Why Time Is Worth Obsessing Over (but only when treated as a platform)
Be obsessed with your time but treat it as a platform, not a limitation
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Thinking about time can be an overwhelming activity.
One reason is that time itself is ungraspable. For us, the concept of time is similar to oxygen.
We know it's there, we feel its effects but we can't really see it. Of course, with an exception that oxygen is the actual chemical element and time is simply a way of measuring the gap between past, present, and future.
Because of the nature of how things progress past -> future and the fact that life of each of us can be expressed in the lenght of that progression, we often refer to time as the limitation.
After all, we have only a limited amount of time on Earth.
Yet, I'd argue that the sole concept may damage our perception of what time is.
Here's why:
For organizational and managerial purposes, people have been trying to harness time with better or worse outcomes.ย
That's why we use calendars, divide the time into years, years into days, days into hours, etc.
One can say that this is strictly dictated by the rhythm of our planet and the day would be longer or shorter on a different planet but even then, we're referring to the human-created concept of what a day is.
Using the measure of days we can assign each day for a different purpose (or at least cluster of days). That's why most of us work for 5 days and then, presumably, rest for the other two.ย
But - put everything above aside and you're left with a simple relation between a point in the past and the point in the future. It is a continuous line marked with nothing else than events. It doesn't slow down nor it speeds up, regardless of our perception.
Thus, we can treat time as a platform and not a limitation.
Our lives will still be limited by the time itself as each and every one of us will reach their end but that is due to exhaustion of our bodies and the external factors that we haven't tackled yet.
No matter where's the end of each of us, the time will continue to move forward and that's what makes me think that it'd be better to treat it as a platform that we get to live on rather than the limitation that we have to tackle.
Let's get to the obsession part.
When we only have something in a limited amount we treat it with some sort of obsession.
It may appear as dosing, limiting, or even restriction.
Nonetheless, we get really careful with how we use this resource. The same goes for time.
Because we have a limited number of days that we can spend on the surface of the Earth or Mars (Mr. Musk?), we go crazy about how we use it.
And that's a good thing.
We should be going crazy thinking 'I won't be here forever thus I might start doing what really makes me fulfilled.'
Combining that with the perception of time as a platform is a perfect mix.
The reasons for that are:
1.) You keep the time's boundaries on yourself but not due to the nature of time itself;
2.) You strive not to lose a second of your lifetime;
3.) Instead of waiting for the right day to happen, you go about what you want right here, right now.
The problem with dividing time into artificial slots - years, months, days, - is that people keep waiting for a 'new year to start'.
We kick off our resolutions when others do. We go about achieving our dreams only as the calendar lets us.
Successful people say that the right time is always now. That's because the current day is unique and each moment is an opportunity to seize.
Erase years, months, and days from your way of thinking and you're left with almost the blank slate.
Almost, because there's a continuous line that still progresses and that's your life.
Obsess over your time but remember there's no right or wrong day for anything.
Celebrate what you want now - don't wait for the X Day to gift flowers.
Improve yourself now - don't wait until the next year to create a New Year's Resolution list
Achieve your dreams now - don't wait until the right combination of numbers shows up on the calendar.