I asked a client what her biggest challenge now was, with a new baby and an entrepreneurial career. She said time.
I am often asked how I manage time with 3 busy kids, a self-employed husband and my own busy coaching business. I thought about what I could say different about time management, that hadn’t already been said by wiser people than me.
Following a train of thought that lead me to an old friend, Simple Abundance, A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach, I found what entrepreneurial women were really looking for when they wanted to manage time.
Ms. Ban Breathnach discovered that we are not looking to manage time or, what the ancient Greeks called chronos. We are looking for kairos.
She draws this distinction:
Chronos is clocks, deadlines, watches, calendars, agendas, planners, schedules, beepers. Chronos is time at her worst. Chronos keeps track. Chronos is a delusion of grandeur. Chronos is running the Marine Corps marathon in heels. In chronos, we think only of ourselves. Chronos is the world’s time.
Kairos is transcendence, infinity, reverence, joy, passion, love, the Sacred. Kairos is intimacy with the Real. Kairos is time at her best. Kairos lets go. In kairos, we escape the dungeon of self. Kairos is a Schubert waltz in the nineteenth-century Vienna with your soul mate. Kairos is Spirit’s time.
We exist in chronos. We long for kairos.
I think we don’t need to learn to manage time. We just need to exchange chronos for kairos. And we will then have perfect time.
Tags: perfect life, time
