Is your time spent in positive, life-enriching effort, or is your time committed to efforts less enriching, positive, and good for yourself and others?
Our time is a precious commodity, and how we use that commodity greatly affects who we are and the quality of lives.
The pandemic limitations have made many more aware of time and how they use that time. I am reflecting on my own use of time this morning with this focus:
Spend your time in positive endeavor
Too many people end up spending their time with less than positive endeavor. This occurs for many reasons including a lack of forethought or planning. For example, people who may not think a lot about the long term, may end up in jobs that do not contribute well to their own lives or the lives of others. Spending time well demands reflection and planning beginning with the question, Do you spend your time in efforts that uplift lives or harm lives?
Know your values
If you don't make time to think deeply about what you value and why you value that, it's possible that you will spend time in ways that don't help others. If you do know your values, you will likely do a better job spending your time in positive ways.
Make a long term plan
Take time to think ten years ahead, and work backwards as you plan what you will do. If you're in a lousy job now, plan a way to move away from that job into a new and better job. Work your way out of less positive situations into better situations. This will likely demand some sacrifice, but it is worth it.
Read the newspaper, watch the news, stay aware, get involved
Stay aware of the world around you. Get involved in ways that help to build the supports needed to create strong, positive communities. Often we can't better our lives without the supports and collaboration of the greater community. An example of this is the need to protect our natural resources. Without clean water, clean soil, and clean air, we will not live well. It will take good collaboration, laws, policies, and other efforts to preserve our natural resources--we can't do this on our own.
As I think of my own life, I find that my current focus includes the following:
- Quality care and service to loved ones
- Creating and maintaining a loving, welcoming home
- Building my capacity to love, support, and care for others
- Building, nurturing relationships
- Learning about the world around me
- Contribution to the community in ways that support good living for myself and others