Time.
It’s amazing how we waste the very thing that is so limited yet take as a never ending resource. We treat it like we have more of it than anyone else and seem to purposely enjoy blowing it like a newly crowned multimillionaire who just hit it big in the lottery and is getting revenge on all of his years of poverty by throwing away money in the faces of all who care to witness his outward dance of sheer buffoonery.
We feel as though we are more special than the next person as though our time on this earth is not coming to an end, for some, sooner than they think…….
It could be next year.
It could arrive after your next meal which you might never live to see completely digested.
It might come after you slip from your life of living according to God’s will, forever damning you to a bad place after a transgression that you just never had the time to get back on track and beg forgiveness for.
It could possibly be here after your next nasty argument with a loved one…….and haunt you forevermore because you never knew that it was the last time that you would see them.
Not only do we take for granted how much time we have, but we overlook how much control that we don’t have in HOW we are going to spend the little time that we have.
Some of us will live very long and prosperous lives on so many different levels. Success and prosperity may be a state of being that will change for you as your life develops and goes through the many experiences that mold your psyche. What smokes your drawers today may not do it for you 30 years from now.
Isn’t that so true?
So what if you outlived ALL of your friends but spent those years in torment because of a murder that you committed in a heated passionate rage that now could have been so easily avoided? Now you are living to a ripe old age in captivity as opposed to that old friend that you could never forget whose life came to an end peacefully while in his sleep under mysterious circumstances after living a progressive life full of achievements and enjoyed every moments with a smile on his face?
Who is/was better off?
Having more time doesn’t always mean that your life is better than someone who had less.
The majority of us I am sad to say just do not understand how precious a commodity it is until it is gone!
Imagine the man who is to go to his sentencing for a crime that he did comment where he KNOWS that he will pretty much do a life sentence. He wasn’t considered a flight risk in his case but still had to pay a huge amount of bond money just to taste the small of freedom that he sees coming to an end.
Imagine what it must be like for him to have his favorite meal knowing that it will probably be his last opportunity in life to do so because this time tomorrow he will probably be unable to freely eat what he wants so every passing bite gets more intense than the one before as he extracts maximum pleasure from a meal whose flavor will last a lifetime in his culinary dreams.
Why is it that we seem to cherish the things that mean the most to us when we know that our time is coming to an end?
We want to cry when as a child we know that we are about to graduate from a particular school and it is hitting us that things in our live will never be the same. We even feel that we are going to miss that one fellow student that we couldn’t stand as we see that things weren’t as bad as they appeared. The passing of those last few grains of sand in the hourglass of the various phases of our life have a magical way of changing our personal perspectives really quick now don’t they?
The question that I ask is why is it that we have to wait until it seems as though our time in a particular phase of our life is coming to an end before we have a heightened sense of how precious it is?
Why can’t we live our lives normally with this heightened sense of urgency all of the time and extract a maximum amount of life out of each moment?
I’ve seen too many people who have even had the luxury of a deathbed where they knew their time was coming to an end soon due to a sickness or a natural soon to be expiration from old age speak out how they would haven’t wasted the time that they did in certain phases of their lives that were so crucial once they had the perspective to look back on it with a little more wisdom. I learned from these experiences and understood that I needed to appreciate time more as I wrote the many chapters of the book of the life that is Lance Scurvin.
…….and I know that if you are honest with yourself that there might be a few pages out of the book of your life that you wish would just disappear. But it doesn’t work like that, but the good part about it is that you are enabled to decide how your story turns out in the end and that as long as you are alive you can make a change. Just don’t take for granted the time that you have because you really don’t know how much you have left.
Wouldn’t it be something if we actually knew how much time we had left and how different we would have lived our lives if we actually knew this in fact? But it wasn’t set up that way by our Creator because he really wanted to see what choices we would make with the gift of free will and the illusion of possessing time without bounds. Those two things alone were too much of an intoxicant and temptation to walk the straight and narrow so we have been put ourselves in a position where we do it to ourselves in the end because we didn’t respect the amenities that we had in the form of time.
This life is almost like driving a brand new vehicle that has a dashboard whose gauges just don’t work. The gas gauge is stuck on F (Full) as we drive around for days losing our sense of where the levels of gas may actually be. Those of us who understand the importance of this awareness will pull over to a gas station after a time and fill the tank back up until it can’t take any more to ensure that it is full and won’t get us stranded somewhere in a dangerous place because we knew that we just topped it off. You see, we respect the fact that we don’t know how much gas was in the tank so we took the time to make the necessary adjustments.
But time is now like gas where we can pull over somewhere and purchase another ten years of life if we feel as though our gift is coming to a close. And the worst thing that can happen when running out of gas is to be stranded somewhere dangerous at night and having to spend the night safely inside of your vehicle until sunrise arrives. But with our lives, we must utilize and be aware that we can run out of that precious gift called time anywhere and can’t buy back a minute no matter how much money we have!
Rich. Poor. Famous. Unknown. Affluent or broke.
It doesn’t matter! When it’s your time that’s IT so we need to understand that we need to live in a manner where we can receive the maximum enjoyment and effectiveness out of this experience called life an the limited time that we have.
But sadly we get caught up in the time wasting activities that in the end amount to nothing of substance and nothing of a usable legacy.
The time wasted on trying to be seen by the world in a narcissistic manner.
The time wasted in our “little worlds” that seem to be so huge to us at one time because of our small mindedness, that when removed from that “insignificant village” that we wanted so badly to reign over as President, we realize how much precious time that we’ve spent on something once thought to be important that really only existed in our minds.
Talk about a rude awakening…….
The passage of time has a way of doing that to the most delusional souls amongst us, even when that soul is us.
But to wrap it up I want to share my view on what this thing called time really is and how I try to maximize and stretch it to get the most out of it in my life.
Time is like the gas that we run in our homes to heat them and cook our food on the stove. We can’t see it but we know that it’s there. We can smell the gas that we have in our homes only because of the scent that is added to it so we can detect a leak, but other wise it’s odorless.
Time is the same way. We have a sense of what it is and how it moves, but once disconnected from that sense of awareness because of our carnal indulgences in the world, we lose our grasp of where it has gone. This is how time slips past us and slaps us in the face when so much of it has transpired.
We find ourselves in a state of shock when we are standing over the casket of that loved one to whom we haven’t talked to in years, because of a minor disagreement. It is in times like this that you look back to see how much has been wasted. This is why those of us who are older seem to understand and appreciate the passage of time because, we have been slapped in the face by it countless times before, and do not want to feel the guilt and regret that comes with it, time and time again.
When time slaps you into reality and blows away the fog of denial that has clouded our view of our lives for so long, it is not the actual circumstances that hurt as much, but the feeling that you could have done better with the time you’ve wasted and can never get back. It’s like when you were a child and got reprimanded for something that you knew you purposely did wrong, but was more hurt and embarrassed because your punishment was doled out in front of others and the shame hurt more than the gentle smack of correction and corporal punishment.
But time, I believe, can be altered if we have full control over ourselves and focus on what tasks we have to accomplish and waste not a millisecond taking our mind off course. To me, time ebbs and flows like the water in the ocean – the part of the ocean that you might be on may be moving slowly while another part, many miles away, might move violently due to an approaching storm.
So depending on your state of mind and where you find yourself in relation to the many storms that swirl around our existence, time is not as set in stone as many would like for us to believe, because of their inability to navigate its mighty winds with any success.
“How do you get so much done in a day Scurv while holding down a full time and a part time job?”
…….I hear this literally everyday of my life since I’ve become a proven producer of consistent creations out here in cyberspace. And the reason why I can accomplish so much on such a limited budget of time is because, I understand how important it is and respect it as though my life depends on it because it DOES!
We have to learn how to multitask with the little time that we have. Did you notice that every time I mention time I usually say that we have a “little” time or “limited” time? Well I do this to remind myself that it is in fact a limited resource and speaking this way gives me a jump start with a sense of urgency that will fire me up to getting so much done within its limits.
We must understand that we are not corralled into doing one task at a time and if we learned how to ride the momentum that we have created on the back of this mighty thing called time we would have arrived to that place called success that we dared to crave and reach for in our dreams and goals. The sad thing is that we ALL have the unique tools and resources to move up to the next level in our lives but not all of us understand how to harness those gifts to take us where our Creator saved a place for us because we just don’t understand how to balance out our lives with the unseen factor of time.
I have a few personal rules that I will share in an abstract manner that deals with this issue of minimizing times effectiveness in our lives…….
1) Stay away from others who are not goal oriented
It’s better to spend time with someone who is relentless in the manifestation of their dreams that may not be in the same area of expertise that you are in as opposed to someone who is in your same profession that is not motivated to move beyond the comfort zone that has aided in their complacency.
Example: While I love artwork, writing, video production and the interaction with the wonderful people that I encounter on my talk show, I would rather hang out with a bunch of brain surgeons who are dedicated to their craft in an insane manner than being with an artist or writer who does nothing but waste time. enthusiasm is contagious and does NOT stay within any one category. To see anyone go after what they dream makes you think about how YOU can go after your dreams even harder!
It doesn’t have to be the same type of endeavor. So don’t be surprised if you see me enjoying a wonderful lunch with a group of professional deep sea scuba divers who record underwater videos of killers sharks for cable television shows for a living. I can find something in common with anyone who wants to better themselves because I do! Hard work respects and recognizes hard work no matter the lane traveled.
2) Balance out your time with time spent away from the pursuit of your goals
I have to admit that this one was a hard pill to swallow because it was something that I always knew on paper but never practiced it in the field. I did understand this on a physical level when I was a teenager competing in bodybuilding contests, that’s because when you run yourself down physically it is a bit hard to ignore it. But there are many areas of our life where we just cannot see how we are being run done as we have so many ways of artificially “propping ourselves up” with stimulants and living in a world that doesn’t honor the power of the rising of the sun and its setting on our bodies.
I have to say that we are moving fast as a society yet we are going nowhere. Our wheels are spinning fast but they turn too fast to become grounded to get a good grip so it can move our vehicles along the wonderful roads of life. Our thoughts never stop racing and we have to see what is going on in the world with our competitors as this is a trap that will drain our reserves and take us to a place of total exhaustion. It’s an illusion that is seductive that can only be revealed once we pull ourselves away from it completely for a time until we become centered once again and can place it in a proper perspective that doesn’t pull us in again in a bad way.
So with an abrupt sense of urgency, if I sense that an imbalance is impending in my world, I pull out of it and retreat even deeper to my quiet home life that reenforces me in every way to keep me strong and heal me up from the erosion of above average exposure that I have to deal with as a person who has shared a lot of his life online in cyberspace. WHEW! You just don’t know the half of what i have to go through with these strange entities who follow your every move, but thank God that I have a wonderful nurturing PEACEFUL home life and a supportive Wife that gets me back to full strength in no time flat! Who needs a vacation when you have it all at home! Keep your home as an untouchable area that no one enters because in this rough life you will need it!
3) Know what it is that you intend to do with your time before you put your energies into motion
I personally do NOT get up out of my bed until I know what it is that I want to strive for to accomplish by the end of the day. We sometimes price ourselves right out of progress by hoping to put the pedal to the metal in full force or either have no plan and squander away another day because we just didn’t know what it was that we wanted to do.
Either end of the spectrum is just as deadly when taken as the way to go. Sometimes when you really can’t make up your mind to get up and motivate maybe it’s because in actuality you do need a rest. But a surefire way to ALWAYS get something done toward the bigger goal no matter how big it may be is that you must understand that your success will come easier when attained in small increments.
The smaller and easier the mini goals are is the more successful you will be in always moving a degree closer to your goal than you were the day before. This in turn keeps ones moral up in order to continue in good spirits in each successive day. But it all starts with energy and time management and being wise enough to make decisions based on what’s best instead of pure emotion.
4) Make everything that you do enhance the end result, even if it appears that those actions are unrelated
Too many of us waste our energy attempting to accomplish everything in separate lanes instead of doing our tasks in bulk. What do I mean by this? Well, let me give you another abstract example – what if five of your coworkers lived in the same town as you which was about an hour drive from your job. Would it be wise to all drive your separate vehicles to work when you are going so far to the same destination?
NO!
So it would be the wiser thing to do if you all chipped in for gas and carpooled together in one vehicle even if you rotated the vehicles that you drove each week. This would cut down on the mileage of every vehicle and everyone will come out a winner in the savings and pockets.
So how do we incorporate this into our personal lives in order to reach our goals much easier?
It’s about moving more efficiently with the limited time that we do have and I am going to use myself as an example. I personally MUST use every moment of every single day or I will fall back behind on all of the lanes of creation that I am involved in. So I have learned for example to turn what others may claim to be a negative into a positive.
For example, when I have many runs to make outside of my home yet need to put in a few hours on my computer I will schedule those appointments in a manner that will give me the maximum time in those remote locations to actually get my work done. Now, if I know that I have to go to the dentist for some dental work, I know that there is a lot of waiting involved so I will bring my laptop with me so I can keep up with getting my articles finished.
It might be graphics that I have to work on or maybe an introduction to my talk show later on that night. Whatever it is, that otherwise dead time will be put to use when I would otherwise be forced to sit there in a deep frustration while reading those old tattered magazines that never seem to be about something that I am actually interested in.
So when it takes longer for my name to be called, it works out better for me in the end because I have successfully freed up my home time and will not have to write as much when I return home! It’s always a win-win situation when you operate in this manner! Multitask!
I probably ranted a little longer than I should have, but if I can help anyone see that they can reach their goals easier than they have been doing, then my job has been done. Remember that there is always a more effective way to making your dreams come true. And while you must work hard and sacrifice, it should never be a process that brings you to the point of a breakdown, then you know that you are overextending yourself and in essence doing something quite wrong.
Peace & Righteous Love Always,
Your Always Motivated Brother,
LanceScurv
