The True Value of Time

Do you ever wonder where all of your time went? Are you always in a hurry? Does life seem to fly past you by in a dizzying blur? Or on the other side of the coin, are you someone who feels forced to watch time crawl by at an agonizingly slow pace? Does time seem to mean nothing more to you these days than, "You must wait..."

Are you waiting for that magical moment somewhere in the future? Or do you seem to be stuck in the betters days already past? What is your present relationship to this intangible asset we call time?

First of all, I really can't imagine the everyday working person who is busy with life tackling these questions very frequently. Why? Because to answer them requires a quiet mind that is free from all of the distractions that life throws our way. If our mind is not quiet, then we are already frustrated before we arrive at these questions, and quickly give up on discovering the answers. Sometimes we just need a little help.

Where did all of the time go? When we ask ourselves this question, we become painfully aware of the value of time. However, we need to realize something. Often we despair over the scarcity of time. It seems to us that we have no time to do what needs to be done. First we need to stop. Stop and realize that time is an asset, similar to money in the bank. If you had money in the bank, what could you do with it? You could spend it on almost anything that the amount was capable of. Anything. But you wouldn't do that. Rather you would spend it on something, not anything. You might even place priority on what you would spend the money on.  Spend all of your money on trivial pursuits, go to the store and buy anything, and soon you will run out of it. You must spend your money on something not anything, and so you must likewise spend your time. But time and money are different. You may choose not to spend money. You may likewise see that the flow of money into your bank account may stop. However, you can never choose not to spend time. You will always spend time on something. Also, time will never stop pouring into your life until the day that you die. 

Some people realize that time can be invested. These people invest time in things that bring meaning into their life. Therefore, they do not despair over the passing of time. Time spent with family, in personal development, in learning, in helping others to grow mentally and spiritually, and in charity is time well spent. Nevertheless, some might argue that they simply have no time for these things. However, we must learn to integrate meaningful expenditures of time into our daily routines. Simply wishing someone well in a brief encounter during the day is time well spent. Time well spent uplifts us and encourages us and those around us. We must make the personal choice to stop despairing over the passing of time, and to instead harness its incredible power to enrich our lives. We must have faith that the universe will never ignore the honest heart's desire to do good. Speak now in your own heart what you would do to enrich your life and the lives of those around you with your abundance of time, and this abundance will enter into your live. Live with faith, purpose, and confidence. Then you will see that opportunities to do these things will present themselves to you everyday. 

Almost all of us have been told during our lives that patience is a virtue. But we don't live in a patient society. We want everything now. Maybe we are patient to start with but as our minds become noiser and noiser and as we see ourselves as busier and busier we get more frantic. And then we are asked to wait. At this point, when we want throw up our hands in despair, we must wait.

And then waiting is hard. Why do we have to wait? We don't want to wait. We have things to do. Well, when you reach this point, and you say, "I can't wait. I have things to do", you are absolutely right. You can't wait, and you really do have things to do. No duh, right?

Think about it this way. If we trust that everything happens with an embedded purpose, then we must also accept that the waiting carries with with it also a purpose. Times when waiting presents itself are times when the universe presents clues to you about what you should do. Maybe you have to wait for a job promotion because you need to develop more skill and competency. Maybe you need to wait for things so that you can truly appreciate them. Maybe there is a meaning behind all of this waiting. Perhaps the most difficult reason behind the necessity of waiting is to give us time to realize that we really don't need what we are waiting for. Have you ever heard someone say before making an important decision, "I need to sleep on it?" Of course we can't sleep on every important decision in life, some decisions must be made quickly. But for the person who see the value in having to wait or choosing to wait, waiting is much less painful. It's all in how we look at it- our perspective. 

Secondly, one must be cautioned not to live anywhere but in the present if one is to be truly satisfied. Maybe you will remember a time when you where a child when you thought of how great things would be when you grew up. And if you didn't enjoy high school, you might have looking to college for your saving, and said that things would be so much better then. And you look into the future and say that life will be so great when I start my career. And then it becomes getting to that next promotion. And so on and so on. What's the problem here? You see, while times do change and bring many different things into your life, the steward of the time (you) may or may not change. And if the steward of the time doesn't change, then the quality of life that the time may bring may not also change. We can only live in the time that we have right now. We cannot yet spend the future time, nor can we again spend the past time. Live now. Choose to grow as a person, and the quality of life that time brings you will also improve.

Be blessed. Be encouraged and encourage others, and have a great day!

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