We are often our own worst enemy, our own hindrance, our own barrier to action. We come up with excuses and rationalizations for why we can’t, won’t, or don’t want to do something. We justify our choices and our actions. We say we’re too tired, that we don’t have time for it, that we’ll do it later, that someone else will do it. We say we’re not good at something, or that it would be better off if you just didn’t do anything, or didn’t get involved. We may tell ourselves we will be ridiculed, rejected, embarrassed, or shunned. We might tell ourselves that we will get hurt.
Whatever the case, we alone stand in our own way. And through this, we do ourselves a horrible disservice, and in an extreme sense, we may do disservice to the world around us.
In our understanding of time, we think we have plenty. But as it’s been broken down for you, you hopefully realize by now that it is finite.
And through all this, I do not intend to imply that I’m suggesting you rush through life doing everything or try to cram every possible thing into every minute of the day. I do not imply that anyone has to fall into some cookie-cutter style of life and do the same things that everyone else is doing at the same time they’re doing it.
I do not mean that everyone has to rush themselves on going to college, or finding the perfect job, or getting married, or starting a family; especially just because someone you know is doing those things, and you might feel the need to vie for. You don’t need to “keep up with the Jones’s”, and you don’t need to work yourself to death over something.
The point I mean to make is that our time is precious, and that we must use it wisely. However, life is short, and you can’t go through it without having fun, or allowing yourself to rest. You can’t force things to happen or rush them because you want it to move faster or come to you sooner. You could open a door that was not meant for you, miss an opportunity you could have had, or miss the path you were intended to take because you either rushed things or waited too long for them.
Time is priceless and but even with its abstractness, we still have to learn how to spend it wisely. We must find a balance in how we manage it. This is a multi-faceted idea that has many angles especially depending on the topic in question.
Everything in life can be looked at in terms of opportunity cost. If you’ve taken economics you may understand what this means. For those who don’t, it means that between the choices given in a scenario, when one option is chosen, the others are given up. This idea can relate to both cost as in real money, and cost as in time, or opportunity. One something is spent, once a choice is made, you can’t get back what you lost. For example:
If you choose to go to a party rather than study for an exam or do your homework, your opportunity cost is the time you will lose by going to the party. You are making the choice to take having fun over making sure you’re ready for your test, or possibly even maintaining or improving your grades.
If you choose to watch TV rather than work on your art, your music, or whatever your personal project or passion is, you are forgoing the long term satisfaction you will get from your project for the short term satisfaction of finishing a show you’ve been watching.
If you choose to hangout with your friends who you see daily, over visiting a family member who you don’t visit often or may rarely see, you are giving up the opportunity to spend time with your loved ones and make memories that are likely to be more meaningful than hangout around your friend’s house.
If you choose to stay up finishing homework instead of going to sleep, you are giving up time to be resting your mind. While you might finish your work, you are foregoing the rest you need to be fully cognitive for the next day, which can affect your performance in other areas.
If you choose to keep hitting your snooze button in the morning, you might end up costing yourself the time you would otherwise have had to shower or eat breakfast. It goes without saying the ramifications of this choice.
Whatever the case or the situation, we are presented with choices every day. And we are constantly making decisions where we are simultaneously gaining and losing something. It’s up to us to determine what those things end up being.
