Time

Time.

Man, what a concept.

A simple 4 letter word that carries a ton of weight.

Time.

We never have enough of it.

It often means money.

We hate to waste it.

It’s valuable.

We want more of it for sleep, vacations, hell even some times for work.

It could be the most precious commodity for our species.

How much time do we have for the things we love? The people we love? The answer is always unknown. The only thing we know for certain is that we have less of it than we did before.

So, what do we do about it?

That’s a loaded question, right?

I’ve heard the expression: “if it’s important enough, you’ll make time for it”

I suppose on a surface level that makes sense, but when you drill down to things it can be far more complicated.

Time management is probably the most effective way to negotiate but I’ve found that if you focus too much on efficiency it can remove spontaneity.

I guess when I think about time, I think about how much time there is left. Left in the hour, left in the day, week, month, season, year… life. There’s still a lot to experience. Not to be confused with accomplish or acquire, but both of those have their own individual merits. No, this is about experience. For $50,000 you can probably summit Everest (yuck,) but what are you really experiencing? You get catered to and sherpas do all the real work. Why? To brag? Bitch, please. Go experience a REAL peak like K2 where you are responsible for your own heavy lifting. Now THAT is an experience.

But that’s just it though. It takes time to do all of them. It takes time to invest in an activity/person/career in order to experience the good things.

I’ve always had a problem with time. Specifically, I’ve always had the difficulty of not being able to look very far forward. Living in the moment and damning the consequences. It’s why I’ve made a host of poor decisions growing up, both from a health and financial perspective. I’m doing much better now and I suppose that it’s better late then never, but wow, what a thing to really grasp in mid life.

Time. How much time do I have to really do the rest of the things that I want to do. How much time do I have to be able to secure my retirement? How much time do I have to grow a relationship? How much time do I have to keep the adventure going? How much time does my body have before it REALLY falls apart?

The answer: less than I did 5 minutes ago.

Time.

It’s fleeting.

Live it up.