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Time
Time is the currency of life, the one strictly finite resource. How you choose to spend your time will profoundly impact the quality of your life. Prioritize the things that breathe meaning and purpose into your days while letting go of those that drain the very essence from your soul.
On this Earth, we must grapple with the unyielding laws of physics. We are, by nature, mortals bound to the constraints of the temporal world. Instead of bemoaning this fact, choose a different path. Make time work for you rather than against you. This vital shift in perspective will transform your relationship with time.
To work with time, you must realize two crucial (but contradictory) truths.
The first truth is that every moment counts. Every choice you make shapes your very existence. Time is the metronome that sets the pace of your journey, and you must learn to march to its rhythm. Be done with excuses and procrastination. Cast aside the worn-out phrases of “I’ll start tomorrow,” “I’ll start Monday,” or even “I’ll start in the new year.” Make the most of your time now.
The second truth is that each moment we have should be fully appreciated and treasured – even if that means slowing down to reflect. Racing through life with an eagerness to prepare for a distant future deprives us of the richness of living in the here and now. Patience is a virtue as it demands our focus on the present and respect for the natural timing of things. Good things come to those who are present and open.
The past is a chapter written in ink; you can’t change it. Meanwhile, the future is a blank page that remains uncertain. What you have, what you possess, is Now. Embrace it, for Now is the cornerstone upon which your dreams are built.
Time is of the essence.
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“The key question to keep asking is: are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.”
Randy Pausch, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (his last lecture)
“For people like us who believe in physics, the separation between past, present and future has only the importance of an admittedly tenacious illusion.”
Albert Einstein, in a letter to Michele Besso’s family
The shortness of life is not in the lack of length, but in the lack of depth.
Unknown
“The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.”
Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
Etymological explanation for Temporal:
late 14c., “terrestrial, earthly; temporary, lasting only for a time.”
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans)
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
Charles Darwin, The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin
“Wise men say only fools rush in.”
Elvis Presley, Can’t Help Falling in Love
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Remember that there is value in taking your time and waiting for the right moment.
Time is the most valuable currency.
Unknown
“Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”
Homer, The Iliad
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
Theophrastus
In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Unknown
“Infinite patience produces immediate results.”
Foundation for Inner Peace, A Course in Miracles
“Time makes more converts than reason.”
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
“The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.”
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
Patience involves waiting, but not in a passive or lazy manner. It’s about persevering and moving forward even when progress is slow and challenging. Patience and time are the two warriors in life’s battles.
Based on the teachings of Leo Tolstoy
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack
That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
Emily Dickinson
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
William Penn
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell, 1984
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best is now.
Chinese proverb
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While you could’ve (and maybe should’ve) started earlier, you can still start now.
There are only two reasons why we can’t let something go: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.
Adapted from Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.”
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
“Clocks slay time… time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.”
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The clock is running.
Make the most of today.
Time waits for no man.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That’s why it is called the present.
Alice Morse Earle
“If we do not learn to perceive the mystery and beauty of our present life, our present hour, we shall not perceive the worth of any life, of any hour.”
Roshi P. Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen
“Today expect something good to happen to you no matter what occurred yesterday. Realize the past no longer holds you captive. It can only continue to hurt you if you hold on to it. Let the past go.”
Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance
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Jen Hitze 