JULY 13, 2020
Time is infinite and eternal, yet limited and short.
-Prabhsimrat Gill
Time is the most powerful and impactful asset we have in our lives. If we don’t have time, we cannot have health, happiness, wealth, fame and life. Time is the key to achieving all that we want and time is the key to living; because without time, life will cease to exist. It is important to use our time well, because it is limited…
Time is very ironic; it is infinite and eternal, because in the past it was there forever and in the future it will be there forever. But, time is also limited and short for us. We don’t continue to live forever like time; we live and we die in a very tiny fraction of it. In the tiny fraction of time that we exist in, we have two choices – squander our time away and live a mediocre life, or understanding the importance of time, investing it in a resourceful manner and living a, “Life well lived!”
Time continues forever; it never stops. So, what marks the difference between one phase of time and the other? The answer is Change. If nothing were to change in this universe, time would become unnoticeable and everything would fall into a still picture. This kind of monotony will bore time itself and make it question its own existence. Nothing remains constant in this world, except change.
Living a life without any real purpose is like putting your own little universe into a still picture; there is no change, but time is still moving on. If you are doing random things again and again without really knowing the reason behind them, you are putting your own life into a still frame. Monotony does not support growth, well-being and happiness. Growing, changing and overcoming new challenges does. Change is what keeps the universe growing and expanding, and being a part of it, you must grow and expand yourself. You can do this only when you understand the importance of time, and utilise it well.
To understand the real importance of time and change, imagine this situation.- “You wake up in the morning and you go directly to the balcony to catch a glimpse of the world around you. Suddenly, everything becomes utterly still. The leaves stop moving. The people stop in their path. The wind stops blowing. The cars stop and pause right in their place. The sun was rising but now it is at a fixed position and isn’t moving. You are not moving. Nothing is moving, and time has become unnoticeable, because nothing is changing.” This is what happens when you keep on repeating the same actions without any reason or purpose. The clock keeps ticking, but your life repeats in a still frame. To bring meaning, growth, happiness and success in your life, you need to understand that your time is limited and valuable. You must not waste your precious and important time in a still frame with no growth and no happiness.
To understand if you are using your time well, ask yourself this question-
If my time were to finish in the next five years, how would I change the way I use the remainder of my time? Will it remain the same way or will it change?
Once you get the answer to this question, you will know how to utilise your time well. It requires you to think deeply and answer truthfully and subjectively. Let’s break it down and understand. In this question, you need to imagine a scenario which will help you understand how aligned or misaligned your actions are with what you want to achieve. While imagining this scenario, think(or write down) about everything that you are doing today. After doing this, think that if you just had five years left, then what would you do more of, what would you put aside and what new things will you do or inculcate in your daily life to achieve what you are aiming for. With this, you will understand what your priorities truly are and how much time you are giving to them. Now that you know how valuable your time is and how bad a monotonous and ‘still framed’ usage of time is, you will naturally want to spend more time on your priorities. You must also consider that this approach can be applied to achieving short term goals as well. Just reduce the time frame to less than when you expect to achieve your goals.
With this kind of questioning and self-analysis, you are hitting two birds with one stone. You are not only identifying and focusing on your priorities, you are also reducing the time it will take you to achieve your goals as you have removed the things that were misaligned from your goal; giving you additional time to achieve new goals and grow even more.
Once you begin to prioritize your daily actions, you will be more aligned than ever and change will benefit you as you will know the reason behind your actions and will definitely use your time well. Achieve goals, prioritize your actions, know the reason behind them, use your time well and when your time in this immortal universe will come to an end, you will feel that the life you lived in this time was a “life well lived!!!”