Do Not Be Fooled By The Calendar-Daily Meditation 2.7.23

Today’s quotation:

Do not be fooled by the calendar.  There are only as many days in the year as you use.  One person gets only a week’s value out of a year while another person gets a full year’s value out of a week.-Charles Richards

Today’s Meditation:

I believe that I have a pretty good relationship with time.  I don’t worry about it too much, and I don’t regret wasting time from my past–even though I did waste a lot of it, I learned from that, too.  I don’t wish time would slow down, and I never hope it will speed up.  I’m fine allowing it to be what it is, and it keeps on without a single bit of help from me.

I think that part of the reason that time and I get along well is that I don’t want to change it.  I don’t think it should do anything different–I accept it for what it is, and I do everything I can to make the most of it without cramming it full of activities that never allow me to rest or reflect.  My relationship with time is a result of decisions I make on how to spend it, and even though I keep myself busy, I often make the decision not to take on other responsibilities because I know that then, time would become my enemy if it became a taskmaster to me rather than a companion.

Our relationship also depends on how I use my time.  It’s a lot like money that way- the amount we have means little; how we spend it means much more.  If I spend most of my time doing things that aren’t productive and don’t help other human beings, guess what?  The value of my time goes down.  If I spend my time focused only on myself and my desires or parked in front of the television passively experiencing life as TV shows present it, then I’m not learning and not doing.  While I often rest and relax, I also do my best to spend as much time as possible learning new things to pass on to others or doing things that directly affect other people.

Some of us are afraid of wasting our time, so we over-commit and use time ineffectively because we’re always so tired that we’re never as good at what we do as we could be.  Others of us never think about how we spend our time, and we tend to wander through life from experience to experience without ever really challenging ourselves to make the most of our time.  Balance is the key, but awareness of the need for balance is the starting point.

Questions to consider when you are told Do Not Be Fooled:

How might you spend your time today in ways that will make you a better person by the end of the day?

What are some of the ways that we “waste” time?  How might we change those habits to make our time use more positive?

What does Carl mean in the quotation below when he says, “let other people spend it for you”?  Do you do that?

For further thought about Do Not Be Fooled:

Time is the coin of your life.  It is the only coin you have; only you can determine how it will be spent.  Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.-Carl Sandberg

If you missed yesterday’s Daily Meditation, it is here to read.