Time is ticking and life is draining away….
Summer Lotus Nov 8 5 min read
Time is the most precious commodity. They say that time is money but when you become a senior ( turning 60), time is what’s left of your life.
Every moment ticks by and you can only watch helplessly. I never felt like this before in my younger days; everything could wait and I had time on my hands.
But reality hit when you become a senior. You asked, “What have I accomplished thus far? What have I been rushing around for? What really matters?”
Time matters because you want to live life meaningfully and do more of the things you love. The ideal life would be a fulfilling career with control of your time, allowing you to have other pursuits like hobbies, spending time with family and friends, discover your innate talent, and letting it flower and generally be a useful being to those around you. But time is finite so we need to ‘make.’ time.
On introspection, much of my time in my younger days were wasted on mundane stuff like milling around in shopping malls when there was nothing to buy, traveling aimlessly, and sleeping the hours away, and not setting goals.
There is no time for regrets now. The road ahead is very well lit.
Benjamin Franklin puts it best, “A long life is not good enough but a good life is long enough.”
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us — -J.R.R.Tolkien (author of The Lord of the rings)
At this juncture, we can make time if we cut out three common time wasters.
1 Gossiping — -It is a casual or unbridled conversation or report about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed to be true.
Talking bad about someone, anyone has dire consequences. Walls have ears and words get around. If it is about the boss or another colleague, it will lead to unhappiness, disputes, legal entanglements, and many unpleasant events.
Gossiping is an intrusion on another’s private matters and may lead to spinning more untruths at the expense of that person. This can be construed as bullying and may contravene the company’s rules for the proper behavior of its staff.
If gossip is positive, it is good but only if it is true.
At any rate, gossip is a total waste of time. Rather than compounding someone’s misery, it is better to think of what you can do to alleviate his condition.
How to stop gossip at work?
1 Address work-place gossip swiftly by enacting zero-tolerance for gossip
2 Lead by example – by sharing praise and mentioning good points about your staff or colleague.
3 Change the subject and move to a positive, relevant topic
4 Counsel the gossiper and encourage the person who is being targeted.
5 Encourage an open door policy where people can air their grievances officially.
Remember this quote when there is a tendency to gossip-
“ Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people”– Socrates
Time saved could be used to reflect on one’s performance and get cracking!
Like Marcus Aurelius said, “ Do not ask what a good man should be. Be one”.
— — —
2 Idling –It is passing time doing nothing most of the time. An idle mind is a dangerous mind. Idling is boring and that can become a pessimistic outlook.
It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is a miserable man. — -Benjamin Franklin
Life is exciting and evolving towards a new world. Like the sign that says, “ No Idling” at some spots, do something constructive. Adapt as the world changes in ideas, technology, and services. Do not idle or you will lose touch with the world and it is not easy to get on track after being laid-back for too long.
How not to idle
1 Watching news non-stop which is mostly negative and Netflix back to back excessively is a great time stealer that does not contribute to our minds. Be discerning. Reading and writing is a very profitable activity to the mind and the pocket if you groom yourself into a good writer.
2 Volunteer your services to help others and in the process, you will learn things that you need to cope with while helping others to cope with changes.
3 Time spent idling can be put into upskilling oneself for our continuous growth and self-confidence. Pick up a new language, culinary skill, learn about blogging, etc that can launch second careers.
3 Worrying — This is the act of tormenting oneself with disturbing thoughts that may or may not happen.
Worrying has been proven to be damaging to the body due to the stress hormones, linking it pre-mature aging, heart disease, cancer, clinical depression, and even dementia, etc.
“A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work” — John Lubbock
A study has shown that 85% of the subjects’ worries never happened and with the 15% that did happen, 79% of the subjects discovered that they could handle them better than expected or they learned a good lesson.
Trust that things will turn out ok.
Ways to deal with the worrying habit.
1 Ask yourself what is the worst that can happen and accept the worst.
If you can control, there is no need to worry. If it is not within your control, worry does not help anyway. Using this basic principle has helped me to move on and do what is best for the situation at hand, instead of fretting.
2 Know what Worry does to you. Worry does not solve the problem. It takes away your peace and is a stumbling block to possible solutions as the mind lacks clarity.
Have you not seen someone who is so beset with worry that he is showing signs of anxiety all over his face and even his posture? Check with him again when his problems are resolved and he is likely to regret wasting his time fretting.
3 A change of perspective is necessary. To a negative person, a thousand things can go wrong. To a positive person, a thousand things may go right. Change your mindset and gravitate towards a happy ending.
If things did not turn out the way you wanted, at least you did not suffer twice.
Having lived 62 years, I can say in hindsight that all the worries along my life’s journey have become water under the bridge. Most things became resolved, some things were inevitable and life goes on. I continue to make the best of my life and learn to overcome challenges.
Time is fleeting. Keep these time-wasters at bay and live a productive life!
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