Are you running out of gas?

Have you ever run out of gas in your car?  I mean, not running low, not watching the red indicator sit on the “E”, but actually watched your car completely stop, or not even start due to the fact that there isn’t any gas in your tank?  I have, and boy it’s a pain!  It takes forever to find someone to come and pick you up, in order to take you to the gas station, where you can then purchase a gas can (because who just carries those around with them?), fill that with gas, and then head back to your poor car who is dying of fuel thirst!  You then fill up your tank and have to head BACK to the gas station to return the gas can and fill up your car the rest of the way with fuel.  I’ve only personally run completely out of gas once in my life, and in my efforts to save time and hurry on to my “next thing” I ended up adding about an hour to my packed schedule, when having to deal with my poor gasoline judgment!

If you think about it, our own lives are really this way.  If we wait until our tank is completely on empty, then we’ll stop dead in our tracks and require extra time to regain fuel so that we can continue on again.

One of the best strategies that anyone ever shared with me, in regards to my own personal development, was the importance of “Margin Time.”  Margin Time is time that you factor into your daily routine, scheduling yourself with time to do whatever you’d like to do in order to unwind and regenerate yourself.  It’s usually not very much time, but may be 15-30 minutes factored into your day where you can sit down and read a book, catch the show you’ve been waiting to see, go for a walk, or even take a nap.  Margin Time is time that is necessary, and therefore cannot be scheduled over or replaced with your “super busy to-do list.”  It’s time in your day for you to rest, refill, and keep yourself from becoming weary and exhausted. 

I’ve found that if I can schedule regular time, each day, to “refuel” myself, then I rarely find myself running on empty, completely unable to continue.

Are you running on empty and watching the “fumes” exit from behind you?  Go ahead and work in some Margin Time into your day, today.  I promise that you’ll be glad that you did.