinks, but the gym? No, don’t have time for that. The difference was that I wanted to go get food with my friends and I wanted to go out to the bars on the weekend. The “want” wasn’t there for me to get to the gym. After I realized this, I’ve changed my answer to “I just don’t want to go to the gym”, because that’s the actual truth.
I don’t have time for a relationship
I’ve used this as an excuse to not be in a relationship and have also had it used on me. When a guy that I had been seeing for a while told me that he wanted to date me, but he wasn’t sure he would have enough time for me, the gullible girl within me agreed with him. I thought, “ya he is really busy so he just won’t have time for me, but I like him and I’m sure he likes me, so it will all work out”. Surprise! It didn’t work out. He didn’t make time for me or for the relationship. I have now realized that we had the same amount of responsibilities and same amount of school work, the only difference was that I was willing to make time for him in my life. After this revelation, I found myself using the same excuse about a new guy I was seeing. I thought to myself “I won’t have time to see him between school, work, and friends”, but the truth was that I didn’t want to make the time. That’s when I realized it wasn’t going to work out. It would have felt like an obligation versus a privilege. So what I’m saying here is if your significant other is using this line on you, there is something wrong in the relationship and it isn’t your schedules.
I don’t have time for self care
Taking care of yourself with a busy schedule and lifestyle is unheard of. I always get overwhelmed by my responsibilities after the school year starts and forget to take a minute out of the day to take care of myself. Once I started taking one minute from my day, whether that be before bed or in the shower, I felt more relaxed and more content with myself and my life. I usually say a prayer or spend that minute reflecting on my day and thinking about what went right versus what went wrong or what I could improve. Giving myself these little bits of reassurance is my way of self-care. This won’t work for everyone, but take time to learn what makes you feel good. It could be a relaxation app, a bubble bath, or retail therapy. I enjoy all of those but sometimes the day gets away from me and it doesn’t seem logical to take a bath at 2am or go to target and spend money I don’t have. Don’t make the excuse that you don’t have one minute in your day to take care of your mind. You are just as important as that test or that project at work.