WHY MANAGE TIME…WHEN YOU CAN MULTIPLY IT?
SELF-MASTERY 101: HANDLING TIME
3-Minute Read
Stop managing time. Bend it.
A disciple complained, “Master, there’s never enough time. The days vanish and my work is undone.”
The master handed him an hourglass. “Watch.”
As the sand slipped, the disciple grew restless. The master tipped it sideways; time stopped.
“See? When your mind races, the sand rushes. When you return to the present, time halts. You cannot control how much sand you have, but you can choose how you meet each grain. One breath, one task, one moment at a time. There is always enough.”
From that day, the disciple stopped asking for more hours. Instead, he practiced giving each grain of sand his full attention.
Busyness isn’t a time problem. It’s a perception problem. Scarcity with time isn’t about minutes on the clock; it’s about how you relate to them. When you live as though time is scarce, you’ll always feel behind, overwhelmed, and under-resourced, no matter how many productivity hacks you employ.
This week in The Grip, we explore why mastering your relationship with time is the bedrock of self-mastery, and why without it, both your mission and your experience of life remain stuck in “never enough.”
Let’s dive in.
the myth of “too busy”
“Too busy” is the leadership lie that steals more possibility than failure ever will. There are three main reasons leaders find themselves buried in unworkable schedules:
Unclear commitments (covered in The Speed of Less).
Addiction to busyness (coming in a future issue).
Scarcity-mindedness with time—today’s focus.
Scarcity with time isn’t just an attitude. It’s a state of being. When you are scarcity, you filter every decision through “not enough.” That filter narrows your creativity, amplifies stress, and produces frantic activity with little true service.
It’s easily identified in, “I have too much to do,” or “I don’t have enough time,” for what you say matters.
This is the kindest thing I can tell you: if you aren’t building what matters now, you won’t magically do it “when things slow down.” That fantasy future never arrives. Really.
A New Way To Relate To Time
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. –Physicist Max Planck
In direct experience, there is only doing and not doing. You’ll only ever do what you actually do today. “Too much to do” exists only in language; it’s what you call everything else you’re simply not doing. It’s a mental illusion that drains your energy and fuels anxiety. What if instead, you relaxed into what you are doing, fully present, fully invested?
Try this on, not as absolute truth, but as a ladder from which to gain an elevated perspective on your life: “I have all the time there is to accomplish what matters to me.” What do you notice? Any new possibility open up for you?
This reframe pulls you out of disempowerment and into agency. Your schedule is evidence of what you’ve chosen. If you don’t “have time” for something, it only means it’s not important to you right now. No guilt. No shame. Just clarity. And if there are gaps between what’s actually important and what’s getting scheduled, you are the executive decision-maker; make choices to get those aligned.
Not yet part of The Plenteous Life community? Subscribe to The Grip! Every week you’ll receive additional video, audio, and pdf tools directly in your email inbox to help you transform at both work and home.
From Scarcity To Investment
Contrary to popular opinion, physicists and researchers have repeatedly refuted the notion that time is finite, linear, or consistent. Here’s what they have discovered (paraphrased):
Albert Einstein: Time speeds up or slows down depending on your enjoyment of a situation. That’s relativity.
Ernst Mach: We don’t measure change using time. It’s the other way around—time is a mental shortcut we created to describe change.
Julian Barbour: Time is not a linear continuum but a series of distinct “Nows.”
UNLV Neuroscience Study: Surprises make time feel faster. Repetition makes it blur. Memories can also trick us about how long something took. Our minds bend time depending on attention and memory.
You have the capacity to transform how you relate to time, from merely managing it to multiplying it.
Leaders who spend time treat it like a paycheck—scarce, slipping away, gone by Friday. Leaders who invest time treat it like capital—seeded with intention, expected to multiply in service of their mission and the fullness of life they’re creating.
That single shift—from spending to investing—changes everything. Every act comes with a compounding effect, continually building more of what you want.
Werner Erhard put it this way: "You need to master time to have any mastery in the world." Master time, and you master the very ground on which mission and service are built.
“I have all the time there is.”
Stop spending time like it’s slipping through your fingers. Start investing it like it’s a resource to grow. When you shift from scarcity to mastery with time, you gain clarity, ease, and the fullness of life that allows you to serve people at your highest level.
Your first step to experiencing time in this new way is with new language.
This week, repeat the following. Not like it’s the truth; like it’s the blueprint for the new relationship you’re architecting. Write it down as a visual reminder to return to it throughout the day:
“Today I will do what I do; everything else is what I don’t do. I have more than enough time to do what I love. Time multiplies in my hands; I invest it wisely and enjoy the increase.”
You have all the time there is. Master it. And watch your mission—and everything else that matters to you—come fully alive.
Keep creating!
key takeaways
Busyness isn’t a time problem; it’s a perception problem.
Leaders who invest time multiply results, impact, and freedom.
Mastery with time is the foundation of self-mastery and mission.
May you prosper in every way!
Becky & TPL Team
52 Maxims of Conscious Choosing To Create the Deeply Satisfying Life You Desire.