Living in Real Time

Do you tend to set your watch or clocks ahead? I mean, outside of daylight savings time? I did. It was crazy. My alarm clock was 10 to 11 minutes fast, my watch was 5 to 7 minutes fast, the car clocks were about 7 minutes ahead. It hit me one day how out of control the time thing was getting when I couldn’t figure out what time it really was: “Should I add three minutes, or is it six or seven?”

I couldn’t remember how fast the timepiece I was looking at was set. That’s when I realized I’d been living on borrowed time, quite literally. So I had to get to the root of the situation. And the question to myself was “why do we set all of our clocks fast?” The answer was simple: So that we can be on time, even ahead by a few minutes, when we’re rushing and not paying attention. And therein lay the real answer to my quandary. I shouldn’t be rushing through my days, through life. It would be so much better to live in real rather than borrowed time, I thought. But where to begin?

The starting point for me would have to be learning to say no. You’d think as a new mom—I had an 8-month old at the time—I’d have learned by then, but no. Well, I’m happy to say I have done it, just once. I said no to an assignment. I’ll admit, the guilt outweighed the satisfaction with time saved at first, but I appreciated it later. That doesn’t mean I slowed down, though. I still teach, freelance and work on my new business, but I make sure to prioritize. And my priority is family first, then everything else. I’m sure my husband, son and twins will appreciate it. They’re definitely worth my time, my real time.