Countdown

Hello brave friend!

I’ve been thinking a lot about time recently. Perhaps it’s because time is the number one thing people tell me they long for and also the number one reason many say they aren’t able to achieve what they desire. Nearly everyone I speak with says they need more time… and if they had more, they would surely be able to get everything done, care for themselves and be happier. 

So, when I was gathered with my family in Seattle a few weeks ago, I was struck by a comment I overheard one morning as we all moved around the kitchen filling cups with coffee. Several cousins were gathered around the table and I heard one ask, “Do you think it would make a difference if we all had a digital clock over our heads counting down the number of days we have left?”. I have no idea of the context and I was about to leap in and join the conversation…yet something else called my attention, so it faded into the background. But that question… it has been bouncing around my head ever since, getting louder and louder every time someone tells me they just need more time.

So, would it make a difference if we all had a countdown clock over our heads? Would knowing exactly how much time we have left in our one and only precious life impact how we live? Would it make you value what time you DO have with the inspiration to live it with more intention? Would you think differently about giving up hours to something you don’t value or need if you had to watch them slip away on the clock? Would it be easier to say no to things if you had to watch the seconds ticking off? Would you say yes to things with greater ease if you saw those minutes creating joy?

I suspect each of us would have a different experience with this information and we would likely feel all those things… fear, dread, urgency, permission, freedom, and clarity. The question that I think is most important is, what would you do? If you knew exactly how many days/hours/minutes you had, what would you do differently? Regardless of the actual number, what would you do with the information? How might you be inspired to spend each one of your precious minutes in the way that MOST fulfills YOU?

I admit to having initially taken up this question with a rather pragmatic approach. Most of the women in my family on both sides have lived well into their 90s… so I took the odds and decided to calculate my remaining days based on that information. I plugged it into my calculator: 16,425. By the time you read this it will be 16,241.

So, your Mindful Mini invitation today is to imagine what might shift if you had a clock hanging over your head displaying the number of days remaining in your beautiful life. What would be worthy of those days? What would you embrace and choose more of? What would you want to share with others and what would be worth letting go? What permissions would you give yourself if you knew you had time for only ONE thing… and you didn’t have to do it ALL? 

We each get 24 hours in a day, no one gets more and you can’t buy, steal or trade it… AND we each have a unique number of those days in our life. Treat each hour like the GOLD that it is. Refuse to give away your wealth! I invite you to pause and weigh each decision against the clock… is THIS worthy of a precious hour? BOLDLY and UNAPOLOGETICALLY answer with your whole heart and choose the life you long for! You are so worth it!

Yours in heart,

Kelly Driscoll