10 Reasons to Start Treasuring Your Time NOW

How much do you value your time? Do you willingly trade it to the highest hourly-paid bidder, or is your time invaluable? How do you use your time? Is time getting the best of you, or are you making the best out of your time? What follows are 10 very good reasons why you should start paying attention to how you spend your time: 10. Time is Finite It doesn’t take a genius to observe the fact that your time is finite. You can earn more money in this life, but you can never earn more time. Time itself is the medium through which your entire life experience takes place. It’s the track on which the trolley cart that is your life rests. While in physical human form, you can’t escape time; it’s part of the game here on Earth. With that said, it’s imperative that you begin placing conscious priority on how you’re spending your days. They’re going to pass with greater and greater speed as you age; there is no better time to begin utilizing time management techniques than right NOW. 9. Your Happiness Depends on It Your ability to successfully manage your time and make room for all the things that need to be done, as well as want to be done, has a direct impact on your mood and attitude. You know this is true, because you’ve experienced it plenty of times. How many “bad days” have you had in the past that started out as a series of events which you didn’t have sufficient time for? Busy and rushed mornings, getting caught in traffic because you got hung up and left the house a little later, working too much and relaxing too infrequently, etc. If you could optimize your routine and figure out a reasonable way to balance everything by allotting time intelligently, you’ll notice a boost in your mood. Try this if you don’t believe me. 8. Your Sanity Depends on It Loosely tied to the reason above, but with a slight variation. Chronic, unchecked mood shifts due to reactive behavior will have a negative long-term impact on your mental health. What this means is the more you try and stubbornly push through a suboptimal routine, the more you’re going to tax your mind and general well-being (often without noticing until it’s too late). Managing your time is a fool-proof way to garner a little bit of slack if you find yourself stuck in a very taxing daily routine. 7. Your Results Depend on It The results you get in this life are entirely dependent upon the types of actions you take. You can only take so many actions in any given amount of time. You can only be so productive, do so many things, or earn so much per hour (typically). The fabric in which the totality of your existence is embedded, on our level, is like an infinite web of cause/effect coupled with intention/manifestation mechanics. Show and tell the web what you want, and it will reflect assistance back to you in the form on miraculous synchronicity. Therefore, it’s critical to optimize your relationship to time so you can extract the maximum amount of return for your efforts. This is achieved by aligning yourself with a purpose which drives and excites you, rather than makes you question “What if I have no purpose…?”. Of course you do. Your purpose is to be the best version of yourself possible. And you can’t get there if you’re constantly bogged down with a plethora of unconscious time-taxes! 6. Your Relationships Depend on It Do you make time for the people in your life, or do they behave more like peripheral props that you converse with for a few minutes here and there throughout your day? Where is the majority of your attention going? What are you typically focused on? Are you giving proper credit to the people who love and support you, or do you take advantage of what they offer? Are your relationships becoming strained because you’re forced to spend your time elsewhere for the majority of your day…? 5. The Present Moment is All That Exists Nothing exists outside of the present moment. Your perception of both the past and future are illusions of consciousness projecting outward from the present moment. All thoughts, choices, and actions take place – and can only take place – right NOW. You are never not NOW. Go into your kitchen, grab a Sharpie, and write the word “NOW” over all the number faces on your wall clock. You now have the world’s most accurate clock! :P For the final few points of this article, I’m going to delve in from a different angle and discuss how you need to defend yourself from “time theft”. Below are several areas in which your ability to stick to your higher values will be tested, tempered, and eventually sharpened: 4. People Will Try and Rob You of Time On your quest, you’ll inevitably observe other people attempting to pull you down into their own lack of control over time. You’ll notice this most strongly with friends and family who have weak routines, tend to go with the flow, and don’t really have a consistent direction in life. This is not a knock on anyone; this is a valid observation of human behavior patterns. If you’re easily offended by such observations, this website might not be for you. Anyway, just know this: people who aren’t in control of themselves, or their time, are going to try and pass that habit along and infect your experience with it. The truly unfortunate part is that they aren’t conscious of this behavior, and thus aren’t doing it intentionally to slow you down. This fact makes is all the more difficult to deal with. People will be late to things. They’ll plan poorly, and waste your time in the process. We’re all human of course, these things do happen, and we’re not talking about nor expecting perfectionism here. There’s a huge rift between being a perfectionist/expecting everything to happen just as planned, and having someone who doesn’t know how to plan in general simply wasting your time. The latter is what I’m talking about here. It’s even harder to deal with when it’s family and close friends whom remain oblivious. The solution here isn’t to resist, but rather lead by example. Show such people in your life the types of results and changes you’re accumulating due to becoming more conscious of how you spend your time. Just as they can infect you with their bad habits (if you let them), you can infect them with good ones! 3. Events Will Try and Rob You of Time Just as people will try and tax you of your time, life circumstances can and will throw huge wrenches in your gears. This is inevitable and expected. Since we know that this is going to happen from time to time, however, we can intelligently plan for it! There will be times when you’re on a roll and building some serious momentum, and then a huge problem somewhere off in the corner of your life will crop up. How to handle situations like this is typically the deciding factor for success, stagnation, or straight up failure. Learning how to prioritize in the present moment is an incredible skill to have. Instead of becoming obsessed with plans working out perfectly, intend for things to go smoothly – but prepare to flex your consciousness if (and when) things shift on you. You’ll learn to start seeing this as fun, enjoyable, and rewarding in its own way. It’s like the game is testing you with different levels of intensity. Get used to the different levels, and life transforms from a struggle into an enjoyable game of growth experiences. 2. Your Mood Will Try and Rob You of Time This is the third time I’ve mentioned mood and attitude in this article, and there’s a good reason why. Our emotional climate, mood, attitude, and state of being are most often symptoms of the core beliefs we harbor. Your thoughts are like mini reflections of these core beliefs. These core beliefs cascade down and translate into emotional responses, which have a huge impact on the decisions we make at any given moment. The fact of the matter is, we human beings are incredibly irrational creatures. We like to tell ourselves that we make rational decisions, but the truth is we don’t. The majority of our decisions – from what brand of cereal to buy to what career to aim for – are most often derived from irrational, arbitrary emotional impulses in a particular direction. The reasons behind these emotional responses are up to the individual to sort and figure out. Why do you make certain decisions about certain things? Why do you go to work instead of starting a business? What are the beliefs you hold which have you convincing yourself that one is better/more secure than the other? Where are your beliefs on security coming from? Do you even ask these questions, or do you just assume your default settings are optimal programming for the course of your life and actions? 1. You Are Timeless When all else fails, remember that you’re a timeless being experiencing linear time so you can learn and grow. A time-bound perspective allows for (and in some ways, almost forces) learning experiences. You cannot avoid learning. It’s the apex function of your existence. It’s the alpha and the omega. This life is analogous to a shopping mall, and your conscious core is like a shopper. There are plenty of distractions in the mall; bright lights, loud sounds, lots of movement. Many shoppers get distracted and caught up with things like window shopping, excessive browsing, and chatting in the food court. Some people use the mall to purchase things they need for life, so they can feel comfortable and safe. Some people don’t even enter the mall; they sit in their car in the parking lot, and contemplate and second guess themselves for their entire lives. Then, there are those who see the illusion for what it is. They know that the mall is just an illusion – but more importantly, it’s a tool. A tool for self-growth. All of the assets and liabilities afforded by the mall experience exist to be experienced. Each experience will either catalyze you further up or further down your personal growth ladder. Window shopping brings you down the growth ladder. Realizing the mall is an illusion – and that the relationships you have with the people in it are what counts – will brings you up the growth ladder. This world is full of window shoppers, food court inhabitants, and neon-sign watchers. Time is passing, and you’re spending it whether you’re conscious of it or not. The question then becomes: will you become conscious and regain control of your time, or will you allow the bright lights and loud noises of life to distract you until the final grain of sand runs out…? Whatever you choose, at least do so consciously, so your results (either good or bad) are intentions and manifestations of your truest desires. Don’t waste your time in the parking lots of life. Don’t get caught up window shopping, either. Make a b-line for what you know you truly want, and leave the neon distractions for someone else. Your time on Earth is worth infinitely more than mere window shopping ;).