Funny how little snippets of incidents from years gone by can stick in your head forever. I remember driving for our daughter’s car pool and one little girl commented, with a heavy sigh, on my daughter's new raincoat: she wished she could get a new raincoat too. 

When asked her why she couldn’t, I thought she would say they couldn’t afford it, but what she said stuck with me to this day. She said: “My mommy doesn’t have time to take me to the store.”

Her response stopped me in my tracks and right there I decided I never wanted my kids, or anyone I loved, to think I didn’t have time for them.

I believe we have time for our highest valued activities, all of them. We just need to figure out what those are and start living our lives accordingly. Yes, time goes by fast. Yes, there is too much to do. And yes, you can take control over the time monster. Each moment we are given holds the capacity to deliver a feeling of stress or peace. Choose peace. Here’s how:

1.    Consider time your friend, not your nemesis. Shift the way you look at time and it will be much easier to find time.

2.    Watch your words. Eliminate “I’m late,”  “I’ll never get finished,” “I’m always rushing” and “I don’t have time.”  These phrases feed your subconscious with the idea of having no time.

3.    Program new thoughts: “There is exactly enough time to do what I have to do.”  Believe it and go!

4.    Set a deadline. I will work on this project until 11:30. I will go to bed at 10:30 three nights a week. I will do my chores until 15 minutes past the hour. Remarkably our work expands to fit the amount of time we give it. Set a limit and stick to it, this will also help with procrastination!

5.    Relax. When it seems time is getting the best of you, take two minutes to breath consciously, two minutes to  close your eyes, two minutes to stretch or move your body, two minutes to reframe the present situation and change the way you are thinking about time and you will change the way you feel about time.

In the end, we all have the same 1,440 minutes in our day. Those minutes will never be enough time to do everything we think we should  do, but they are exactly the right number of minutes to do what we choose to do. So let’s work on updating our relationship with time, so that our loved ones will never feel we haven’t enough time for them and we won’t feel we don’t have enough time for ourselves. 

Time–it is on our side, it is our friend, it is the greatest gift we can give in 2010.

Stephanie Staples is a proud Winnipeg woman with a knack for lifting attitudes and shifting perspectives in workplaces all around North America. For more tips on better living, to have her speak at your next event, or to share your "timely tips," visit www.yourlifeunlimited.ca.