You Can’t ‘Have It All’
One of the biggest lies we are told is that “You can have it all.” Not to be pessimistic, but this is far from reality.
‘All’ encompasses the whole of everything, which is an awful lot. Every day, ‘all’ grows indefinitely because we keep adding to the world. You need a qualifier like, “You can have everything you want in this world.”
Obviously, you wouldn’t want everything. You’re a complex individual with your own wants and interests.
But even adding a qualifier makes it difficult. There are a lot of things in this world and you may want many of them.
Frankly, there’s not enough time to be able to do everything. We are currently living in the attention economy, and our attention is limited. Everyone wants your attention and they’ll do anything to get it.
So, we fall prey to the machine.
There’s not enough time in the day. Tell me, how often have you heard these words? It’s often said by people who just need more time to accomplish what they want to get done.
This brings me back to your own wants and interests. You have a lot of those. So do I.
You can try and multitask to make things easier and do more, but in truth, it doesn’t exist. In order to get the best results, you have to focus on one thing at a time.
When I write in the morning, all I have is the computer in front of me and the door shut behind me. No music or anything is playing in the background. It would sway my focus.
Take solace in the fact that you can choose how you spend your time. You don’t have to spend hours scrolling through Instagram or TikTok. You can decide you want to do something different and do that instead.
At the end of the day, we’re all going to die. The most you can try to do is enjoy life while you have it. Your time is precious.
At one point, you have to make the choice over how you spend your time, and no, you won’t be able to do everything.
Pick the things that are most important to you. Do those.
With everything there is to do, there’s not enough time to do it all. Even me. There’s never enough time for me to do everything I want. There’s not enough time in the day for me to work out, knit, play music, write, and more. Not if I want to spend real time on it to enjoy it and improve my skills.
Spend your time wisely. You may not be able to do everything you want, maybe not even everything that’s important. But you have to choose, otherwise, you’re letting life call the shots instead of you.
Maybe you can’t have everything you want, but you can choose to immerse yourself in the joy of what you can.
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