I’ve always been a pretty straight-forward person. I don’t pretend things are something they’re not. I’ve never been afraid of the truth. The truth is what it is. And I would much rather embrace it, deal with it, and be upfront about it.

So imagine my surprise, when I discovered I actually lie to myself all the time, without even realizing it. And so do you.

It’s not my fault. And it’s not yours. We have human brains. The more I learn about the human brain, the more fascinated I am. And the more excited I am to use my new-found knowledge to up-level my life.

So here it is…one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves…

I don’t have enough time.

This feels like a fact. Right now, your brain is saying something like — no, that’s definitely true. The funny thing is, even as I’m typing this, mine is saying the same thing. This is something I’m still working to rewire.

The truth is, we all have the exact same amount of time. The most successful people on the planet have the exact same amount of time as you do. Time is a level playing field. Nobody gets more. Nobody gets less.

And we each get the opportunity to choose how to spend that time.

I was coaching one of my clients this week. Her sister-in-law was going to be alone in her house for a few days and was talking about how she was going to spend that time pampering herself and enjoying it. My client’s thought was “It must be nice to be her. I wish I could spend my time that way.”

She couldn’t see that she could spend her time that way if she wants to. As we talked, it became clear that whenever she has free time, she chooses to fill it with tasks. She never chooses to spend time pampering herself or relaxing. So then we got to explore why she does that. Did she really want to spend her time pampering and relaxing? Or did she really want to spend her time accomplishing and creating?

I also had more than one client in the past week tell me some variation of “it isn’t my time.”

All your time is your time. You get to choose to spend it however you want to.

There is NOTHING you HAVE to do.

You don’t have to clean your house. You don’t have to take care of your kids. You don’t have to pay the bills. You don’t have to put food on the table. You don’t have to serve in your community. You don’t have to run errands. You don’t have to exercise. You don’t have to mow your lawn.

These may be things you want to do. But are you intentionally choosing them? And do you like your reasons for choosing them? Or are you a victim to all the things you HAVE to do? Have you given your time away?

We only get one life.

How intentional are you about your time? Are you choosing how to spend it deliberately? Or just going through your day, reacting to whatever is going on around you?

Is the way you spend your time going to get you the results you want in your life? Does the way you spend your time reflect what’s important to you?

Stop telling yourself this lie. It creates overwhelm. It destroys dreams.

You have plenty of time. How do you WANT to spend it?