The Myth of Quality Time

Have your big plans ever failed? Not just your big plans in work or business, but with your family?

As a parent, you've probably tried to plan quality time. But if you're like me, you have discovered that you cannot force quality time. For instances, if your daughter wants to hang out with her friends at the mall, but you force her to spend “quality time” with you, I can promise no matter how hard you try, you aren't going to experience much quality time.

Why is this?

It's because quality time can rarely be planned. That's the myth of quality time. No matter how great you are at time management, you simply cannot make it happen. Instead, quality time just sort of occurs in the midst of large doses of quantity time.

We talk a lot here about keys to success and how to lead our lives into their bigger stories. One way to lead our lives into their bigger stories is to focus on the importance of our family. Some keys to success for leading our families include:

• Eating meals together
• Taking walks together
• Playing games together
• Praying together
• Simply hanging out together

Did you notice all these ideas require quantity time? Did you also notice each activity might lead to quality time, but that quantity must come first?

Bottom line, the more time you invest in your family, the more you'll discover that quality time just sort of happens in the midst of quantity time. As a mentor of mine used to say, “Quality time is the great accident that just sort of happens in the midst of quantity time.”

Question: What activities lead to quality time with your family?

 
 

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