Time, Time, Time...

"Life is a vapor, so quickly fading; it only lasts a season, then its gone." That's from a 4Him song. Its so true. It has been probably around 2 months since I have posted on my blog, and I have no excuse except for lack of time. Why? Work, vacation, and family. There it is, in a nutshell.

What I was thinking about was that song and how it lines up with one of my favorite books in the Bible: Ecclesiastes. A book written by the wisest, wealthiest, most powerful, and most popular man of his time. Yet the book is full of sarcasm, futility, and negativity. One of the things Solomon talks about is time.

I wanted to expand on this because some will say that one of the worst things is, when you're advanced in years, you look back and feel regret for the stupid things you did, and the awesome things you didn't do. I would agree with that; it is important to live life to the fullest, and for the purpose for which you were created (i.e. the "Purpose Driven Life"). However, the elusive entity which is a major culprit in a squandered life is time. Not the actual passing of time, but more time management.

Time is an important, precious commodity, because it is the fence within which we live our lives. The single, wealthy person who lives on a beautiful piece of land and has everything they could want and doesn't have to work to earn their living still is shackled: by time. So time is like the Law, like a fence, like air in a spaceship, like gas in a car, the list goes on and on. My point is that because we all will one day die, it doesn't matter whether you're the most powerful person in the world, or a janitor in London. Everyone is allotted 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. This doesn't change, unless you're traveling faster than the speed of light, but I don't want to get into that argument. So we've determined that time is our greatest commodity, and our one non-renewable resource (on a personal level). Does this shed light on why I think time management is so crucial?

Time management is the effective use of your time, in a pre-planned and efficient way. That's my basic definition; I'm sure there's a better one but I don't want to look it up (it will take too much...time). Ha-ha. Anyway, when you boil this down, its not time management that is the big problem. That is easy to do. You get up every morning and pull out your LIST (whether a formal calendar or just a notebook) and you see what you did yesterday, you see what you didn't do yesterday, add what you need to do today, then prioritize. That is essentially time management. The problem comes in the EXECUTION of the time management, and that's the hard part. Why? Because it takes discipline and self-control. Those are two traits that most people, when left to their own devices, do not adequately perform well at.

So the key to time is discipline and self control. "But", someone might ask, "what about fun time, spontaneity, and all of that?" Well, what about it? Plan it. Plan your fun time, and do that with discipline. There are lots of people who are such workaholics that they don't slow down, and that's a vice as well. As for being spontaneous, there is a place for that too. Sometimes my wife and I will have a plan for a Saturday morning: do this, do that, go here, go there, blah-blah-blah. Then we say, hey, let's scrap all that and go out to a nice restaurant and have brunch! You know what, that's okay too, because maybe we know that we need it. As long as we update our LIST and get the items taken care of at a later date.

Summary: Time is a precious commodity on the personal level; a non-renewable resource (in our physical bodies as least-which is the subject of a whole other discussion). Time management is crucial to living a meaningful, fulfilled life. The root of time management is discipline. Everybody got that? Now, go have fun, and be sure to mark it off of your LIST when you're done.

Passions

I never realized, until about five years ago, the passion I have for career issues. I was working on my B.S. and came across data that suggested that upwards of 75% of Americans are unhappy with their job/career. That's amazing! We spend 1/3 if not more of our lives involved with work, and we are unhappy? Why is it that people get out of unhappy marriages quicker than they get out of unhappy work situations? Well, it seems that way, anyway.

I have to be honest and say that I am so fascinated with this topic because I am one of the 75% who was, and still is, unhappy with my job/career. Its not that I'm ungrateful, its just that, in my case, I have this feeling that there's something more that I could be doing. After vigorous and sustained analysis (Luke, if you're reading this, that's a tribute to you) I have determined that, in order to be happy and fulfilled at work, as a normal human being, you need to be doing something that you're passionate about, or talented in. Of course, the talent usually produces passion, but not in all cases.

I would love to get back into hospitality, because I love customer service. I also love to play the trumpet, counsel, and recruiting sounds fun too. So why don't I do one of those? Well, I used to toot my horn for a living (Marine Band), and I also used to be in hospitality, but it became inhospitable (pardon the puns). I read in a book called "Who Moved My Cheese?" a line that said, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" Wow! What potentially life-changing words! I realized, after reading that line, that I was being held back by my fears. It takes a lot of courage to brush up on old skills, dust off the resume, and start looking for a job doing what you really love to do. Especially with a mortgage, car payment, utilities, groceries, the list goes on and on. Then throw in a spouse, kids, school plays, soccer games...you get the picture. So what is really happening? We of the 75% are all stuck, by some circumstance or another, in a job we hate or at best tolerate. We feel trapped in an endless cycle of "Monday stinks, but I can make it to Wednesday. Okay, its Thursday, just one more day until...FRIDAY!! Alright, now its time for the weekend. But wait: the yard needs mowed, laundry needs to be done, there's a soccer game," and next thing you know, its Sunday night and you haven't relaxed at all. Then the dread of going back to work on Monday starts the cycle all over again. I never thought I'd be one of those poor souls who "live for the weekend", but I do.

So what's the remedy for this? Well, there are two routes to take. One is, as the Bible says, be content in whatever situation you're in. Know that God is using you there, and has placed you there for a purpose. The other route is to ask God if its time for a change. Take the time now to invest in a change that will bring meaning, focus, and purpose back to your life. Once the change has been made, you can look back and say, "Thank God I decided to do _______, I'm happy I did" (you fill in the blank). Or, this can be summarized as my Gunny in the Marines used to say: "Put up or shut up!"