A little time

A good friend of mine likes to ask people what they would wish for if they could have as much as they wanted of any one thing. Like if a genie or a leprechaun showed up and said you could have an unlimited amount of any one thing what would you choose?

Several times my answer has been force lightning. That stuff is really useful. It easily solves a lot of very different issues and is great for getting people to comply with your wants and desires.

A lot of people choose money or whatever their favorite food is. Some choose drugs or alcohol. Others choose great cars or even better an unlimited amount of awesome friends and companions.

Some of those are really great answers. But my friend's answer is the best I have ever heard to that question. Invariably, he says, if he could ask for and receive an unlimited amount of any one thing, he would choose time.

With an unlimited amount of time, aside from never needing to worry about dying, you could get as much as you want of any of those other things. You could. But would you?

We have a tendency to say that our lives are very busy and that we simply do not have time to do more than we already do. And for some of us that is true. There are people that work two or three jobs and spend 18 hours a day working and six or less sleeping and preparing to go back to work.  They literally do nothing but eat, sleep and work.

Those people can honestly say that they do not have enough time to do maintenance on their house, wash their cars, start a hobby or take some action to help themselves grow as a person such as learning a new language or refining a skill set that they already have.

All the rest of us are simply lying, to ourselves and to others. We have plenty of time. We just manage it poorly. Many of us adults sleep ten to twelve hours a day when we do not need to. Six to eight is sufficient. How much time each day do you spend texting people or playing with your cellphone? 
How many hours a day do you spend watching television, when you could be doing something constructive? The average American spends more than 34 hours a week watching television. That is nearly five hours a day, everyday. And then there is the bane and probable cause of the collapse of modern society, video games. How much of your day disappears to video games?

Many of those things are things that take your whole focus and where you can not reasonably do anything else. But what about when you are in your car going to or from work? Or out jogging or at the gym. Many people listen to music while doing these things.

If you wanted to, you could spend this time with an mp3 player  learning a new language, listening to motivational speeches, or just doing something to expand your horizons and open your mind to new possibilities, while doing whatever it is that you are already doing.

Don't get me wrong. I sleep, spend time with my cell phone and love to play video games too. But I set time aside to do other things that need to be done as well. It is about being efficient with your time. If you can do more than one thing at once and pay sufficient attention to each thing, do so.  I promise if you make an effort to find more time in your day and are completely honest with yourself, you will find that there are ways you can be more efficient and get more done in less time.