As a visionary, your life is not your own.
It belongs to the Lord. Therefore, your time is not your own.
Your time has to do double-duty. You have to get more done than others who have not yet heeded the call on their lives.
When you say, “Yes” to all that God has created you to be, you enter into a very different relationship with time and how you spend it.
You still have 24 hours in a day, but how you approach our 24 hours varies greatly.
As a visionary you have a big vision for what you desire to accomplish in your life. It is different from choosing what you want to do – this is having a dream. A vision is from God and it chooses you.
The way visionaries think about time has to be different because of all that is expected of you when you are called to make an impact in others lives.
Whether you are helping eradicate hunger, leading married couples to having successful relationships, working with youth to keep them on a productive path for their lives, working to rid the streets of gang violence, leading others to a deeper relationship with the Lord, or building an organization that supports single mothers, your time is not your own.
The message the Lord has given you is to be shared with others and not kept to your self.
Visionaries must be much more intentional with our time.
Not only do visionaries juggle the many obligations of spending quality time with your loved ones, taking care of your children, making a living to support your family and the day-to-day obligations of living, you also carry the God-given burden of being called to make a difference in the lives of those to whom you are called with your gifts, talents, and purpose.
As part of your vision, you often have teams to supervise, volunteers to manage, products to design, services to provide, clients to serve, content to design and deliver, marketing and promotions to do, fundraising to execute, teachings to write, seats to fill, finances to oversee, travel schedules to maintain, project timelines to meet and new contacts to make among the seemingly countless tasks to carry out in order to manifest God’s vision for your life.
And doing all of this while maintaining your health, balance and body so you can be the best vessel for His work.
The nature of having a vision is huge. You can naturally take on too much because your vision is so vast. You know you cannot do it alone and must be a vessel for the Lord to do it through you.
This causes the ever-present feeling of a never-ending To Do list that has the potential to weigh heavy on you. This is different from how others carry their relationship with time.
I am always amazed when I hear someone say they are bored. I remember when my daughter was 12 years old and would sometimes complain of being bored. She asked me one day, “Mom, don’t you ever get bored?”
I tried to explain to her that this was not part of my reality. I shared that the Lord has given me more than enough tasks, projects and instructions to keep me busy for the next 7-10 years. She looked at me completely bewildered.
Now that she is 20 years old and building her calling of TV and film acting, she is having the same experience.
She is constantly challenged with the pull of trying to get everything that she is called to do done. She now looks at her peers in bewilderment when they complain of being bored and not having anything to do. She wishes she had more time to get more things done. She often calls me asking for time management tips, tools and techniques.
In order to get it all done as a visionary, you cannot approach time as usual.
Here are some steps to mastering time so you can build God’s vision for your life in the time frame in which He has given you:
- Move beyond time management to time mastery
- Change your mindset as it relates to time.
- Understand the principles of time mastery.
- Practice the skills and disciplines of time mastery on a daily basis.
- Learn how to communicate the importance of your time to others.
- Be proficient in the techniques and actions of time mastery.
- Have effective tools that work for the way God wired you.
If you are ready to move from trying to manage your time into a new relationship with time mastery, I am teaching a three-part tele-course on precisely how to do each of these seven steps. It is coming up in a few weeks and is something you don’t want to miss. You can find full details here – http://tandagree.com/time-mastery-for-visionaries/. Enjoy!
Dedicated to Your Success,
Ericka