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Category: Time
Poor Kids, Lucky Kids.
In 50 years there may be no original content left to create. Everything will have been written, recorded, and documented.
There was a time, maybe several thousand (million?) years ago, when nothing was written down. Then cave dwellers started to create original content on cave walls and rocks. Some of these seem to have withstood the test of time.
Then people started to think, and feel, and create, and words were put on paper, and then music was recorded.
Everyone felt like they were the first and original creator of every idea, tome, piece of music, etc. Without any evidence to the contrary, they effectively were. At least in terms of proof. Though not necessarily in terms of reality.
Were the words written by Marcus Aurelius in Meditations, the first time anyone in history had ever thought those thoughts? Or were they just the first time they were ever captured, written down and eventually published for the world to consume?
As recorded music and books have taken off in popularity and accessibility (cost and ease of creation and consumption) in the last 70 years, more and more unique pieces have been created, written and recorded/published.
With access to GarageBand, or its equivalent/competitors, in the pockets of over 2 billion people, and growing rapidly, won’t every creative piece soon be recorded for history.
How soon will it be, before every word and every note, in every conceivable order, for a love song, or any other type, has been used and is owned by someone? How soon until every type of book has been written and there is nothing new to write?
Maybe it is longer than 50 years. Maybe it is sooner.
On the plus side, there is maybe the idea of excellence and efficiency. All the greatest hits and books will be known and available. The kids of today will know every detail of how to improve quickly, in everything, as every detail of every sport, career and relationship will have been considered, and assessed, and the optimal route to success will be available to all online.
It’s an interesting road ahead. It’s all the same. Only the names will change.
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Bonus Day Is Here!!
Who doesn’t love the bonus day? It’s full of excitement and expectation. Of course there is a little anxiousness mixed in as it might not turn out quite how you would have liked it too.
Money is one thing, but to have a whole extra day this year is something we are all able to enjoy. Talk about equality. We all get the same 1440 extra minutes on the 29th February 2020. Will you do something special? Will you simply enjoy the time?
If time is money, how much is this one extra day in your life worth to you?
Spend your time deliberately.
Whatever you do with your extra day, enjoy it! There is no return policy.
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Tell Them Now
Is there anyone you appreciate or are thankful to have in your life? Is there someone who helped you along your path, with kind words, good advice or support when it was greatly needed? Maybe there is someone you love and would dearly miss if they stopped showing up in your life?
Maybe it is your Mom or your Dad. A grandparent or two. A mentor. A school teacher. A former boss or colleague. Spouse. Partner. Child. Friend. Distant relative.
Write them a one page letter. Tell them why they are so wonderful and some of the great things you remember them for, or are grateful for.
Do not wait to tell the world about all the good they had brought into your life. Do not wait to be standing at the front of the church, in front of the gathered family and friends. Do not wait until it is too late.
Take 60 minutes from your busy life this week and write the things that will remind them how much they mean to you. Let them hear it from you now.
It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to written and delivered. Letting someone know just how important they have been in your life, while they can still appreciate it, and you’re still here to write it, will be life-changing for both you and them.
I started doing this many years ago before my grandparents passed away. And knowing that I had let them know how important they were to me and why, not just in an annual card or general phone call, made the days easier when their time came. I didn’t have that gnawing feeling of thinking, “I never got to really tell them how much they meant to me”.
I have some more letters to write. Possibly you do too. Write the first one and send it before the 29th February. Why wait any longer? Tell them now.
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A Stitch In Time
A favourite saying of mine is, “A stitch in time, saves nine”. I liked proverbs, and useful little sayings, when I was younger and I like them even more now.
Through the years I have seen how often they can be usefully applied. This one is easy to remember so it’s great for kids. My children know this proverb all too well. I only ever need to say the first half anymore and they know what I am talking about.
It is such a great saying with a visual thrown in. I can imagine someone sitting and fixing a coat or shirt with one stitch now, to save having to do nine stitches later when there is a bigger problem. You save time, it is likely to look better with one stitch rather than nine, you save resources (eight fewer stitches) and you feel better for nipping it in the bud too!
I often use this in a pre-mortem way. I like to see what stitch I can do now, which might save me time, resources, etc. later. For example, “If I can leave earlier, say by 06:00, I can drop the post in the post box, get to the gym, pick up the groceries on the way back and still be heading to the client meeting by 08:15”.
Of course, you can certainly see the benefit when you do a post-mortem on something too. Here’s an example. “Oh, if I had only left home when I said I would, then I wouldn’t be in this traffic jam, I could have made it to the gym, but now I’ll have to go at the end of the day, miss time with the kids and shower twice. At least I got the essential groceries, though I’ll have to go back out again later for the rest.”
Another common example is missing a payment for something like a class, your car, mobile bill, rent or a mortgage. It is always a much bigger deal trying to undo the damage, than if we had just sorted it correctly in the first place. With a little better forward planning we can achieve this ideal habit. The stress it saves will be significant.
You can find opportunities to use this proverb with just about anything: Health and fitness, finances (savings and taxes), relationships, career, etc.
Think about what needs a little stitch now, to help things go smoother or stop things from getting worse. Keep your eye out today for one or two ways you could use this proverb to your advantage. Then use the stitch and pocket the other eight. Good job.
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Weigh Less, With One Simple Step Repeated Each Day
Eat less.
Weight loss, through to better health and fitness, is a series of steps.
Step one is eat less. Once a person has been doing this successfully for a few weeks, they can look into several more advanced steps such as starting to exercise or doing more of it, tracking calories, buying healthier foods and preparing better meals with a better range of nutrients.
Too often people will try to change everything at once. Since these more advanced steps all take up time, require some level of learning and must be integrated into your current lifestyle, it is very difficult to start all of them at one time and do them all on a sustained basis. Usually people haven’t allowed for all the extra time it takes to add these into their life.
Save yourself all that time required to read labels and count calories, read diet, exercise and recipe books or magazines, join groups, get to the gym or exercise more, learn new recipes and shop for new ingredients and foods. Remember, eating less saves you time!
According to media reports, a lack of time is a leading cause of stress and stress eating. So try this simple step that requires no time investment and even saves you time. You even get the results you want – weight loss. You can get toned, improve health and nutrition later in subsequent steps. Remember c.90% of weight loss is reducing your current food intake.
Even if your current diet consisted of eating six chocolate bars and drinking four colas every day, you could lose weight by simply cutting your intake down to four bars and three colas. You would still drop about 1.5 pounds per week. The mathematics support this, as does the science, and eating less worked in my experience years ago when I dropped 20 pounds in 8 weeks, beginning with step one.
Just eat less.
Try it today. Eat one less helping at a meal, drink one less cola, eat half or two thirds of your regular portion at each meal. In a week you’ll be noticing, and enjoying, the difference,
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New Beginnings
Setting off in a new direction can be both exciting and intimidating. The future could bring untold opportunity or challenges.
Regardless of what is to come, or how the change has come about, or whether you wanted the change or not, the best thing you can do is to take a deep breath, stand tall, smile and go forward, with an open mind and the confidence that things tend to work out well for those looking for things to work out well.
We can focus on the past, the “what could have been’s“, the plans you had, etc., but that is over now and new paths are to be forged. Allow yourself 5 minutes to mourn your loss, and not more, because every minute of life is too precious to dwell on unavailable paths.
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Measuring Time
How you measure or calculate time will give a useful indication of your respect for time and whether it will be your ally or adversary.
Do you measure time to get somewhere based on your best ever journey? Worst? Median journey time? Do you include the time it takes to put on your shoes and coat, walk to the car, get the sat-nav ready with the address, find parking, walk to the location, pass security, wait for and ride the lift/elevator and be in a queue at the reception desk? Or do you just measure A to B time and then wonder why you are often several minutes late.
When you sign up for a course that is three hours long every Thursday for four weeks, do you think that it is just 12 hours of your time committed? Or do you realise, and factor in, that it is maybe 17-20 hours more (pre course prep, travel each week – both ways, review notes, prep for test, arrive early and chats at the end), making it about 30 hours in total of time allocation?
And when you add the course into your life for four weeks, do you also subtract out about 30 hours of something that is already there? You will have to sacrifice something in order to allow space for the course. You may sacrifice time with friends, time eating, time at work, time with your family, time with tv or other (social?) media, or time sleeping – which, to be fairly realistic, this is usually the first casualty of more.
People tend not to give as much thought to what they will be removing from their life as they do to what they will be adding in to their life. This one little observation is, I believe, one of the key reasons many people can’t stick to a New Years resolution. It’s unsustainable to add almost 7 hours a week to your schedule without subtracting 7 hours as well. After several weeks of trying to cram the usual activities, plus something more, into a 24 hour period, and a seven day week, usually we start to get sleep deprived, exhausted or ill, and we try to revert back to how it was without the more.
So next time you are looking for something new to add into your life, prime yourself for success: make sure you remove something which requires a similar amount of time (but not sleep). You’ll feel better for it, keep your commitment for a longer time and maybe find that the other activity wasn’t really bringing enough joy to your life to keep it in there anyway.
If you found this post, about time, to be usefully thought provoking, I suggest you also have a look at The Thrill of Being Early.
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