“Perhaps the
greatest enigma of time is that nobody has
enough of it, yet we almost always succeed in wasting it. Time is different from
every other resource
we utilize. When we
don’t have money, we
don’t buy excess clothing. Yet
when we don’t
have time, we still fritter it away on whatever may pop up. Perhaps the explanation
behind such odd
resource waste is that we don’t think of time as a resource. Everybody knows that time
is precious and
should be utilized carefully, but few people treat time with the
respect that
it deserves.” ~ Pete Mockaitis, author of The
Student Leader’s Field Guide
Good
Morning!
An acquaintance
of Pete’s who is also a Good Morning reader
sent in this quote. Debbie
shared that:
Pete went
to high school with my daughter. He read
leadership books as a hobby, served as president of a ton of
organizations, was
a National Merit semifinalist and went on to my alma mater, the
University of
Illinois. While there, he continued to
assume leadership roles and was frustrated by the lack of leadership
books
aimed towards students. He ended up
writing a book himself and having it published before his college
graduation.
Like Debbie, I
am struck by the sentence: “Perhaps the
greatest enigma of time is that nobody has enough of it, yet we almost
always
succeed in wasting it.”
Almost daily, I
hear complaints of people running out of time
or not having enough time to get things done.
Yet Pete is right: we still manage to fritter
time away instead of
managing it as the asset it is. This
isn’t
to say that we should be working around the clock or goal, chasing
every hour
of every day, but we should make sure we are spending our time in
alignment
with our personal priorities. When
we
spend our time more wisely, we release ourselves from the “never enough
time”
trap.
Your Turn:
Where have
you been letting time escape that doesn’t align with your priorities? What can you do to change
that this week?
Today’s Affirmation:
I value and spend my time wisely.
