Time

Every minute of your time on this planet you‘re making choices.  Think of the options of saying yes or no to (s)exercise. By saying yes to one activity you’re saying no to a million others.  Yet many men make choices with their time that prove wasteful. But unfortunately these men don’t see that it is the wastefulness that often frustrates them. How can any man start using time more wisely?

Limited for all of us  

We have 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, 8,760 hours in a year.  If you were to live to a 100, you’d live 876,000 hours from the moment of birth to the moment of death.  That is not even a million hours in a lifetime.  You’d have to live to 114 to clock up a million hours on this planet. Many of us would like to be able to squeeze more hours out of each day.  We study strategies for managing time and creative scheduling techniques.  We try to figure out how to do a million things at once…

So how – and with whom – do you want to spend time?  

How do you spend time now?  A useful exercise is to track for one week how you spend it so that you can see.  I helped one man to become aware that he was spending too long on surfing the net comparing prices of the same massage treatment.  This was cutting down on the time he spent with his family, or enjoying the massage treatment!  He used the learning and started doing things differently.

By reading this blog you have voted to give a moment to personal [and professional] growth, learning, improving the quality and enjoyment of your life.  There’re a zillion ways you could spend these moments.  But here you are.  What values are you voting for by reading these words?

So how else can you explore how you use – or waste – your time?

• How do you use time in any context of your life?
• How could you reduce / eliminate the sense of time pressure you feel?
• And how do your choices about how you spend time reflect your highest values?
• What have you learnt about yourself with regard to spending time?
• Do you often find yourself rushing around?  What’s the cost of that to you?
• How do you want to spend the hours you have left on this planet?

Looking inside ourselves and reevaluating our habits and strategies can be a scary process.  Scary things are scarier when we’re alone with them.  But you may never walk alone – you can get my help! It’ll certainly prove one of the best investments of your time you’ve ever made!

Therefore…

In a life of scarce duration seek not mere accumulation.

Because the heart knows its measure in moments of unbridled pleasure.

In a life of hours many or few the worth of each is up to you.

A million hours may seem quite vast, yet in an instant they will have passed.

So hold each one with tender care, for the beauty in each is indeed rare.

In the canvas of time let love be your hue, and savor the hours that belong to you.