“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”
Harvey Mackay
Today I want to remind you that every day is a gift. I often think about my own mortality. Many nights, as I rest in bed, I wonder if I’ll wake up the next day. As a get older each year, these thoughts become more prevalent. I don’t fear death one bit, but I do think about how much more I want to accomplish in life and wonder if I’ll be granted to longevity to see it through.
Over the past week, I’ve learned about a couple of untimely and unexpected deaths of people very close to my age. While I’m aware of my own mortality, it still always comes as a shock when a “young” person passes away. Death in those cases seems unexpected. But we know for a fact that death is certain, and we have no certainty of how long we’ll live. So why then does death come as a surprise?
For me, life is something I take for granted at times. I get so caught up in my “goals” and what I want to “accomplish” that I tend to forget that the next day is not promised to me. Each day we get to experience is merely time that has been gifted to us. Time is our most precious resource because it can’t be recreated. Once time has been spent, it is gone forever.
During this time of year, I tend to slow down my daily pace and spend a lot of time re-evaluating how I’ve spent my time throughout the year. I did much better this year in terms of taking full advantage of the time that was gifted to me. But I can also think back on some blocks of time that were completely squandered away with not much to show for it.
Going into 2020, I’m focused on better managing my time and being more selective with what I allow to consume my time. Think about it like this: if you knew exactly how much time you had left to live, would you spend your time differently? I’m working hard to get to a point where I can be comfortable with how I spend my time no matter how much of it I have left. I challenge you to do the same.
