Time Isn’t Gone
Time is slipping away. We know that there is excitement and energy about being present now, yet time always seems to speed past us. There’s a fluidity to time that makes it seem like sand in your hands, rushing out and falling back onto the beach without you knowing how you spent it. It’s full of days and hours where we think back and say, “I don’t even know what I did” or “time has absolutely flown.” It’s a continual cycle of jumbled memories that remain that way in our minds. But the reality is that we don’t have to live this way. We don’t have to live in a quick, shot by shot movie where we see the final cut and don’t know how we even got to the end process.
All of us have potential. We have a drive inside of us that often stays unlocked because many of us do not know how to spend our time. As a result, our time flies and we spend our time doing whatever is in front of us with little consideration for how that time is shaping us. On the flip side, we must be intentional about the person we are becoming. We must know who we are or have a clear enough dream to see the vision. If we do not think through the decisions we want to make each day, create goals we want to change us, and have specific reflections on how to look back, we will be a lost dog whimpering without an owner.
Here is the harsh reality: simply going by is a life not worth living. As one of my mentors has said, “coasting is always backwards.” We cannot live an unintentional life and expect to be somewhere wonderful at the end of our lives. It must be crafted, created, and decided. I think the mistake that all of us often make is that we don’t know or think through how we are going to spend our time each day. It’s living moment to moment, from one thing to the next without full consideration of what we actually need to do that day in order to further sculpt ourselves. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can live with intention through our past, present, and future. Here’s two simple ways:
1. Ask yourself why. One of the reasons we make the same mistakes over and over again is because we never stop to ask ourselves why we made that mistake. It could also not be a mistake, but a decision we wanted and needed to do that did or did not work out in our favor. Either way, we need a trail of patterns to follow or avoid. We need to know why decisions in our lives work and fail.
2. Be intentional every day. Have a plan, a schedule, and an idea of what you want to do with each day. It doesn’t need to be all production, but if the only creative or productive thing you do each day is your day job, then maybe some things need to change. Find ways to make your life count, and dream of what you need to do to become who you want to be. Know the formation of who you are becoming by the practices, thoughts, and rituals you do each day and week. Then, at the end of the day, make note of what you did — the highlights, lowlights, and everything in between. With intention in each day, dreams will become clearer and your life will become more full.
Time isn’t gone. Time is happening each and every second, and it’s up to you to make the most of it. Whether we have 50 more years or 5 more days, we cannot expect to do something valuable without first considering how we will do it. Ask yourself why and be intentional every day, that you might slowly become the picture you create for your lives. Do not settle for a life that flies by, settle for one that counts.
