“No time! There’s never any time!”
If you’re a 90’s kid, perhaps you remember the Saved by the Bell episode where Jessie takes “Keep Alert” to keep up with the pressure of doing “all of the things,” but having zero time. She shouts, “No time! There’s never any time!” And proceeds to sing “I’m so excited! I’m so scaaared!”
I’ve struggled with this pressure of “not enough time” in different areas of my life. There isn’t enough time to exercise, there isn’t enough time to work on my business, there isn’t enough time to pursue my dreams. The only thing I seemed to have time for was stressing over how I didn’t have enough time for anything! When you’re in the trenches, it’s difficult to see the excuse.
It seems these four little words would creep in at just the right time, just as I was about to take that step out of my comfort zone. My shoulders would tense right up, causing a reflex in my arms that would toss in the air in surrender, and boom! I’d be back in my head, “I don’t have time!” I’d snap at loved ones, “Can’t you see how busy I am?! I don’t have time to do anything!”
The reality is my shoulders and arms were going into defense mode. I’d be scared to fail. Scared that I wouldn’t be good enough. Scared that I wouldn’t “get it right” the first time around, so why bother, right? I’ll just use this common excuse that I don’t have time.
When I started noticing this pattern, I was able to pause and take that roll call of every part of myself back from my head into my body. I still do this when I catch myself “Jessie Spano-ing” out. I breathe deeply. I ask myself:
What’s really going on here?
What am I afraid of?
How am I about to step out of my comfort zone?
What are some of the possibilities that can come when I do?
The possibilities are limitless.
If I’m being totally honest, I felt that same contraction before I even started writing this article. I felt so excited and immediately felt SO scared. “I don’t think I have time to write this.” So again, I paused to check in with myself. I tuned into those tight shoulders and those flailing arms to see what’s really going on here. “It’s different. This is a higher audience. What if you say the wrong thing? What if no one reads it? What if people DO read it?!”
I breathe again. I drop my shoulders, maybe throw on some tunes and dance around a little bit, and call myself back home. I bring myself back to that exciting feeling just before the scared feeling crept in. I feel my face light up in an upward curve from both corners of my mouth. I begin to think about those limitless possibilities. I feel into how this could help others. I know writing is one of my embodiment practices and how awesome would it be if my words could help someone else take that step out of their own comfort zone and create their own excitement?
So I pause, I breathe, and I begin typing.
