A few weeks ago, someone asked Arnold Schwarzenegger for advice on what to do if you don’t have time to exercise or be healthy. He said he usually responds to this question by asking the person to pull out their cell phone and look at how much time they’ve spent on social media this week. He also mentioned it’s usually about prioritizing time, not a lack thereof.

The comment sunk in, but I didn’t give it much more thought since I’ve been putting in the time lately. Then this weekend, I got to see how this worked firsthand.

A friend of mine gets into a pretty severe depression about his weight and eating habits pretty regularly. He beats up on himself, and I hate to see that. I’m always doing my best to extend grace and be encouraging. At the end of the day though, it always comes down to a lack of time. He has young kids and a stressful job, and he just doesn’t have time to exercise or meal prep.

And I think I bought that excuse for the most part. I know I’ve used that excuse for years, who am I to judge someone else for using it? But then this weekend, I watched my friend make a conscious choice to stay up all night messing with a hobby, after he’d already wasted several hours on it earlier.

That got me thinking about how my friend prioritizes his time. A good portion of it is spent watching YouTubers with hot takes on entertainment. Even more time is spent in Facebook groups following various hobbies. That’s when I realized, my friend does have the time, he just chooses to do something else. The same way I had the time, I just chose to watch TV or play video games, or worse, browse the internet instead of walking or exercising.

I guess, what I’m getting at is, we have the time, we just have to prioritize. It has to be important to us. And as my new banner in my gym says: