Tag Archives: Time

“All things are difficult before they are easy.”

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“All things are difficult before they are easy.”

—Thomas Fuller, 17th Century English churchman and historian

Photo from Flickr By City Gypsy II

Photo from Flickr By City Gypsy II

Take a moment to examine all the things you do with ease, every day. Walking. Talking. Turning a page. Reading a paragraph. Most of these activities are so effortless you don’t even pay attention to what goes into making them happen.

Imagine for a moment you had a time machine, and could go back to the point in your infant life where these activities were difficult. Now go forward a bit – how long did it take to move from difficulty to competency, and then to mastery?

EXERCISE:

What professional or personal goal do you find difficult at this moment? Begin the journey today, and at some point in the future, this goal will be part of your list of successes.

Feel free to reply to this message with the goal you selected.

“The trouble is you think you have time.”

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“The trouble is you think you have time.”

-Author Unknown

Photo from Flickr by Moyan Brenn

Photo from Flickr by Moyan Brenn

It is a proven fact that as we age, we perceive time as moving faster.

In our youth, there was plenty of time to complete everything on our bucket list. Today, that list may seem unrealistic, overwhelming, and even act a source of discouragement or sadness.

If someone told you precisely how much time you had left in days, weeks, months, years, or hopefully, decades, what different choices might you make as you spend your life currency?

EXERCISE:

How can you begin today to live even more fully and authentically to squeeze all the juice possible from the precious time given to you? Who do you want to accompany you on this wonderful, yet finite journey?

clocks stop

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“There are people whose clocks stop at a certain point in their lives.”

– Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, French literary critic

463Image from Flickr by oatsy40.

As I sit in my favorite chair writing this, it’s Sunday February 2nd. That’s right, it’s Groundhog Day.

But I’m not referring to that little furry creature, Punxsutawney Phil, or whether he saw his shadow. Instead, I want to describe the movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, which is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.

If you’ve not seen the (ahem) “masterpiece,” the moral of the story is that until Phil Connors (Bill Murray) changes his ways, he will be destined to live a life that is making him a bit insane by being the same person he’s always been before – i.e. his clock has stopped.

Exercise:

How can you put a fresh battery in your life clock to make the very most of the time remaining to live life to its fullest?

The bad news is time flies

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“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

– Michael Altshuler, motivational speaker

Image of a Pilot in front of his plane

Photo by Kora Xian on Unsplash

I recently attended a coaching conference where a speaker, Jim Selman, shared his work on the topic of aging. I was surprised to see just how significant and universal the subject was for the majority of conference participants – including myself.

What does it mean to age well? What has many of us pursue the fountain of youth, through everything from plastic surgery to the next wonder drug?

How can we transform our views on aging, to impact our lives in the areas of health, happiness, self-expression, meaningful relationships, and the overall desire for purpose?

Exercise:

How will you pilot your life, given your answer to the question above, to make the most of the precious time that you have?

Time is the coin of your life

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“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.”

– Carl Sandburg

Image of a watch and coinsWhen we are young, we believe that we have an unlimited amount of time. Who cares if we waste a day – a week – a month – a year?

We trade our time for money, and as we pine for more and more things, we often get caught up in a vicious cycle. It starts to feel as if time is running out.

If you’re lucky enough to live for 82 years, how many hours will that be? How many days? How many weeks? How many months? When you do the math, you can work out what an hour, day, week, month, or year is truly worth to you.

82 years works out to around 30,000 days, 4,200 weeks, and less than 1,000 months. If you’re 40 years old, you have around 500 months left.

Exercise:

Imagine a big jar with 4,200 quarters. Each week, you take one quarter out. That’s your life being used up.

What changes will you make today to spend your time more wisely?