Time Always Wins

Ruled by the Clock

      Time always wins. Tick, tock, tick, tock time marches forward. Sooner or later, we will stop, but it will not, just like taxes.

      Awareness. Are you awake enough to know what you're doing? Often I find myself in auto-pilot. I find myself focused only upon what I have to be doing. The alarm goes off. Maybe I can snooze it, once or twice, but mostly I have to resign myself to getting up and getting ready. Have I mastered that task list that determines my fate, or am I following someone else's lead? Have I convinced myself that satisfying their demands also serve me and my family and friends? These are questions I find time to ponder and attempt to use a slight edge to implement.

      Always busy, doing something. Even sleep is something. If I don't get enough sleep, I cannot think clearly enough to be sure I've taken a vivid review of the task list.

      Wasting time, productive use?

      Productive is also subjective. Productive for whom? Them or you and yours?

      The order is important, too. Priority and time both need to be considered. Some things have windows of time where they need to be accomplished. Some things are preparatory - they need to be done in advance of some point in time, like a scheduled meeting. Others have to be done now, like right after a meeting, to capture what steps will need to be accomplished before the next meeting or event occurance. Of course priority should never be ignored.

      You and Yours, then short-term emergency, or, at lease, short-term priority escalation or life-long priority? Emergency or short-term priority escalation, in relative terms, that I use, relates to this whole concept of being able to really only perform ONE task at a time. And, manage but a handful of tasks. This handful should be the most important. Survival, comfort, luxury, perhaps that is the order you choose? Or, do you consider it more noble to forego some level of comfort for the survival benefit of others?

      Even survival is subjective. Water, food, clothing and shelter likely lead the list, but the whole requires much, much more. There's the physical, which was just (mostly) addressed, but there is also the emotional and the spiritual. How often do we neglect or even fail to recognize these? True work and life balance really requires that we find opportunity to satisfy the needs of the whole.

      So. Are you really multi-tasking? Are you really busy doing what's important to you? Or, are you just busy, doing just enough, and passing time to a future event (looking forward to something)?

with gratitude and in service,

Tony Koker

Photo credit: CanStockPhoto.com