‘Where has time gone?’ is a common question we throw out when we encounter a person or place that no longer looks as we remember. Maybe it is a friend we have not seen in years or our nephews who now look like little men though only a short while has passed since we last saw them.
Time is a God-given gift to humanity: A free gift to do with as you please. Like every smart millionaire who invests his finances wisely so that he can have a great return on his investment, we have been given the freedom and the ability to invest time wisely so we can get a return on the investment that will cause us to be wealthy, healthy and living a blessed life.
The fascinating thing about this gift is that it is irreplaceable, perishable and, once gone, it is gone forever! A second incredible aspect of this gift is that we have the freedom to do with it as we please.
Time is what we use to determine the quality of life we have chosen to live. Time management is about how you manage yourself. It is about how you lead yourself or how much of yourself you are leading. Everything you do in life needs time. A client once said to me, “The best way to learn is through a process”. This is so true but it takes time to go through a process. It takes time to build a good life and building is a process.
What you invest your time in is what you hold valuable. The Pareto Principle states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. In other words, 20 % of what you do accounts for 80% of the VALUE of what you accomplish. The most important things you do (the top 20%) are usually long, hard and boring yet the result is 80% of the value you invested. 80% of what you do is usually easy going, fun and not as demanding, but the value of this is only 20% of its investment! Your actions will tell what you really value.
Some people feel that their family is most important to them yet they spend more time at work than with family. Others may feel that studying and achieving great grades is vital for their future career yet they spend more time playing, entertaining or doing other ‘important’ things that will not give them their desired result.
One of the worst enemies of good time management is a creepy thief called PROCRASTINATION. Procrastination creeps in with a thousand and one excuses to rob you of your priorities and consequently disappoint you and drain your energy which prevents you from reaching your desired goal. Procrastination, however, can easily be arrested and deprived of its effect on you if you simply commit to the gift of time and manage it so well that you begin to lead your life rather than being led by all sorts of random distractions or non-priorities.
The bad news is that time flies, the good news is you are the pilot (Michael Attshuler.)
Choose not to let time pass you by. You are never too old or too young to start today to make time work for you. You have the ability and the strength to create and lead a great life. Our future and our greatness is created by what we do with TIME.
