Two Essential Lessons That Will Completely Change Your Perception Of Time
It is easy for young people to fall under the delusion that they have an endless expanse of time to live their lives: time to love, time to grow, time to make decisions and time to get where they want to be.
Meanwhile, minutes slip into months like sand through salty summer fingers and even the best experiences feel fleeting.
Perhaps this is a tribute to our busy lives, but this year seems to be zipping by at an expedited rate. Generation-Y is in a perpetual state of pressure to perform.
While it’s impossible to slow down time, I’ve decided to rant a bit about the importance of being passionate and recognizing where your time belongs: Become addicted to passionate people. You will never have the time (or energy) to do everything and please everybody.
You will not remember how many days you overslept, how many times your car broke down, the exams for which you could have studied harder and the people who took the time to gossip or spread negativity.
Life is simultaneously just long enough and much too short; too short to dwell on minor setbacks, too short to pass up on an opportunity to talk with someone who interests you, too short to go to bed angry and too short to worry about each and every insignificant negative in your life.
If you cannot pursue something with passion, let it go; it is not worth your valuable time. Life allows you just a small window of opportunity to leap aboard its train of possibility as it roars past the countryside of your existence.
Do not let yourself be the lonely person left at the station nor the person who got run over trying to race out in front. Enjoy the ride.
Time flies, and yet, there is no reason why you cannot fulfill every single aspiration you have when you remove the clutter. It doesn’t matter if you’re 14 or 45 or 85; start today. Two simple lessons taught me more about time management than any day planner ever has:
The importance of value
The bubble that contains “things you can control” is very small. Bad things will happen to you; life will challenge your sanity and patience. Your attitude shapes how you will react and recover.
Value each of the perfect things that happen to you each day, no matter how small. The closest parking spot was open, there was no line for coffee, your roommate did your dishes or you didn’t get toothpaste all over the sink today when you brushed your teeth.
Smile about how lucky you are to be able to react to each of these things each day. Smile about how insignificant your problems are in the grand scheme of your existence.
Have perspective. Which events or people will you remember in six months? In five years? For the rest of your life? Focus on these things and let them make you better.
The cost of making yourself small
This one is huge and can stand for some improvement at every age. Do not alter, squash or subdue who you are for someone or something else. Forget jobs that push you to be something you are not and people who encourage you to enhance qualities you do not have.
Embrace yourself, weirdness and all. The minute you shed your façade is the minute like-minded weirdos will start showing up at your door.
“Lose the sarcastic, tough guy, assh*le front.”
The toughest love I have ever received was when someone told me to lose my tough guy, assh*le front, to be real, feel what I feel and show my true self.
Many of us are excellent at building walls and believe that the deserving people will find their way around those walls. However, it is more likely that the deserving people will not waste their very precious time on finding out what lies behind your wall.
Instead, they will seek out authentic people who are 100 percent honest and open.
In short, time does not pass; it continues. How you spend it is unequivocally up to you and it will slip through your fingers before you know it. Are you living exactly how you want?
The results are not always under your control, but your levels of passion and intention always are. Show how much you care about the things that are important to you and develop a work ethic that no one can touch.
Be completely shameless about who you are and what you love to do.
May your time and happiness never run dry.
Photo Courtesy: We Heart It
