Have you ever gone to sleep feeling like you didn’t do enough? And worst of all, you wake up terrified of the day ahead because you fear repeating the same failure.
It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started in your career or if you’ve already been there for over a decade. The feeling of time slipping through your hands like sand will hit you in any season of life.
We don’t control what happens to us—we can only hope to react in the best possible way. But when too many things are happening at the same time, it can feel overwhelming and paralyzing.
How to stop time anxiety
I’m in a season of life where there are many new moving parts, and as always, I have high expectations of myself. So in the last couple of weeks, time anxiety silently settled in the back of my mind. After a few days of it not leaving, I had to remember how I’d gotten rid of it last time.
The answer suddenly hit me because just a month ago I was talking to a friend about this concept: the liberation of defeat.
Sometimes life can act as our Zen teacher. It will not lighten the burden of the student, but it will make it so heavy that they will put it down.
In other words, if something is not flowing regardless of your best efforts, then maybe you need to let go. Once you know what you don’t want, you can Start saying No.
But saying no isn’t enough. Accepting that you’ll never be on top of everything is the other half of it. Let go of the idea of “I’ll be ok when…” or “Things will flow when…”
Defeat is liberating because you no longer have to fight back. Now, instead, you can fight forward. This acceptance becomes your source of strength:
You suspected there wasn’t enough time for everything and you were right. This knowledge can be your advantage, your secret strength. If you keep it close to your heart, honoring its truth, it can bring you peace in the midst of overwhelm. It can help you remember that it’s okay to not do it all, because in fact, such a goal is impossible. And trying to do everything is what is stressing you out.
— Chris Guillebeau, Time Anxiety
Making the most of our time isn’t about checking off more tasks, but about experiencing our lives so we can be more present, more alive, and more engaged with the ones we love.
Remember that on your deathbed you won’t regret not doing more. You’ll regret not being more.
And remember that time will test you.
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