If you have ever missed a bus, and watched it drive away just out of reach, you understand the impact of time on all your systems.
Time is that one sense and dimension we wrestle with and cannot escape, and that struggle can truly get in the way of so much we intend to do. We are built with time on our minds from day one, and it sets us apart amidst creation. We sense that there is more time beyond death, we worry that we are losing time as we approach the end, and when we are young, we cannot wait for it to move quicker. The less days you have, the more you want to get.
The anxious mind is often captive to time. What is ahead and what is left. I can easily be
captivated by every thought in the wee hours of the night, as I consider that I need more day than was given, and measure how little I will have tomorrow.
That is not a good habit. And it so easily can overtake even the healthiest mind.
So how does time positively motivate us? Well, beyond the fact that North America is a time driven culture, humanity places some metric of time in place on everything that matters. From the most relaxed form, based on seasons and the moment; to the most structured, which is based on the second and preset intervals. It instructs us on where we want to be in a given moment, and we judge where we have gone by the time that is now absent.
Consider for a moment which type of time you prefer:
- Projects and Events – Do you focus on time as a moment or place that accommodates what you are doing? The Negative: You may respond to life like time has no bearing, and others have to deal with it.
- Schedule and Clock – Does what you are doing need to fit in a set schedule and is accommodated by the time it should take? The Negative: You may approach life as a stopwatch, and you will miss the many moments before you.
Time does not work for us or against us, it simply exists. The motivational factor is all within how we approach the time we are given, and the perspective we gain while discerning how it will be used.
How does time motivate you?
Lead Freely 