TIME:LEARN TO LOVE IT!
I was going to post a new blog.. At least, that was my intention before I hurled my pencil to the floor in a fit of pique (artistic temperament you see) when I realised that, as much as I wanted to do all the things I’d focused on achieving today, I wasn’t going to get around to doing this one.
Then it dawned on me that a lot of you out there might have been grateful for that anyway as, much as you’d love to have a read of my latest offering, you, well, it’s a case of “…sorry and all that Ed, but I just don’t have the time”.
There’s a bit of a common theme developing here, isn’t there?
Time. We never seem to have enough of it. If someone could package it up in a nice glittery box and tie a ribbon around it, they’d be onto a very good thing.
For Christmas this year, I have bought you the gift of time”.
It comes in steadily incrementing values. So, for example, you can buy someone an hour of time, two, four, twelve or even a whole day of time to do with as you choose.
Whilst the exceedingly generous will splash out on a whole weeks worth. Imagine that, a week of time for you to use as you wish. Marvellous. The concept is a winner so if you know how to put it all together, do get in touch.
n the meantime, let’s take a detached look at the subject in hand. With our best poker faces on. We don’t, after all, want time to think it’s getting the better of us.
So let’s start with a simple question.
How long do you think it would take you to count to 86,400?
Off you go now, 1, 2,3,4.....let me know when you’re finished.
It would, incidentally, if you really went ahead and did it, take you about a day to get there. Because there are precisely 86,400 seconds in a day.
It doesn’t actually sound that much does it?
And even less when you break it down to how many minutes there are in a day.
Just 1,440.
1,440 minutes in a day.
It isn’t enough is it, never has been. Infact there just aren’t enough minutes in a day to get everything that you want to get done. How many times have you said that, else heard a family member or friend declare it, that there just isn’t enough time?
Well here’s a message for you and everyone else that feels that way. The amount of time you get in a day, the number of minutes that pass in each and every one of them isn’t going to change anytime soon. So it’s no good putting everything and anything off until someone, somewhere, announces that the days have become longer.
In other words, make the most of the time we all have. Because time is one of the great equalisers in life. It doesn’t discriminate; it doesn’t distinguish between rich and poor, between impetuous youth and wise old age or those who either wield great power and influence or live lives of giving and humility.
Time draws a line in the sand and stands us all, as equals upon it.
Everyone.
It’s an asset, a tool for personal living that many people have acknowledged as being the very best that they have.
The late Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple once declared that, “My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time”.
Now you may well think that you and Steve Jobs never had very much in common. But you did. Both you and Steve started every single day with one very clear and immovable thing that you shared between you.
But maybe, just maybe, his appreciation of just how vital a resource that time was meant he was able to manage his more effectively than you might be at the moment.
And that’s the key phrase right there. “At the moment”. Because there is no reason whatsoever why you shouldn’t be able to emulate Steve Jobs or any of life’s highest achievers, at least, that is, in the way you manage and make the most of your time.
And how well do you manage your time?
Your response to that question may well be a shake of the head and admittance that no, you don’t manage it so well and yes, there really doesn’t seem to be enough of it during the day to get everything that you want to get done and completed.
Do you find yourself working late in order to meet deadlines? Maybe you even miss meals or precious family time in order to get these, or other tasks completed? Do you work so hard and late that you don’t get enough sleep and then, when you do find time to sleep, find yourself to be so tired, that you can’t sleep?
It sounds as if you need to take control of time rather than letting it control you.
Many people think that the most important thing in life is money. And that money, however much of it you have (or little-in which case, this becomes even more important) must be looked after and managed safely. That’s why, for example, most us put our money into the bank rather than in a cardboard box under the stairs.
Infact if you managed your money that way, you’d probably be called a fool. And you know what they say about a fool and his money.
t was Benjamin Franklin who once said that time is money. And, just like money, time has to be managed properly. It has to be cherished, cosseted, loved and valued above just about all of the other resources that we have access to in our day to day lives.
We can’t achieve anything without having the time to do it in. So let’s start to see it for what it is.
Something precious.
And a good friend.
