I eat breakfast every morning in front of the computer.  It’s a good 15 minutes of catching up on email, online news, Facebook and some of my favorite celebrity gossip sites.  Those 15 minutes seem to fly by each morning, with nothing to show for it other than spilled oatmeal on my robe.  Then, the world wakes up.  Alarm clocks, dog out, kids up, forced breakfast, cutting short cartoons, bus late, hair dryer, socks on and out the door.  Whew!

A good friend of mine just shared with me that her daughter now has her driver’s license.  She didn’t realize the solitude she now gets to experience during her commute into work each morning was so greatly missed.  With her daughter driving herself to and from school each day, she has a blissful 30 minutes of time to herself each morning and night.

If you had 30 minutes (or even just 15) of time to yourself, what would you do?

Task-master guru and author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” Stephen Covey asks us to “Sharpen the Saw” in his 7^th habit lesson.  Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have–you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.  Covey goes on to suggest some activities to engage in to fulfill these lessons including:

Physical:                              Beneficial eating, exercising, and resting

Social/Emotional:            Making social and meaningful connections with others

Mental:                                Learning, reading, writing, and teaching

Spiritual:                              Spending time in nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service

I challenge you to carve out 15 minutes of your day today and spend it on one of these areas.  In 15 minutes, I bet you can: plan a healthy dinner, take a walk around your office or even around the block, meditate, write a letter to someone you love, read a few pages or even a chapter from a favorite book, write a blog post, write in a journal, download new songs that inspire you, research your next vacation…whatever you decide, make it an activity that has nothing to do with your “right now.”