There are so many things that are deemed valuable in life. Money, cars, nice clothes, and expensive jewelry are at the top of the list. A lot of people spend their entire lives searching for these things.
But time is something that is not often regarded as a valuable resource.
Time is something that is kinda weird and abstract. Even though we all understand the concept of time, do we really understand how valuable it is? The five seconds that you just spent reading that sentence, you can never get back. Oh, and the couple seconds that you spent thinking about the seconds that you will never get back, you lost those forever, too.
It doesn’t appear that we are on the verge of creating a time machine any time soon, so until then, we are all stuck in the present. Not the past or the future, the present. A lot of time, we don’t really live in the present, though. We are fixated on what happened two days ago. Or we are thinking about what we are going to do this weekend.
We are only allotted a certain amount of time in this life. Even the luckiest people normally don’t make it to one hundred years old. So how come we don’t treat our time with reverence? We complain about our brand new car getting scratched and then proceed to go watch Netflix for three hours every day.
The car can be fixed. It is probably not that big of a deal. But the three hours spent watching Netflix… I hope you enjoyed your show because you will never get that time back.
Cherish your time
“It is not that we have a short time to live, it is that we waste most of it,” wrote Seneca.
A lot of people consider wasting time to be watching too much T.V, or scrolling through social media. While this is a part of it, I want to talk about another way that humans waste their time.
At some point in your life, you have starred at the clock, praying for the minutes to tick by faster so you can move on and do what you want. When I was in school, I would only focus on trying to make the time go by faster. Instead of just being present in the moment, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would do when I got home. And then when I got home, I could only think about the next school day. It was a vicious cycle that happened for years. All I did was wish away my time. I failed to live in the moment.
If you don’t take time to actually slow down and enjoy your time, no matter what situation you are in, you are never going to be happy.
I think that meditation has become so popular because many people have realized this. As humans, we just really aren’t wired to enjoy the moment. We are designed to always be looking forward to whatever is coming next instead of enjoying now. Whenever you feel yourself watching the clock, take a deep breath and force yourself to be happy in the present.
Time and happiness
Spending your time well isn’t even about productivity. It is not about using your time to become a machine that works 12 hour days. Sure, you can work really hard and probably become very successful. But if you don’t enjoy what you are doing, what is the point? So many people feel the need to grind away every day and forget to focus on their own happiness.
Just like most things in life, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The person who works too much will have money and success, but is not going to be a happy person. The person who does no work won’t be satisfied, either.
It is all about finding the balance. You need to take time to work. This is true. No matter how much you like what you are doing, there are going to be days where you don’t feel like getting up and going to work. But you must do it. On the other hand, you can’t be so focused on work that you don’t actually take time to appreciate and enjoy your time on this planet. It is a delicate balancing act. And trust me, there will be periods in your life where one side will outweigh the other. But that’s ok. As long as you recognize it and make an effort to balance it out.
Instead of just working for a paycheck, think about what makes you the most happy. There is no point in wasting your time doing something that doesn’t fulfill you. Reflect on everything in your life. Ask yourself, is what I am doing here contributing to my well-being? Is this actually a good use of my time? If I were to die tomorrow, would I regret how I spent my time?
Once you ask these questions, keep yourself in check. If you realize that you are spending much of your day staring at a screen, take a break and find a better way to spend your time. If you realize that you are working too much and stressed out because of it, dial it back a bit and find a hobby.
Conclusion
When you really think about it, time shouldn’t just be considred our most valuable resource, it should be thought of as our only resource. Everything that we have in life is a byproduct of how we spend our time. You want money? You have to sacrifice your time for work. You want to read a book? You have to sacrifice your time to actually read said book.
You won’t make the right choice all the time, but the key to a good life is sacrificing your time for the things that actually matter.