What do you do with "left-over time?"

I have some “left-over” time today. Like left-over food, if I don’t use it, it will probably spoil. You cannot save left-over time too long, since something will inevitably come up to take it away from you. We get left-over time when we finish something sooner than we thought we would. I may budget four hours for a project but instead it only takes three. I now have 1 hour left-over. If I don’t save this time, I will surely be able to use it up right away. Left-overs are one of life’s many blessings to us. Do you know anybody that does not like left-overs? It is so much fun to go back down to the refrigerator after all the company has left and find left-over turkey or chicken or a roast to pick on.

Left-over time can be equally wonderful. We all love to have time left to spend on something that we did not plan or did not anticipate. It is all too rare these days to find ourselves with left-over time. Of course, if you get to the airport and find out that your plane was delayed, you might be at a loss as to what to do with your time. At this point, there is no refrigerator to store your left-over time in. Many people plan for such delays and creatively find uses for left-over time. Much like some good cooks can make more interesting second meals out of left-overs, some people find very novel ways to spend their left-over time. Take a trip to an airport sometime and look at all the ways that people spend their left-over time.

Left-over food always seems to taste better when you eat it then when it was cooked. Do you think “left-over time” gets better when you can put it away and bring it out later to use? Does time age well or does it go stale very quickly? How long can you keep left-over time? When do you ever have “left-overs” for time? If you finish something today in less time than you had anticipated, what will you do with your left-over time today? Are you creative with your left-over time? Maybe we all need to start finding a better way to have “left-overs” for time and more creative ways to spend it?

How do you handle your times of restlessness?

Restless times are those times when we just can’t seem to be comfortable. Sometimes they happen when we are nervous, sometimes when we are worried and other times when we are just too tired too sleep or relax. I often get restless when I am on a long plane trip. I get restless just before I am going to go on vacation or before an important presentation or training session. Sometimes, I will get up early because I can’t sleep. I have even been known to go out and jog at 11 PM. It is easier to deal with restlessness when you are home because you have the advantage of having familiarity with your surroundings. On vacations, I get very restless. I start to miss being at work and my familiar routines.

A large part of restlessness may have to do with having less control over things that are happening to us. They say the body has a certain wisdom. Many times we choose not to listen to the “wisdom” of our body. There is usually a price paid for this mistake. Restlessness may be a way that our bodies are trying to tell us something. Discovering the underlying worry or problem can be one solution. Meditation can be a good solution but it takes quite a bit of discipline to meditate when we are restless. Our vast pharmacological cornucopia is more than ready to sedate us or medicate us with pills and prescriptions. The problem with this solution (not to mention drug side effects) is that it numbs our bodies and minds to the true cause of our problem. Taking a drug for “restless” leg syndrome may mask the fact that our legs are crying for exercise or some stimulation. Conversely, they may just need some rest. Do you know anyone on a long plane trip who does not get symptoms of “restless” leg syndrome? However, we all want quick fixes and the medicine cabinet is increasingly full of them. Beware the price you pay though!

Are you ever restless? What makes you restless? What can you do about it? Do you look for the quick fix? What price do you pay when you take a quick fix? Pay attention today and notice if and when you are restless. When you are restless, what could your body be trying to tell you? What are some things that you could do to better address your restlessness than going to the medicine cabinet?

Are you older or bolder?

“But time makes you bolder” are lines from a song by the rock group Fleetwood Mac. But does it? We have a saying in motorcycling that “There are bold riders and there are old riders, but there are no ‘old’ bold riders.” I find that as I grow older, I am getting more cautious in many areas of my life. When we are young, we think we will live forever. When we grow old, we are much more aware of our mortality. We no longer think we are invincible. We have suffered broken bones and broken hearts. We realize that few things will last forever. This makes us more cautious. Once you find that fire burns, you are less likely to stick your hand in it. There are many things in life that burn. The older we get, the (hopefully) wiser we become.

As with anything, we can be overly cautious. Age can bring wisdom and vigilance. However, excessive vigilance and caution can make us pass up many wonderful opportunities. Live cannot be lived to the fullest strictly by observing caution. I tell my students that everything in life involves risk. We all must be risk takers to live. There are two types of risk takers. One is smart, these are the risk minimizers. The other is foolish. These are the risk maximizers. For example, a risk maximizer does not wear a helmet while riding. A risk minimizer always wears a helmet when riding. You cannot be successful in business without taking risks either. However, you have a choice between being a risk minimizer or a risk maximizer. A smart business person tries to minimize risk.

The question for all of us as we age is this: “Where do we need to be “bolder” and where is it smart to be more cautious?” I would hate to think that growing old meant I had to give up motorcycling, skiing, skydiving, scuba diving or any of the other sports that I enjoy. Nevertheless, I would like to think I am more cautious in each of these activities and that I no longer take the same risks I did when I was younger and bolder. Where in your life have you become more cautious? Where have you become too cautious? Are there areas where you need to take “more” risk? How about areas where you need to take fewer risks?

Do you have time for another chance?

“Run Lola Run” was a fascinating movie about the subject of time and chance in our lives. In the movie, a young woman gets to keep replaying the same twenty minutes during which time she must find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a grocery store. If he does not come up with the money, he will forfeit his life to the thief whose money he lost. If he robs the store, he will be killed or become an outlaw. It is up to Lola to use the twenty minutes to get the money and bring it to her boyfriend. When she is not successful the first time, the clock is reset and she gets to try again. Each time the clock is reset, the movie starts out with Lola madly running, as she is fully aware that she has only twenty minutes to save her boyfriend. Each time, you think that it is a replay but you will soon notice that something different happens each time leading to a different result. There are three or four “retakes” and finally she gets it “right.” She obtains the money and saves her boyfriends life.

The story is engrossing as we want Lola to succeed. However each time she fails, it makes us wonder if it is really in the cards. But Lola does not give up. Many of us think that this is just the movies. In life we never get a second chance. We cannot reply the mistakes we made. At least that is how many of us feel. In reality, we replay our mistakes many times. Do you know anyone who had an unhappy or wronged life on the basis of only one event? When you notice someone going to jail for some crime, it is seldom that they do so for the “first” offense. If we are not patient, compassionate or happy, it is generally not the result of one episode of mistreatment. Similarly, our lives do not have to continue down the same track. As the saying goes “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

What in your life, do you wish you could replay? Where have you given up and not taken the second, third or even fourth try? What would happen today if you could play it over and keep trying until you got it right? What might be different in your life now? Is it too late, or have you simply given up? Perhaps not all things can be changed, but there are many that can. What can you find in your life that you can and will start to replay?

What role does Father Time play in your life?

Father Time - the personification of time as a bearded man of advanced years, usually wearing a robe and sometimes carrying a scythe or an hourglass. Some say he is derived from the Greek God Saturn or Chronos. I would like to know why he is Father Time and not Mother Time. Why does he not have a female companion on his journeys? Have you ever noticed that many of the Greek virtues are feminine? However, time is always thought of as masculine. While we speak of Mother Earth we are led by Father Time. Time is the progenitor of life. Without time nothing happens. Eggs would not develop; life would not spring forth to grow. Thus Father Time becomes a key parent to all life. Just as Mother Earth nurtures life, Father Time gives life or at least provides the key elements for life to grow. Life can be seen as requiring both the masculine and feminine elements. The female elements are embodied in nurturance and support. The masculine elements are action oriented driven by time and tasks.

What are the implications of this view of time as masculine? Who is Father Time a father to? What parental guidance or parental role does he play in our daily lives? One might ask what role you as a parent play with your children in respect to time. Do you get them up in the morning to go to school? Do you let them sleep in on the weekends? Do you make sure they get their chores done on time? What are the parental responsibilities that you transmit to your children in respect to time? What do your expectations teach your children about time? What should you be teaching your children about time?

Is the best of life yet to be?

“Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be.” This was a poem that my first wife found when we were just married. I loved the poem and in some sense it embodied what I felt married life should be about. There were many times within our marriage where I thought about this poem. We ended in divorce after 16 years. I was never sure why the marriage ended. We fought, loved, laughed and suffered through ups and downs with money but none of these things ended the marriage. I once added up all my theories on why the marriage ended and I came up with 32 theories. Many years later, I came up with a new theory and decided that all the old theories were bunk. For years we saw each other and I considered my former wife a friend. However, we have since drifted apart and for perhaps the same unfathomable reasons that the marriage failed, the friendship has since faded away.

I am left with the poem and while I still think about it a great deal, it now is more related to my second marriage and the hopes and dreams I have for it. What a wonderful thought that we can share life together with another person and expect that the best of life is still to come. I am facing old age and looking towards the last years of my life. Yet, I can more easily believe the words of this poem today then when I was young. I now realize that relationships are not made in heaven, they are made on earth. Relationships are like flowers and gardens. They must be nurtured and pampered and tended daily with loving care. There will be weeds and dry days and floods and tornados. Rabbits and other critters will intrude on your garden and eat your flowers. A garden is not fixed in stone. Each year requires renewed effort to bring out the best in it. Our relationships are a lot like gardens. If you continue working on your relationships, they will only get better and better. If you think that your garden will take care of itself and never need replanting or watering, you will soon find that your garden is nothing but weeds and stones.

Do you have faith that your relationships with your friends and loved ones can be better or do you just take them for granted? Do you believe that your life would get better and better if you were improving more each day? Do you think your life might also be like a garden? What could you do to improve your relationships or your life today? What challenges could you take today to make your life more interesting or more fun? What parts of your relationships with your loved ones need watering or replanting? What weeds do you need to remove in your relationships?

Do you have a birth statement?

A birth statement! Have you ever created one? In some cultures, it is customary to make a birth statement before a baby is born. The mother sets down her values and preferences regarding the expected birth of her baby. In other cultures, a birth statement may be a set of prophecies for a newborn child regarding its future. Parents, friends and relatives gather together to wish the newborn health and happiness. Unfortunately the key party to these proceedings will have no clue as to what is going on. However, imagine, if the newborn were more articulate and could speak for him or herself? Well, with little experience of the world, it would seem very difficult for the child to express any relevant desires.

I suppose a newborn could continue to wish for a good mother, a reasonable amount of food on a daily basis and a great deal of warmth and comfort. Beyond these basic needs, it would take more experience of the outside world before anyone could really know what they wanted or expected out of life. Indeed, our wants and expectations are constantly undergoing change throughout our entire lives. Can you think of anything more dynamic or changeable then your own wants and needs over your lifetime? Things we want today, we may come to regret owning or purchasing or obtaining tomorrow. If only foresight were as good as hindsight. Nevertheless, there is no ignoring the role that experience plays in our lives. Reflection and contemplation will only take you so far. To really understand life, you must live it. You must participate in it.

So what would you like said about you when you were born? We are often asked to think about what we would like to have said about ourselves when we die. However, if you had a chance to make a speech when you were born or to have someone make a speech for you, what would you like said about you at this time? What prophesies, dreams or hopes would you want to have expressed about your life? Pretend you are making this speech for yourself. Jot down a few notes and read them to yourself. Then read them to someone who cares about you. What were your reactions? What were their reactions? How would your life be different if you had achieved theses expectations? Would your life be much different? How? What changes could you still make that would help you to achieve your birth statement?

Are you an ant or a grasshopper?

The ant and the grasshopper is a story by Aesop, (620–560 BC), a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Most Baby Boomers would be familiar with this story. It involves a colony of ants and a grasshopper. The ants are depicted as very industrious and constantly going about their work of collecting and storing food. The grasshopper just wants to jump and play all summer. He is usually seen with a fiddle and dancing. The grasshopper thinks the ants are foolish since they are working and slaving in the warm summer sun when they could be frolicking and enjoying the great weather. The ants are looking to the future. They are thinking about the cold winter that is only months away. The grasshopper’s only care is for today. He is thinking short-term.

Inevitably the winter comes. The grasshopper is ill prepared. He has stored no food nor can he find any on the cold frozen ground. He goes to the ants for food. They scorn his solicitations and advise him that next time (if he survives) instead of playing; he should be working and saving up. This story reminds me of the situation that many baby boomers now face with retirement benefits. There are many of us who have spent, spent, spent and never saved enough to have a decent retirement. Now when others are retiring we will need to continue to work. This may not be a big problem unless you do not have the health to continue to work.

I often wish I had been more like the ant when I was younger. I realized somewhat late in life the value of saving. Today, I try to balance more between saving and spending. It is really a question of balance. Perhaps the ants would enjoy life more and be more generous if they could take a few days off to play each summer. The grasshopper should learn to balance his desire for fun with some thought about his future. The Greeks got it right a few thousand years ago when they said: “All things in moderation.” We need to balance living for the short-term with living for the long-term. One saying I like is “spend your time as though you were going to die tomorrow, but spend your money as though you were going to live forever.” In other words, use time for the short-term but save your money for the long-term.” Savings is a form of deferring our standard of living for the future. Many people live only for today and spend as much as they can each day. When the future comes or a rainy day they have nothing to fall back on.

Do you balance the short-term with the long-term needs of life? Do you put money aside for a rainy day? Do you have a good financial plan? Are you thinking about saving for the future? If not, when do you plan to start? What keeps you from putting money away? Are you living too much for today?

How flexible are you?

“Gather you rosebuds while ye may”, by the English poet Robert Herrick. This is a little poem we are all familiar with from childhood or early school. It seems to be telling us that youth is the best time to catch a spouse or to accomplish some things and that if we wait too long, “we may forever tarry.” However, today, we see many people waiting longer to get married and many more couples choosing not to marry. Robert Herrick’s quote may be less germane and even seem antiquated to the present generation. The emphasis today is on speed and action. Delay and reflection is often seen as weakness rather then strength. We live in a society that appears to value youth and vitality more than maturity and wisdom. This is not to say that youth and speed cannot be assets.

What is the real value of youth? It seems to me, it is more than just a time to marry, get things done, find a spouse, take action or even see the world. Youth is a time of flexibility. It is a time when patterns have not been set in stone. It is a time to explore and look at options. Granted, you do not have to be young to do these things. However, as we age, many of us become more set in our ways. We have learned many likes and dislikes. Age can bring inflexibility or even ruts from habits that are well worn.

Data on vehicle accidents seem to point to the relative advantages and disadvantages of age and youth. Data for accidents show peaks for youth and the elderly and declines in between the two extremes of age. The young are brash and lack experience but have great reflexes while the elderly have the experience but lack the timing and reflexes.

Thus, youth is less about gathering rosebuds and more about experimentation and creativity. Can we keep these options open as we age? To some degree, the answer is yes. Much of creativity and flexibility is a state of mind (the body is a different issue).The key is to find ways to continue flexing your mind and spirit. Ask yourself today “In what areas, have I become settled and complacent?” When was the last time I tried something really new or went somewhere new? When was the last time I took a class or made a new friend? Can you still go out and find some rosebuds or have you given up the quest? What would it take for you to start something new this week or this month? What have you always wanted to do and never started? Why not start today or this week?

What have you forgot to remember to forget?

I forgot to remember to forget her,
I can't seem to get her off my mind.
I thought I'd never miss her,
But I found out somehow
I think about her almost all the time. (Sung by Elvis Presley)

I always loved this song by Elvis, perhaps for the interesting twist to the lyrics. Have you ever not been able to forget something? I am sure we all have things we would like to forget. Sometimes, it seems we think about them all the time. Often, ironically, it is only time that helps us to forget them. However if we keep rehashing the thoughts in our mind, we never let time work. We are constantly refreshing the thoughts and allowing them to be present and timely. How then, do we get them out of our mind; if even time will not erase them? One thing I do is use a prayer to help push the unwanted ideas or thoughts out. As soon as the undesirable idea or issue arises, I repeat a meditation or prayer which replaces the idea. I have found this to work quite well. There are many different types of prayers in all religions. I have a book titled: “Prayers That Avail Much” by Germaine Copeland. This book has many prayers for all occasions and can be quite helpful. Try buying a prayer book in whatever faith you practice and see how prayer can help to keep your mind fresh and peaceful.

What thoughts do you have that you want to get out of your mind? How often do they reoccur? Say a prayer today and see if it helps? The thoughts may reoccur but the meditation or prayer will help you to forget.

Should you simplify your life?

Have you ever thought about the relationship between complexity and time? It seems like there is one. Did you ever hear of anyone who said they lived a simple life and did not have any time? As our lives become more complex, time seems to become shorter and shorter. As we add more and more stuff to our lives, they become more and more complex. I had three motorcycles and it was confusing to keep them all running and up to date with license, insurance, oil changes, tire pressure etc. When I sold one, I simplified my life and I had more time to enjoy the two bikes I had left.

How often do we think that we are adding to the enjoyment of our lives when we are really diminishing our lives? The things we own and buy begin to possess up. We buy things to make life easier and simpler and ironically the more things we own the more complex and hectic our lives become. Think of all the stuff that you own. You must maintain it, fix it, store it and find it. Half of the time, you probably cannot find what you want anyway. Have you ever gone out to buy something, simply because you cannot find the one you own? We have a very good vegetable peeler and I could not find it the other day. I went to the market and bought two cheap ones so I would always be able to find at least one. I thought I was getting a bargain as they were only $1.99 each. Well, as soon as I started to peel a carrot, I realized why they are so cheap. So now, I have two cheap poor quality peelers than I can find but can hardly use and one very good high quality peeler that is lost someplace in the kitchen drawers.

Is your life now more complex than you would like it to be? How many times have you thought that if your live was simpler, you might enjoy it more and have more time and fun to do what you really wanted to do? Would you like to return to the simpler times? What if you started today to simplify your life? What if each week, you did one act of simplification? Where could you start to simplify your life? What stuff could you get rid of this week? One act a week and at the end of the year, you will taken 52 steps to simplify your life. As they say, all journeys start with the first step. Take a step today to simplify your life.

Do you ever have a "dull" momemt?

Never a dull moment! Do you ever have one of those days that you honestly wished were dull? A day that is without any excitement, surprises or disasters! For some of us, life is so busy that we have no time to think and hardly time to breath. We go from one event to another. We manage one project after another. We have a series of never ending appointments to attend. We careen from one meeting to another, with just time to grab a coffee in between. We fuel our constant state of activity with high energy caffeinated drinks or other energizers. Coffee, donuts and some candies now come with extra dosages of caffeine to fuel our frenzied lifestyles. Calendars, Blackberries and I-Phones are all hot-sellers as we try to manage and schedule the many varied activities that comprise our daily life. We would pity an animal if it led the type of life that some of us lead. We laugh at the rat on the treadmill but many of us have become that rat.

Do you have the type of life that is never dull? What do you think your life would be like if you had a few more “dull” moments? Are you a junkie for action? Do you think time might slow down for you if you were not constantly going from one activity to another? Do you ever take some time for just meditating during the day? Every great spiritual tradition in the world notes the spiritual benefits of meditating. “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul? (Matthew 16:26)

Try meditating for five minutes today. If you don’t know how to meditate, look it up and find a technique to try. Go to the following website for some ideas and methods on how to meditate: http://www.learningmeditation.com. There are many different ways to meditate. Start off by meditating for only a few minutes each week. Gradually increase the time and number of days that you meditate. Your days will probably not become dull but you will gain a deeper appreciation of life.

What is your personal best?

Your personal best is a term that we usually hear applied to runners and athletes. Generally, it means the best score or time that you achieved at some athletic event or competition. I have a personal best for a ten k run that I did several years ago. I have never exceeded this time. I think when I was about 32 or 33. I was living in a small town in Wisconsin and married to my first wife Julia. She used to go to watch me in my events. As I have grown older, the details have receded from my grasp. However, I still remember the time: 38:48. It seems etched in my mind despite the other details about the race which grow further and further away. I don’t even remember where I placed in the standings. I have now been running for over 35 years but seldom do any races or events.

Surprisingly, I feel better and better as I continue my daily runs. I no longer care about “beating” my personal best. I am more satisfied to simply go out, run, and soak up the wonderful feelings I get from a more leisurely pace. I take the time to see the flowers and observe the animals, birds or whatever crosses my path. I focus more on the quality of my runs and less on how fast or how far I am going. Running does not seem like a chore or a task, but it is something I look forward to doing. If I were obsessed with beating my personal best or cranking out miles, I don’t think I would enjoy it as much or have been running as long as I have.

This raises a very interesting question. We live in a time of intense global competition, where our very lifestyles depend on increasing our productivity almost daily. Our mantra is: “Better, faster, cheaper” and our standard of living depends on accomplishing this mantra. The question then is: “Do we always have to be doing something better and better?” Where does our quality of life fit in? Is more or faster necessarily better? When is slower better? During my race track training with Keith Code from California Superbike School, Keith always told us that “you have to learn how to go slow before you can go fast.”

How can you improve your quality of life today by slowing something down or by taking it easier? Can you let go of some personal best that you have been obsessed with? How much longer will you live if you slow down some today?

Who are you taking for granted?

I just never had the time. A friend died in a motorcycle accident on a mountain road. It was a trip that Karen and I had almost gone on. He was a member of our motorcycle club and a really caring and loving guy. Karen cried on and off all day. I felt like crying myself but somehow I did not have the time to cry or could not find a place to go and cry by myself. Gary was not a best friend but he was someone I liked and admired very much. He always had time for you and I never heard him say anything mean or untoward about another person. If you ran into Gary some place, it was like meeting a long lost friend. He would greet you like the returning Prodigal Son and give you a big bear hug.

Gary was a big man with an even bigger heart. Nobody and I mean nobody disliked Gary. I had intended to see more of him or occasionally go out for coffee with him. He was easy to talk to and more than pleasant to be with. He was always positive and a very fun person. Of course, I never did any of these things with him. About the only time I ever saw Gary was at club rides and club meetings. I am a very BUSY person. I never spent enough time with him or told him how much I thought of him. I just never had the time. I thought he would be around longer. I really did mean to get to it. Who could have known his life would have ended so soon? I wonder if I will ever learn.

Who do you need to spend more time with? Who do you want to spend more time with? Who do you think will be around forever? What if they are not? What if your assumptions about how your friends and relatives will live were all wrong? Who would you want to see today? Maybe you should.

Can you anti-procrastinate today?

Anti-crastination! What does that mean? It is not in the dictionary! Well, it should be. We are all familiar with the word procrastination. In fact, most of us are probably too familiar with it. It means to put off doing something. Generally we say, “Well I will do it tomorrow or I will start tomorrow.” The suffix “pro” means to put forward and “crastination” is for tomorrow. Thus, “anti-crastination” would mean to be “against putting something off.” Most of us are guilty of procrastination but few of us could be said to be guilty of anti-crastination.

The word or concept of anti-crastination could possibly imply compulsive behavior of another sort. Someone who always has to do things “right away” would be an “anti-crastinator.” Someone who can’t rest for a second but is always going from one thing to another or who is always on the doing, doing and doing. A compulsive personality in regards to doing things might be an anti-crastinator. Have you ever wondered where all the anti-crastinators are? It seems like we have many more procrastinators than we do anti-crastinators.

Now some of us might occasionally like to have that compulsion. With less procrastination, we might get more things done and have things weigh on us less heavily. Many of us have had to deal with procrastination in our lives. At times it is simply funny and at other times it is debilitating. We can start disliking ourselves and become severely depressed with too much procrastination. Of course, as with all things, moderation is the best medicine. Sometimes is okay to procrastinate. We don’t always have to be anti-crastinators. We don’t always have to be accomplishing things or getting things done. Nikes famous slogan “Just do it” might be good for a running company but for many of us it becomes a demon urging us to get things done at all costs and with little thought.

So today, look at where it might be better to be a procrastinator. What can or should you put off doing today because: 1. you just don’t feel like it or 2: Maybe it will get done better if you have more time to think about it. Can you give yourself permission to be a procrastinator and still feel good about yourself? What will you put off doing today? How will it feel?

Where is the humor in your life?

Time and humor seem to be related. Have you ever noticed that a good comedian has an extraordinary sense of timing? For a comedian to be funny, their timing has to be spot on. A comedian has to sense the pulse of the audience as well as gauge the temper of the day. For instance, jokes about 911 would probably not sound funny even today due to the seriousness of the tragedy. However, comedians often joke about minor disasters and other failings when the time seems right. Some comedians get away with telling racist and sexist jokes. They are able to sense the mood and nature of the audience. They also have an excellent sense of the Zeitgeist. The Zeitgeist is a German word that roughly translates to “tempo of the times or the sign of the times.” During the sixties, many of us took ourselves very seriously but today we can look back and joke about hippies, Woodstock, flower children and many of the quaint ideas we had back then. Just look at how silly the dress and clothes look from back in the sixties. We thought we were so cool then and now we laugh at how clownish we all looked.

If you watch the evening talk show hosts, they are masters at getting the timing just right with their audience. Even when they flub a joke, they are able to make an instant comeback. Not only do they have to have excellent timing for their jokes but the selection of guests is very critical as well. All of us want to see guests who are current in the public mind for one reason or another. Perhaps they have an upcoming movie, divorce or some other noteworthy event. If they are not connected to any significant happenings, we are not likely to be as interested in them. Being a celebrity has a great deal to do with timing as well as talent. Great celebrities are great marketers.

How do you deal with humor in your life? What in your life today can you laugh at that you might not have been able to years ago? What do you regard as so serious today that you do not ever thing you could laugh at? What if you are wrong? Is your life so serious that you cannot find anything humorous about it? How could you add more humor to your life? How could you find a sense of better timing in your life to deal with humor? When was the last joke you told?

Brother, can you spare me ten seconds?

The 10 Second Rule at Wahoo. The rule at Wahoo, a sort of trendy restaurant among young kids in California is that no one will wait more than ten seconds. Now ten seconds does not seem like a long time “unless” you are waiting. It is well know that our perception of time is psychologically based. The sense of time for us is never fixed nor does time ever seem to flow at the same rate for us. It often depends on what we are doing, when we are doing it or even whom we are doing it with. Waiting for a computer to reboot or waiting for a doctors report can seem to take forever. Waiting in lines at the airport or waiting in line to register our cars or waiting in line at any government office also seems to take forever. The time you spend on vacation or with a new romantic partner will fly by before you even realize it.

But with the fast pace of life today, waiting ten seconds is a long time. Years ago, we might not have thought much of having to wait ten seconds but today the emphasis is on speed and waiting is –for most- the ultimate waste of time. We must be quick today. Productivity and lifestyle all depend on quick. If someone cannot do it quick, we find someone who can. Fast everything is the modern answer to our lives. We have fast restaurants, fast food, instant meals, microwaves, faster and faster computers, sound bites for news and compressed college degrees that you can get in one year and online. Even funerals rarely last more than one hour. Our churches, schools, workplaces and sometimes our families all run on time and by a schedule. If they do not run on time we get impatient and find ways to leave.

Have you ever wondered about a world where ten seconds is a long time? Are we moving so fast that we cannot spare ten seconds for anyone or anything? How do you feel about spending ten seconds doing nothing? Can you spare ten seconds? How often do we drive by someone who needs help because we are in a hurry or because we are late or need to get somewhere for an appointment? When was the last time you spared ten seconds to help someone you did not know? Are you always in a hurry? When could you spare ten seconds? Did you ever want anyone to spare ten seconds for you? What if no one had the time to spare ten seconds for anyone else? Would you want to live in that kind of a world?

What is the flavor of your life?

“Savor Time” like you would savor a good meal! It is interesting that we can talk about savoring a good meal but when is the last time you heard anyone talk about savoring time? We seem to move so fast that time to savor time is practically non-existent. So how would it feel to “savor” time? When we savor a good meal, we linger over it, tasting every morsel very slowly and with great attention and concentration. We let the flavors drift into our body and we enjoy the smells and texture of the food. A steak has one aroma, roast chicken another and a good salad quite a different set of aromas and tastes. Can you imagine trying to enjoy a good meal if there were no aromas and textures to the meal?

If we were to do the same thing over every morsel of time and over every portion of time, would that make our appreciation of our lives any different or any better? It just might. I think we could all gain a greater appreciation for moments of happiness, sadness and loneliness. Funerals give us a time to savor the flavor of sadness. Funerals become healing time for the survivors. The time to linger over the flavor of death is essential to the healing process. Weddings are a time to taste and smell the flavor of great happiness and romance. Family holidays give us equal portions of nostalgia and joy as we reunite we those whom we have not seen for months or years. It seems like we need special events in our lives before we can take time to “smell the roses.”

What if we could learn to savor time on a regular basis? The time you are alive and well today may someday be a great banquet that you will never be able to feast on again. Every day I wake up healthy and well fed is a day of abundance. If I do not take the time to savor these days, I am missing out on the joy of living. When I finally learn to appreciate the days that I have to savor, it might be too late.

See if you can savor just a few morsels of time today. Which ones did you find worth lingering over? What was the experience like? How much more enjoyable would life be if you could savor time more? If you did not find any good morsels, then ask yourself why not? What would it take for you to find some times that were worth savoring? Do you have enough good tastes in your life? Where can you go to improve the quality of your “banquet?”

How many new friends have you created this month?

“Churn Rate” refers to the number of participants who discontinue their use of a service divided by the average number of total participants. In short, how many customers do you lose versus how many do you gain. A cell phone company would measure the number of customers who quit each month divided by their total number of customers for that month. This ratio or rate would be an indicator of how many customers they are losing each month. Another way of looking at this idea of Churn Rate is to ask: “Are more fish jumping into your boat or out of your boat? Churn Rates can vary by day, month or year. However, the rate measures a very important indicator of business success. I once worked for a company where we hooked a great many new potential clients, but we could not keep them in the boat. The hard work to hook the potential client was lost by poor service and delivery techniques further along in our pipeline.

This same concept of “Churn Rate” can also apply to how we treat our friends, families and loved ones. Do we gain more friends as time goes by or do we lose more? Most of us will lose friends and relatives over a lifetime and somewhat like customers, old friends must be replaced by new friends. My 95 year old aunt told me that while most of her “old” friends had now passed away, she had many new friends. Of course, most of her new friends were now younger than she was. She was a healthy and vital 95 year old widow who kept herself surrounded by a strong support group of diminishing “old” friends but was constantly adding “new” friends. It is possible to do this if you really value the role of friendships in your life and if you have an attitude like Will Rogers who once remarked that” He never met a person he did not like.”

How is your Churn Rate for friends and relatives? Do you wish you had more friends but can seldom find the time for the ones you have? What stops you from spending more time with friends and relatives? How long since you have added some new friends to your support network? How long has it been since you have had contact with your best friends? Do you have a best friend? Are you friends and relatives really important to you? If not, perhaps it is time to find some new friends.

Do you have good timing?

Good timin, a tick a tick a tick a tick a
timin is the thing it's true, good timin' brought me to you.

These lyrics were written by Jimmy Jones in the sixties. He was one of the early rock and rollers. The song suggests the importance of timing and falling in love. I have always wondered about the idea of “good timing.” It seems to be something that can account for so much good or bad in the world. A friend of mine’s son was killed in a car accident on the way to pick his parents up at the airport as they returned from vacation. He was only 29 years old. A young woman was killed while running on the street when a car veered into her path and struck her. She was 18 years old. A two year old toddler wanders outside on a cold night and dies of exposure. A different time of day, a different day and a different season and all these people would still be alive.

Another person starts a business to sell disk operating systems and becomes the richest person in the world. Sam Walton starts a retail discount business fifty years after Sears, Penney’s, Wards, Grants, Woolworths, Target and K-Mart and becomes the largest discount store in the world. Mary Poppins and the Wizard of Oz both were released during some very troubled times in America and went on to become blockbusters. Their message of hope and optimism came at the right time for millions of people who needed some inspiration.

What does it take to get good timing? Can we develop good timing or is one born with good timing, or is it simply luck. I have never been a believer in the idea of luck making anyone successful. Some pundit once said “luck is where preparation meets opportunity. This suggests that we are the master of our fates and not the victim of random chance. I see a great deal of evidence of this definition of luck when I look at successful writers, businesspeople, athletes and artists.

So how do we account for the factor of good timing? Is timing the one element of success that is random or is timing a factor that is also in our control? Is timing something we can get better at? How good do you think your timing is? Where would you improve your timing if you could? Perhaps by understanding the role that timing plays in our lives we have a better chance of adapting it to our needs.

How much break time do you get?

Well, I am back from Belize and back to work. After just having a ten day break in "Paradise" I am already thinking about more break-time! Break-time may just be the best time of the day for many of us. Why exactly do we look forward to break-time so much? Seems like such a nonsensical question. On a “break”, we get a time-out from work. We break our routine. We stop doing something that we may feel is tedious or difficult. We may take a smoke, a walk or play cards with other workers, but it is not work so it passes very fast. Break-time takes us away from work and allows us to rejuvenate some of our vital physical and mental processes.

However, what if your whole day was one long break? What if you had to come in from 9 to 5 and take one long eight hour break? I was once told that in China there was so much employment that they could not find enough jobs for all the workers. So one factory had a large break room and the employees would take turns doing the work. Fifty percent of them might be working and fifty percent of them would just be passing time in the break room. I was told that putting people into meaningful work was much more important in China than efficiency or productivity.

What if you were paid to take a break the whole day? Can you imagine what it would be like? Could you play cards, chat or be idle the entire day? I suppose some people might call this “retirement.” Retirement is different though in that you know you are not going back to work. Despite the fact than many so-called retirees must find part-time jobs to support themselves, they do not think of themselves as being on a break from work. To be on a break from work, means that after the break you must go back to work. But what if there were no work to go back to? What if you were among the permanently unemployed? What would it be like? Would you find it stressful? Would you get bored? Well, the stress would eventually come when you ran out of money. Thus for most of us, breaks need to be long enough for rejuvenation and short enough to prevent boredom.

Do you get enough breaks in your life or do you keep on until your body forces you to take a break? How balanced are the breaks in your life from both stress and tedium? What do you need to better manage in your life to prevent burnout or boredom? I know that taking this break to Belize and not using my cellphone or laptop for ten days taught me a great deal about life. I learned I was really not as important as I sometimes think I am and I learned that I am often like a rabbit, hopping from one task to another without so much as a few minutes in between. I need to take more long breaks and more short breaks in my life.