Death Changes Everything. Time Changes Nothing.

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. “ —- Benjamin Franklin

Time is our greatest commodity, yet we often squander it. It’s not until we’re faced with the death of a loved one when we realize just how much time has passed away, and how much of our time we spent “being busy” instead of “being with” the people we love. We get so busy with our day-to-day lives, often time just trying to make ends meet, that we forget that the time we spend interacting with someone may very well be our last day with them.

When our minds are being so distracted, be it with work, or in Information Overload mode, it’s difficult to enjoy the moment we’re currently in. As they say, we’re not “in the here and now.” We dwell on the past, dream of the future and ignore the present.

It takes a lot of hard work, time and energy to reach a level of success — however you define success — that results in acquiring whatever possession you desire. Then we spend even more time and resources protecting our possessions.

What if we protected our time as diligently as we protect our possessions and lived as if we just found out we only a few months left? Would we spend more of our time with family, friends and loved ones? Or would we spend more time working, or texting and emailing those we hold dear instead of actually spending time with them? Would we procrastinate even more, or go visit a friend who has been feeling alone and isolated since h/her spouse passed away? Or go visit a family member in Hospice that you’ve been putting off due to your busy schedule.

How often have you said, “Life is too short for this (enter the first word that comes to mind)?” During those times, what was it that made you feel life is too short for you to be wasting your time on? A pointless argument? Being stuck in traffic? Being dragged into other people’s dramas? To some extent, you have to put up with things forced upon you by circumstances, such as being stuck in traffic because you really need the job you’re trying to ge to (or return home from), so quitting and relocating is not an option.

Some things that waste our precious time on are, unfortunately, necessary and inevitable. It’s the time-draining (and by extension, life-draining) events that we can absolutely avoid yet choose not to. A perfect example is the time we spend on social media sites and/or getting engaged in an online argument. Another example is always having your smartphone turned on so that you can immediately text and/or answer emails… even while you’re having lunch with a friend.

How you live affects how long you live. Keep a good watch over your time, and spend it wisely.

“So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.” — Seneca, Roman philosopher

Tim McGraw – Live Like You Were Dying