June 8, 2022

TIME MATTERS

How you spend time determines the outcome

In my opinion, how you spend time today stands between where you are now and where you desire to be tomorrow. When I was growing up, I always looked at all the things I did not have and I thought the absence of those things was keeping me from living an abundant life. When I was born my father was over 65 years old, retired and with no bank account. I thought maybe if I was born in a different family my life would have been different. But later found out the secret lies on how one uses time. We can always have more money, but we cannot have more time.We all have 24 ho8urs. Therefore, how we use those 24 hours matters. The 24 hours created have and have not, this is not only in finances, but in skills and other competencies. Time can transform a follower into a leader, unskilled person to a skilled person, unconfident to confident and so forth. Time is inelastic and requires one to use it wisely.

To redeem time you need to set priorities

Priorities are the key focus areas you want to grow and achieve in a given time period for example, learning how to play the guitar, learn sales skills, public speaking, cooking and so forth. These priorities will help you to know what to say yes to and no! These priorities will help you understand your boundaries upon which you are operating and keep you focused. For instance, when I realized that speaking English was a skill I mostly needed to be able to operate and function in a global world. I created time to learn and teach myself. I said no to many things such as meeting with friends, watching movies and even playing soccer. I devoted all that time to learning the language. I spend most of my time with English speakers so that I can practice and learn more.

To redeem time requires Discipline

You can not achieve your set of priorities if you are not disciplined.For example, if your priority is to exercise five days per week, you need to be disciplined enough to say no and honor your commitments. Honoring your commitments over time will build your self confidence and you will start seeing yourself as an achiever. On the other hand, lack of discipline creates a sense of failure and guilt and leads to creation of the rat race. I remember, during my first year of high school I hardly spoke English and everything was taught in English. That first year I felt inferior and unconfident. But when I made up my mind and followed through in teaching myself english. My confidence went up and started participating in debates and learning became enjoyable.

Redeem time by learning to say no

For many years, I struggled with saying no, especially to friends and family. I generally love to serve and help people. But I came to learn that saying no does not mean I am saying no forever, but for right now, this week or month or this year, I am committed to this assignment. You can respectfully say no in order to focus on your priorities. If you are a people pleaser, you need to work extra hard to learn how to say no. Lacking the ability to say no means stealing time from your self improvement and creating a better version of yourself, that could be a great gift to humanity.

Redeem Time by Identifying Time Stealers

Do you know what steals your time? Whether it is social media, over sleeping,inability to say no, proscrastination, gaming, endless Tv shows, text messages or phone calls and among others. All these things are initiated by you and only you have the power to change that and introduce new priorities and routines. Imagine one unproductive hour on social media per day equals 28 hours per month that you could use to learn a skill, exercise or read a book.

Redeem time by evaluating your life

Socrates once said, “unexamined life is not worth living.” Examining your life will help you to know where you are and where you want to be. Once you know where you are, it is easier to chart the path to where you want to go. The future you desire is created by the action you take today. Your today is made up of the choices you made with the time you spent yesterday.Therefore, taking care of today will take care of your tomorrow.Albert Einstein once said, “ Insanity is doing the same things over and over expecting different results.”

As I conclude, growing up I always looked at the things I did not have and I thought those are the things that put me at a disadvantageous position. However later in life I realized the greatest asset we all have is the gift of 24 hours. King Solomon says it best for the have and have nots both have time and opportunities. “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” Solomon Never treats time like a roll of toilet paper, we waste it at the beginning and try to use it wisely when a bit is left and we have no extra roll to use. Live like no one else now so that you can live like no one else later.