In one way all people are created equal.
We all have 168 hours in a week. We all get exactly 1440 minutes every single day. And we all are equal in that none of us can do anything to get back the time that has passed us by. We could get discouraged by the time that is now behind us, or maybe have regrets while thinking about what we wish we would have done differently with that precious time. Both of those activities are not good use of current time. We can do nothing about the past, other than learn from it.
What can you learn about your past use of time? What did you do with the 168 hours that you had last week? How did you use the 1440 minutes you were gifted yesterday? Did you just burn those minutes or did you set out to accomplish something specific, something that really matters to you? Don’t spend too much effort on how you spent yesterday’s time, only enough to hopefully realize that you maybe didn’t accomplish all that you would have liked.
The million dollar question
The million-dollar question that should be pondered is, “What can I do with my future gifts of time, to make sure I have more of the things that I want to happen in my life, actually happen?” There are actually a number of things that can be done to have your time produce more of what you want out of your life. I can’t address all of them here, but I will give you a couple.
First is simply “your” attitude, and “your” awareness, of “your” time. You are the one who has the most control over your time, and how it is spent. Accept responsibility for your 1440 minutes. Don’t try to blame your job, spouse, family, other commitments, or almost anything else, for misuse of your time. You must not only own your time, but you must be aware of how valuable it really is.
What do you want in your life?
Another important thing to do, is think about what you want to have happening in your life. This seems like a monumental task for some people. I am a thinker so this comes naturally for me. Even if you are not a thinker, you must put some effort into knowing what it is you want out of this minute, day, year, season, or life. This could easily lead into the importance of dreams, vision, and goal-setting, but for this lesson we will stick to time management.
So don’t get overwhelmed by thinking that you have to have an entire plan for your life thought through before you can do anything. I am a dedicated thinker and I don’t have everything all thought out, nobody does. Life is a journey, not a destination. It is a process that will continually be evolving, and we must be ok with that.
So just pick one thing that you would like to have more of in your life. Come on I dare you, just pick one thing. Next “time” we will give you some more tools to make it happen.