Let’s face it; none of us knows how much time we have here on earth. None of us knows the time or date of our death and none of us knows if we’ll make it to old age. Being young we always assume that we will live long and it’s easy to take on an immortal attitude. But at any moment things could change. Each of us is given just 24 hours a day. Each day we have 1,440 minutes to invest or 1,440 minutes to waste. Martin Luther King had the same amount of time each day. So did Jesus, Albert Einstein, and Ludwig Van Beethoven. Bill Gates has the same amount of time. So does Michael Jordan and President Obama. What do all these people have in common? They all have managed their time well.
I heard a story of a man who was getting up in his years. He calculated that if he lived to be 75 years old that he would only have 1,000 Saturdays left in his lifetime. So, he went to the toy store and bought 1,000 marbles and put them in a huge glass jar. Diligently, every Saturday he took one of those marbles out of his jar. Slowly over time he watched the marble depth get smaller and smaller. This was a daily reminder to him that his time was limited. Finally, on his 75th birthday he appeared on a radio show and declared, “Today, I took the last marble out of my jar, every Saturday from now on is an extra gift to me, I am now on borrowed time.” With his little experiment, he gained a fresh perspective on the value of time.
Let’s say you are given 5 million dollars in your bank account today. The only stipulations are that you have to spend every cent by the end of one full week. Anything you did not spend would just be taken back and given to someone else. Now, if that happened to any one of us we would be sure to spend each dollar wisely. Think about how we would calculate a couple thousand here, a couple thousand there. We would make lists of who we’d give some too, lists of places to book travel, and things to buy. Why would we do that? Because money is valuable!
But there is one thing that is more valuable than money, and that is time.
Once you spend your time you can never get it back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Are you investing your time wisely? Are you making the most of every moment and spending your time on the things that really matter? I come across a lot of people who are ‘waiting’. They’re waiting to release music, waiting to get their big break, waiting for love, or waiting for the perfect time to act on a dream. The truth is there is no perfect timing. There is no reason to wait. There is no invisible alarm clock that’s going to go off when the time is just right. You just have to do things with excellence and hope for the best. Make a decision, stick to it, and go for it! Waiting will only get you farther from your goals because the longer you wait the harder it is to keep yourself motivated to follow through. Leaders and innovators understands the power of time; understand that we are each given the same amount each day. And that time is a precious commodity. Don’t take it for granted. Don’t assume you have all the time in the world. You have a destiny to fulfill and a dream to conquer.
So what are you waiting for?
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Abraham Lincoln
Tutorial: Making the Most of your Time
1) Do you know what the top 10 most important things in your life are? If not, time can definitely get away from you. Write down 10 things that are the most important to you. Things that if you were on your death bed and didn’t do, you would regret..
2) Now write a list of 10 things that interfere with doing your most important things.
3) Now give yourself some time and think of solutions to get rid of the things in your life that are keeping you from making the best of your time.