Sunday, April 1, 2018

Time - you have less left than you think.


Time – you have less than you think.

Tim Connor

A recent study I read said that if a person lives to age 90 they get 4680 weeks of life.  A different study stated that the average lifespan of an American today is 77.3 years.  Ok, I’m doing the math – so if you are 40 +/- you have approximately - 1900 weeks left to live.  And your point Tim is, other than being morbid?  Just a quick question – are you living as a spectator or creating a legacy that touches life and others in a significantly positive way and that you will leave behind many people who will smile when they think of your life while you were here?

Curious about this simple concept and the number of days?

OK, let’s say you make it to 77 (the current average lifespan) that’s 29,000 days.  You are currently 50 – what’s left for you - 30 years or about 9500 days.  Trust me – that’s a flash of time considering this year seems like it just started and its already April.

Tim, where are you going with this?  In a hurry?  Laugh!  OK, at least smile!

Two brief points I’d like to make.

-You can’t manage time.

-Today matters.

You can’t manage time. An Interesting concept when you consider there are millions of people every day trying to improve their time management. And many of them attend time management seminars to learn how to better use time.

I challenge you to manage the next minute!  Can’t do it.  Time passes.  When you are doing what you like or are with people you enjoy time seems to speed by.  When you are doing things you hate or are with people you don’t like time seems to creep by very slowly.  The rate of time passage does not change. Your perception of passing time does.  Time management is a misnomer.  If you are having trouble managing time I’ll be you are having trouble managing:

-people -resources -decisions -procrastination -success -failure -emotions -feelings -problems -attitudes and so on.

The inability to successfully manage any of the above will result in a “time management” problem.  To improve your time effectiveness, you must improve one or all of the above. A myth - we all wish we had more time?  Believe that?  Let me ask you, do you think the average person with a life-threatening disease wish they had more time?  Who really wants more time? Does a five-year-old think about time passage?  Do you really think the average teenager is worried about getting older?

We all get twenty-fours a day – regardless of whether you are happy or sad, alone or surrounded by friends, wealthy or broke, sick or healthy – etc.  Want more time? Forget it.  One day you will breathe your last breath – will your last thought be – I wish I had done; more?  Less?  Better? Sooner?

Today matters.

Why do so many people take life for granted assuming that they will have all the time they need to do all the things they want, visit all the places they desire and accomplish all of their goals and plans?   Why do so many people squander their present moments or settle in life for an unfulfilling career or relationship?  Why do so many people during their life waste thousands of hours reliving old mistakes and failures, bad decisions and unfulfilled dreams?

Why do so many people want more or better but refuse to try or choose to remain stuck?

I don’t have a clue.  I have done a few of these many times myself.  What you choose to do with the time you are given is up to you because it is your life and it too will be very short in comparison to the time that man has walked the earth or will walk the Earth for centuries to come.

Life is short and the older you get the faster it moves.  Once you hit fifty trust me, the hours, days and years will fly by and there isn’t a thing you can do to slow them down. 



All you can do is put as much life as you can into the days, weeks and years you have. Years ago, one of my best friends passed away at age forty-one.  I have had several mentors and heroes who made it well past ninety. Who is to say how many years each of us will get?  Who has a contract with God that says you will make it to the ripe old age of one hundred and as spry, mentally alert and healthy as you were when you were in your teens?  No one.  Each day is a gift.  Each moment is a blessing.  If this is true, why do so many people whine and moan about stupid stuff and the quality of their life?  Don’t like something – change it, fix it or delete it. Sure, I would like to have more money, be better looking, enjoy excellent health, but guess what – sooner or later life happens to all of us. No one sits around in their twenties planning their life thinking OK, let’s make sure we include divorce, failure, bankruptcy, cancer, career disaster, discouragement, loneliness and any number of negative circumstances in their future.  But in the end, we all get our share of both good and bad stuff.



Some people leave legacies of love while others leave legacies of despair and hate.  Some people leave having given more than they took, and others leave having taken more than they gave.  What will be your legacy?  How will you live each of the precious moments you were given? 

So, friends, live today because before you know it, it will be your time to say good-bye. 

You are here for a little while and then you are gone forever.


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