Showing posts with label precious time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label precious time. Show all posts

Sunday, December 29, 2019

TIME Waits for No One!

As the old year ends and a new one begins, I often look back and silently chide myself over the time I might have squandered and should have used more wisely.
 
The New Year is always a great time to say good-bye to all our yesterdays and give a hearty, forward-looking hello to a new start in a new year. It’s a feeling that invades our thinking and whispers, “Your slate is now wiped clean of all the troubles and missteps you’ve experienced. Let’s begin anew.”

So, how will you use this unbiased fellow we call TIME--who credits you every morning with 86,400 seconds in the day? (Or 31,536,000 seconds in the new year?)

Imagine a bank that credits your account with $86,400 each day. It carries no balance over from day to day, and every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use. What would you do? I believe everyone would agree we’d be foolish not to draw out every cent.

Each of us has such a bank. It’s called TIME. And every morning we are offered 86,400 seconds. Every night, TIME writes off, as a loss, whatever seconds, minutes or hours you have failed to invest in good purposes. There is no balance. There are no overdrafts. Each day TIME opens a new account. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

What am I really saying? I’m telling you the clock is running and you must live in the present of today’s deposits. Invest your time so you get the utmost in health, happiness and success. Make the most of today. Treasure and use wisely each moment in both work and play.

To realize the value of one year, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of one month, ask a returned soldier how he felt during his last four weeks of deployment 
To realize the value of one hour, ask lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of one minute, ask the person who just missed his plane flight, train or bus.
To realize the value of one second, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of one millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment you have. Remember, TIME waits for no one!




Monday, April 9, 2018

ARE YOU A BURNT MARSHMALLOW?


Do you feel like you’re racing through life? Do you often think you’re never going to get everything you planned to do finished by the end of the day? I’m one of these life runners. I plan more than I can realistically accomplish in 16 hours of daylight.

I remember reading a story about roasting a marshmallow over an open fire. First, you put it on a roasting stick, and then you hold it near the flames. When it turns a light brown, you pull it out, look at it, then proceed to roast it some more. Now, it turns a darker brown, but you return it to the fire again. Suddenly, the marshmallow starts to puff up. Maybe only a few seconds pass, but you aren’t quick enough, so it bursts into flames. Now you have a charred, ruined treat.

Life is like that blackened marshmallow. Every time you try to squeeze in one more task, another obligation, or run one more errand, you’ve cheated yourself out of time that you should be setting aside for your own enjoyment or peaceful contemplation. You’ve raced through the day, and taken no time for yourself—to read a book, watch a television show, work on a favorite craft, chat with a friend, tinker in your workshop, and the list goes on and on. 

Sometimes it’s necessary to not only live for today, but also to enjoy it as well. Will I stop being a life runner? Probably not. But I’m trying hard to slow down, pace myself, set priorities, enjoy the moment, and reserve some precious time for myself. 

I’m trying hard not to be a burnt marshmallow.