Nope. Not my first day, but it was my daughter’s first day of school last Tuesday.

I can’t remember anything from my kindergarten days – what we studied, who my classmates were (well my brother and I were classmates and according to my mom, we always fight). I remember my teacher, her name is Fely but other than my teacher and the school I went to, I remember nothing.

My wife and mom, even my son were all excited, all of us woke up early. We ate breakfast as my daughter prepares for school. I was nervous and sleepy at the same time as I slept late the other night preparing for my first solo webinar. I have a lot of things going on but I can’t help but feel sad that our daughter is not just ours anymore.

She will have a new world, new friends, teachers, playmates, a new crush, boyfriend, nope, maybe in 30 years… As I dig deep why I felt sad, I realized that I haven’t spent enough time with my daughter for the last 4 years. I was so busy working, working out, hanging out with friends, doing side hustles that I let those 4 years just pass by.

I am busy mostly because I want to be able to provide for my family, busy because I want to be able to buy whatever reasonable item that they want or need, I want to be a good provider but as I look back, were the time spent working worth it?

I can’t dwell on the past and make up for the lost time, nor I can say that I’ll be spending more time with her in the future as I might not be able to especially now that I need to work double. What I can do is to spend more time with her everyday, go on dates as much as we can and talk about how her day was as we see each other after her school or after work.

What’s my point? As a coach I tell my clients that time is an illusion, you can make time if you want and need to, and yet from time to time, I can’t make time. But we have to move forward (and up), just like our children are moving forward with their lives, we should too and support them all the way. Although from time to time, we fail to spend time on things that matter, we should still keep in mind that we have NOW to make up for it and let us make the best out of the things we can control.

What is the first thing you will do today to show you are making time to things that really matter?

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