What is the one ‘thing’ that cannot be saved, shared, bought or sold, seen or heard? It cannot be captured, controlled, traded or detained. It is not even a thing, it has no fundamental size, shape, physical quality.
It is one thing, one thing we can measure, talk about, lament about losing, and complain about not having enough, but really, what is it? No shape, no color, no weight, it doesn’t smell or look bad. Is it a concept? A construct developed by humans to put limits on our individual experiences on earth?
The only thing that is limited and unlimited at the same time (no pun intended). The great equalizer between men is time. A commodity that each one of us has but no one knows how much.
We know when our time began, but never when it will end naturally.
Our time on the planet is unknown.
We are looking for more of that. Although it is free, it is also priceless, we waste it on meaningless games or TV shows or just being lazy, or even worse, just wasting time.
Expect. Our incremental time slots can be bought and sold, if you have a job you are selling your time for money, that just means you are sharing your time with other people you would rather spend your time with.
We try to control time by planning our time. It can’t be stopped. Even if we die, time goes on and on.
One interesting thing: time.
We all want more, which is impossible. We have a limited quantity. That, we cannot change.
We talk about it like we can control it. “How am I going to spend my time?”
I wisely hope? Time waits for no one. We are all on schedules in an attempt to control this limited resource. We say “Don’t waste my time”. But we can’t own it.
Its value is beyond reproach. There is no way to get more.
It is much more valuable than money. We must spend it to live; shopping for groceries, housing and recreation.
It seems that the older I get the faster time goes by, there have been times when I would attend a (boring) meeting where time seemed to stand still, at the same meeting someone would say “Is it that time yet? That time It just flew by!” It is shocking how the same time frame can give two different perceptions. This makes individual perception of time variable. So we each perceive time differently.
When I look back, time seems to have gone very fast, however, when I look forward, it seems to go much slower, even dragging at times.
The perception of time is especially interesting while waiting. Some people are excellent servers; they pull out their iPad or phone and wait. It’s what we do after all.
So how can we manage what we cannot control?
Every time we notice that we are carelessly using our most valuable resource, think about this article and reconsider your actions. Can you use your time more wisely?
What would you do if you knew how much time you have?
What would you do different?
How would you spend your time?
Would you use it wisely? Or do you wish it would go away?