For a long time now I have wholeheartedly rejected the oft-repeated cultural mantra “I don’t have time.”

There is nothing empowering in such a statement, and to believe it is a fallacy of the worst kind, the kind that positions you in the victim role, rather than the driver. It would suggest that you are merely at the whim of external circumstances, that someone else is forcing you into your choices.

It’s time for you to recognize that unless you are incarcerated, no one is controlling your schedule but you. Most every single activity or time commitment present in your life is there by your design. No one put a gun to your head and forced you to get a 9-5 job (I hope). No one but you is dictating that you spend ninety minutes a night watching TV.

A financial coach might warn you against saying “I can’t afford that,” a statement which renders you helpless and lacking, and suggest instead the more correct, modified assertion” I can afford that, but I choose to prioritize my money elsewhere right now.”

I encourage us all to refrain from saying, “I don’t have time,” and instead to acknowledge, “I have time, but I’m choosing to prioritize other activities.”

This can be an unpleasant recognition if those things you are prioritizing are activities you don’t feel good about.

But the moment you take responsibility for your life, regardless of its current state, you begin to see that you have the ability to shape it in exactly the way you see fit.

I can’t find the time? That’s better, because at least it acknowledges the fact that the time might exist, but you’re struggling to identify or manage your schedule in a way that best enables various activities. It acknowledges that you have the capability to shift things around, but it’s still shirking some of the business of just stepping up and doing the damn thing.

But “I’m not making the time.” That’s the honest truth. “I haven’t been making time for that, but I want to. I will.”

You have the time.

You have time.

You have 24 hours of life time in your day and it is up to you how you fill each and every second of those days.

Make time for the things that really matter to you. And to the rest, that matter less? Why talk about them at all.