The Fine Art of Redeeming Time
We have all been warned about the fragility and brevity of time. We are almost always told to make hay while the sun shines because as we have come to know and learn, the sun sets at some point. The advice is solid, the challenge, however, is that time, in essence, cannot be contained, stopped, or negotiated with. No matter the plight, no matter how genuine, time continues to move forward. Ultimately when time passes you will never experience it again. It then begs the question, how then is time redeemed since we cannot contain, preserve it or go back to rewrite our wrongs. As the saying goes, “Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.” This means that since you cannot touch the same water twice, you have to make good and well when you do touch the water. Make it worth it and enjoy the moment.
Live in the moment
Most of us have dreams and aspirations of where and what we would like to be and most of the time we forget about the here and the now. The destination is just as important as the journey. Just because you have goals that you want to achieve does not mean that you cannot enjoy your life as it is now, because that on its own is a gift. We have heard of stories about people that want to get up the corporate ladder so much that they starve themselves, forget about their friends and families, and immerse themselves in their work, and when they get there, they have no one to share their joy with and are affected but various ailments.
The goal is good, attaining the goal is even more exhilarating, but time waits for no man. If you ignore the things that are happening now in the hope that you will do them when the finances are better, when you have bought that car, tomorrow is not promised to any of us. Make the best of the moment you have now. Create the memories on that low budget, even when things are not going well, learn from the experience, and grow from it. You do not have to forego the now so that you can have the future you would like, it can be done even by living in the moment.
Give purpose to time
We all have the same amount of time, 24 hours, the rich, the poor, the hardworking, the lazy we all have the same amount of time, the difference though is what you do with the said time. Every day can be the same or different but depending on how you spend the time. To redeem the time is to utilize it. Sometimes when we are young we always think that there is so much time ahead of us and we procrastinate. Procrastination is the thief of time. Banking on tomorrow when tomorrow is not promised is one of the best ways to squander your time. By giving time purpose, it does not mean that you focus on work and work alone, it simply means, finding a way to maximize the time that you have for the things that are important to you, your work, friends, family, exercise, hobbies, everything ought to be done but in a way that satisfies you as an individual.
Spend time on things you are good at.
One of the major reasons most people procrastinate is because most of the things we have to do are things that do not excite us or things that we generally are not so good at. This can land you thinking about doing something, and paralyzing you from actually doing it. You can mop over it and whine and alas the whole day is gone and you have not done anything productive. The reality nevertheless, is that life, in general, is filled with things we do not like to do but we have to do them. The advice then is that, to redeem the time, in areas that you can control, spend your time doing things that you are good at and enjoy. Because of being motivated, you are likely to spend less time doing such things and tick off things from your to-do list so that you do those things that you do not particularly like but have to be done.
In conclusion, time waits for no man or woman, it always moving. We cannot stop the hands of time to do what we wish, but we can accept that that is how life is and we begin to be conscious about our time and how we spend it because ultimately we can never fully utilize the time we have but we can do our best to live the life of our dreams now, doing the things we enjoy and doing those things that are important to us.