Time-Killers
We often forget the importance of time. It’s easy to stay busy, but are we being effective? The inevitable truth that we have limited time and limited health often does not seem to register with most people on a as profound of a level as it should. Working at a job is a way to exchange time for money. Only when we get older, we are more likely to understand that nobody can trade money for time.
Aside from the obvious Facebook and Twitter, which everyone knows is usually wasting their time; there is substantially less time on our hands due to everyday time-killers. Everyday time killers are more abundant than we initially give mind to. Everyday time killers are the activities we have to do, such as eating breakfast, taking a shower, going to work, and managing our finances, watching TV, etc. The moments in which we really are living are the moments in which we are truly engaged with what we love doing. And we need to engage in those activities as often as possible.
The average person spends one-third of their lives sleeping. Another one-third of life is spent in the workplace. This means we have to share the final one-third of our valued time doing both the necessary time-killing activities and the activities that we really love. When we think about how much time we have to do what we really love, it’s quite limited when it also includes our daily responsibilities.
If we’re prudent, we can choose to do work that we love. This blends the working one-third of our lives with the leisure one-third of our lives. If we can turn our leisure into our work, then we’ve allowed ourselves more freedom to do what we love. Life is too short to be stuck in a 9-5 job simply because it pays the bills. We live in a time in which travel and opportunities are endless. Even if one is at an economical disadvantage, passion makes everything possible despite initial setbacks.
When we have those extra 4 hours or those long weekend days with nothing planned, it’s easy to just flip through YouTube and do nothing without imminent pressure. Having a clear mindset of life goals is the first step to getting motivated. We should always be motivated by what we want out of life, not by what we don’t want. However, hard lessons are often needed to help us get on the right track.
75 years is the average lifespan – make the most of it, and be an inspiration to others to live this gift out fully and well. We often can’t change the world with one big action, but change is often effectively made by small actions that permeate through the lives of others.
For further related reading, please check out: Priorities.
