There are two types of people… ones that set goals and ones that don’t. I always love the grumbles that seem to occur every year especially as it pertains to the “New Years Goals”. Some people get exhausted by attempting goals because, by Feb 1, 80% of them have given up. Other people set slow, steady mindful goals without rigid, hard, and sometimes impossible to obtain.
I can’t help it, I love goal setting. I used to be very rigid, like maybe unhealthily dedicated to goal setting and hitting those goals, but, yanno, because #thisis40, I’m finding I’m softening “hard” goals, and shifting more into intentionally planning my time, calendar, and “goal setting".
If you think of that musical RENT, yanno, catchy song… 525,600 minutes (Season of Love)…(you're welcome for getting that stuck in your head today…). But my simple brain did better math.
1 year = 8760 hours.
Time is a currency. Often times we only think about money as a currency but our TIME is quite frankly, so much more valuable than just about the Benjamins. This fall when my Dad’s cancer came on fast and furious, nothing whiplashed my brain and heart to being humbled by the gift of time, (or lack of time), and a sobering reality of the value of time. My Dad’s cancer was aggressive and I hated that I understood it was growing so fast. On September 18th, his undiagnosed tumor was the size of a marble… by the time of official diagnosis and staging just 3 weeks later, it was the size of a large golfball, and continuing to grow while he was waiting for cancer staging and radiation scheduling. By the time the radiation was able to began, it was Stage 3, and the size of a larger then softball but smaller then a football.... but still growing daily.
TIME; even as we look at our kids, time with our spouses, time with our parents, quality of time we GET in retirement… there really is no dollar amount we can put on the value of our time.
So… back to this 1 year, our 8,760 hours in this year, and my attempt to get all of our patients to “buy-into” goal setting and quality of life planning.... ;)
My goal is to have 6-8 hours of high quality sleep = 2,919 hours or 33% of my year will hopefully be sleeping, and sleeping with LOTS of DEEP and REM sleep (= quality) . Again, this is a GOAL… I am not currently managing this well all the time, but it’s something I’m aiming for, and I track it with my Garmin. I can sometimes manage 6 hours of sleep, but I have over 2 hours in DEEP, and 2 hours in REM which is a big win! - my sleep goal is hit). But, again, nightly goal is that I aim for 6-8 hours/night…
That means 5,841 hours remain, or 66.7% of my time for 2025.
If I work 40 hours/week, and take 6 weeks off for vacations, time off for kids’ activities that is 1,840 hours of my remaining time in 2025 is dedicated to patient care and all things Back in Line. (Thankfully, I love my job)
For you math nerds, that’s 31% of my time that is awake, doing my job.
I would like 1 hour of fitness (walking with a weighted vest, strength training, or HITT) 5 days a week. That means 1 hour*5 days *52 weeks = 260 hours dedicated to fitness and movement. Again, for the math whiz’…. That less than 3% of my time in 2025 will be dedicated to movement.
Often we hear “I don’t have time”… I know, we are very busy people, but, 3% of your time, ISN’T a lot. It could be we’re occupied saying YES to other things we can simply start saying NO thank you to. (Social media, endless scrolling, toxic mainstream media??)
So after:
-Sleep
-Work
-Fitness/Movement
I still have 3,741 hours…. That’s 3,741 hours to schedule and plan for family dinners, dates with the kids, dates with TK, time with friends, phone calls to my parents, and chasing the kiddos to their favorite activities (auh yes, I am vicariously living life through watching my kids do what they love, and with friends they love, and it’s fantastic), go on walks, wash my hair, pray, journal, stretch, volunteer, breathe….
I often hear, Calla, you are SOOOO busy. Sometimes I’m busy with nonsense and things I should have never committed to. Sometimes I’m “busy” doing all the wrong things (obligations really). But other times I’m busy doing 100% of everything that I want to. I have not met someone that is saying yes to 100% of all the right stuff, and 100% full of joy and 0% of chaos…. But, I think we can all benefit from reflecting and setting intentional goals, or intentional uses of TIME in our year. It doesn’t matter if it’s Jan 1… or March 15th… you literally can lean into goal setting and intentional uses of your time to benefit your mental health, your spiritual health, your physical health, any time of the year.
Some things I get overwhelmed with, especially as I am getting more and more selfish with how I spend my time… I am HORRIBLE at reading:
-School emails
-Dance studio emails
-Soccer emails
-Basketball and Baseball emails
Just keeping up on schedules, let alone all of the details. So frankly, I truly fly by the seat of my pants on that stuff and lean on the really great parent friends who have this area of their life figured out (God bless them, seriously).
Regardless, my goal for my patients is that everyone actually does set goals and intentions. All of us will have areas of our lives that could use some self-correction. I’ve never met a person that “has it all together”. I’ve never met a single soul that doesn’t have areas to improve. Most people would benefit from setting goals, and in my humble opinion, all of us can make some simple shifts in how we spend our time, and how we value our time.
Here’s to your health - and your time!
XO
Cjk
Dr. Calla Kleene
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