It doesn’t matter if you are the poorest of the poor, an average Joe or Jane or even the world’s most decorated Olympian. What you do with this most valuable asset can make a world of difference in your life.
Everyone (and I mean everyone) gets the very same amount of this precious resource each and every day. Some use it wisely and others just let it slip through their fingers. Some try to make every bit of it count. While others waste it because they think there will always be more.
Well if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m talking about time. A definition of the word time is “The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole”. That’s right the indefinite continued progress of existence and events. Keywords to take note are “continued progress”.
Now there is no conceivable way that in a small number of paragraphs one can sum up all the attributes of a topic as vast as time itself. But this is a microscopic attempt to get people thinking to make better use of their time. There are infinite tangents that one can go off on this topic alone. While this may be common sense and we are not reinventing the wheel. As humans, we tend to take things for granted and forget the basics. This is written to help people think and take their own lives into perspective.
It is very rare that something is learned or mastered by pure osmosis or natural ability. There are people who are born with natural talent like singing or playing sports. But in most cases without proper training or dedication, these people are just adequate or a little better than above average. What makes them great is putting in the time. Michael Phelps didn’t become one of the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 28 medals overnight. He made the best use of his time to accomplish this great task.
I don’t know Mr. Phelps personally or know of his work routine. But I could imagine it wasn’t easy. He spent years, day in and day out of a swimming pool rain or shine. Hours upon hours of mind-numbing repetitive laps, drills and countless of dry land workout exercises. Perhaps Michael Phelps was born a good swimmer. But all his hard work and all the time he put into it. This is what made him not only a great swimmer but one of the greatest of all time.
He could have taken the easy and more enjoyable route. Hanging out with his friends and playing video games all day (yes, I acknowledge that today people can a fortune playing video games). He could have only swum on the weekends. But instead, he decided to make the best use of his time. And not only that, it was time well spent. Mr. Phelps is only 32 years old and is retired from competitive swimming as a multimillionaire. I would bet that 10 or even 20 years from now (barring that he doesn’t get into legal issues), Mr. Phelps will still be profiting from endorsements. Don’t believe me? Michael Jordan hasn’t played basketball in over 14 years and he is still selling sneakers with his name on it.
So will you be the next Michael (Phelps or Jordan)? Probably not. But learn from them. Learn that there is no better investment than investing in yourself and proper use of your time. That everyone on this planet gets the same 86,400 seconds per day. What you do with this precious time is what can make a difference in your life. Time is more valuable than money. You can make more money but you can never make more time. But once you waste or lose it, you can never get it back. Time stands for no one. It keeps moving with or without you. Now go, invest in yourself, use your time wisely and have no regrets.