Are Time and Justice good friends or sworn enemies?

No time for justice! Some people do not believe that there is any justice in the world. Others believe that justice will always occur but it just takes time. I remember part of a quote that mentions justice grinding like a mill wheel, slowly but inevitably. Many believe that justice will not be found in this world but only in some after life when all accounts are called to order. The Old Testament notes that “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.” Perhaps, we will not find justice on earth but somewhere between heaven and hell, we will all be judged and sentenced. I have always wondered where Hitler and other mass murderers would end up and what criteria could be used to judge them.

In the USA, the Bill of Rights (Amendment VI) calls for a speedy and impartial public trial for all convicted of a crime. Justice is rendered today and you do not have to wait to have justice meted out. Justice is quick, fair and impartial. Or at least, it is supposed to be. Today the wheels of justice seem to grind much more slowly than envisioned by our American forefathers. Few of us would say that most trials are speedy, never mind impartial. Perhaps if the definition of a “speedy” trial had been defined we might be better able to judge the efficacy of the present US court system. What is speedy to some of us might be slow to others. No doubt we all want justice today for ourselves. Why then does it appear that few citizens are clamoring for trials to be made speedier? Is the right to a speedy trial no longer important? Are we more willing to tolerate delays in all aspects of our lives? Have we extended this to the court system so that we no longer feel that a speedy trial is important?

Maybe we should just rewrite the Bill of Rights to make the amendment more accurate. Perhaps it should read: “You are entitled to a trial, which with lawyers and court delays might take several years before it comes to court. If you can afford a better lawyer, you will have a better chance of winning your case.” What would you think of this change? Do you think trials should be speedy? Do you think it is important to have a speedy, fair and impartial justice system? Do you think most are? How would you feel if you were in the court system? Would you be a satisfied customer?

So are you proud that you are a multi-tasker?

I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why (Alabama)

How true this song rings for so many of us. We are all in a hurry and we don’t know why. Where are we going? Why must we be in a hurry to get “nowhere” so fast? How frustrating life can seem when everyone wants everything fast. We have fast food restaurants, fast bank drive-ins, ATM’s, fast lanes, one hour prescriptions glasses, express lanes in the grocery stores, fast check-ins and fast checkouts at hotels and fast registrations for just about everything you can name. Amazon has instituted one-click shopping which has raised the bar even higher for fast service transactions.

As we speed life up more and more, we become less and less patient with waiting or spending even a second of “wasted” time. We take our frustrations out in road rage or an excess of pills to pacify our anxiety and tensions. We increasingly see the negative effects of rushing and multi-tasking. We have no time to spend thinking about whether or not we are rushing since we are so busy rushing we have no time to think. The cycle gets more vicious each day. We have completely relegated that old admonition “haste makes waste” to the dustbins of history.

When do you have time to stop or to do nothing or even to “waste” a minute? As you go through your activities today, see if you can be a little more patient. See if you can slow down a teeny bit. Use those opportunities when you are frustrated or feeling rushed to notice the flow in your life. Each moment of haste or impatience is an opportunity to slow the rush down. How many chances can you take today to slow the rush down? How many will you succeed at? Give your heart a break today! Give others a break! One of these breaks may just save your life.

Do you spend your time wisely and well?

Spending time! What an interesting concept. We say: “I would really like to spend some time with you or I would really like to be able to spend some time on that.” What does it mean to spend time? Is time like money? If time is like money, then do I only have so much to spend? What if I am rich, do I have more time to spend than a poor person. Can you be rich in time and poor in money? Well, regardless of how much money you or I have, each day we wake up with 24 hours of time in a day. Whether you are rich or poor, the length of the day is the same for each of us.

In the short term, money is always limited, but taking a long term view it can always grow or diminish. Time does not grow though. Our time runs down as each second, each minute, each hour, each day, each week, each month and each year brings us one step closer to finality. All the money in the world will not stop this inevitability. We all have a date with death at some point in our lives. Sooner for some and later for others, but it is inevitable for all. Unlike money in a bank though, each day brings me 24 fresh new hours to live. However, while I have 24 new hours to live each day, I will never see the same moments again in my life that I spent yesterday.

Thus, it is prudent to ask if you are spending your time wisely or foolishly. How did you spend your time yesterday? Was it a worthwhile purchase from your time bank or was it something very mediocre? Did you get your time’s worth? How will you spend your time today? Are you thrifty or profligate with time? Will you spend your time today buying what you need to live a happy and fulfilling life?

What will they say about you when you die?

Famous eulogies! Some eulogies are so memorable that they are forever etched into our minds and into history. Others will quickly be forgotten. Yes, we did talk about eulogies before. In fact, I asked you to write your own eulogy. Have you done it yet? Will your eulogy become famous? Go to Google and type in “eulogy” and you will find dozens of sites with links to famous eulogies.

Perhaps the most famous “funeral” oration of all time was not given at a funeral. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech” was about what Dr. King wanted said at his funeral. He had a premonition of his own death and drafted this speech as a sort of pre-eulogy that he delivered himself. It is surely one of the most moving and memorable speeches of all time. Another famous eulogy, perhaps never given but immortalized by Shakespeare was the speech by Marc Antony after the murder of Julius Caesar. I can still hear ringing in my ears the words: “I come not to praise Caesar but to bury him.” Of course, this was a very ironic eulogy since Antony did not mean what he said and he turned the oration into a propaganda forum to inspire a revolt against Caesar’s murderers.

Most of us have probably never thought about our eulogies becoming famous, but who knows what can happen after we die. The point of creating your eulogy is not about becoming famous, it is about reflecting on the life you want to live. Someone said that dreams become goals when you put a date on them. Well, hopes and wishes can become real to but only when you put them out as intentions and desires. If you want to be the person in your dreams you will have to form the intention to be that person. When someone else is giving your eulogy it will be too late.

If you still have not written your eulogy or even if you have written it, go back and look it over again. Think about these questions again: What do I really want said about me when I die? What do I want people to remember me for? What would I say about myself if I gave my own eulogy speech today? What is memorable about my life that I would like history to remember me for? Now make a schedule to write your eulogy. When you have written it, the question to ask is “Can I live up to this?” If not, how do you need to change your life and when will you start to make these changes?

What is the link between time and hatred?

“Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it” – G. Santayana. I first came across this quote on a tablet engraved at Dachau, a German concentration camp during WW II. The camp is now a war memorial for the millions of Jewish people and others murdered by the Nazis. Today, more than 50 years later and we still are fighting over the truth of the Holocaust. There are still those who say the Holocaust never happened. Worse, there are those who sport Nazi arm bands and wear Hitler tattoos. Many of us have no wish to forget the past but we want to remember it accurately. It is not heritage when there is hate involved. It should not be remembered with nostalgia by the perpetrators when others suffered, died and were ignominiously buried. Imagine if someone suddenly said that crucifixions were an important part of their heritage and they did not want to forget them!

What a desecration to the past efforts of millions of Americans and others who gave their lives to wipe this disease of fascism and hate off of the face of the earth! To parade around in jack boots and Heil Hitler salutes is an insult to humanity. How in heaven’s name has it blossomed again and why? Are we so ignorant of the past that we do not think it can happen again? Do we not read the paper and notice the increased violence against minorities and immigrants. Why is this true? Why are we forgetting the past and allowing this rotten blight to spread? Are we willing to trade our freedom for security?

What about the past do you need to remember? What have you chosen to forget? Are you confusing heritage with hate? Do you romanticize the past and forget the evil that was often done to others?

What does summer mean to you?

Well, I suppose I should have been blogging about summer two days ago. I could make the excuse better late than never, but in truth, the last few days have not felt much like the "summer breezes" you associate with summer. Perhaps, spring showers are just getting their due. Nevertheless, it is officially summer so some reflections about summer are due. I am sure it will be here any day now.

“Summertime, when the living is easy.” That line from the musical “Porgy and Bess” by G. Gershwin seems to always resonate in my mind when the warm breezes start blowing the cold weather away in Minnesota. We all love summer. For many of us, it is a time of vacations and connotations of freedom from school and work. However, why does the song say the living is easy? I think it is because summer seems to bring that association to mind despite the fact that it is not now nor probably ever was easy. Nevertheless, we think of the lushness of fresh fruit, vegetables, the farmers market and long days and nights. It does not matter that we may work all summer, the dream is still there of “easy living.”

As we get older, most of us will think back to our childhoods with fond summer memories of doing nothing but kicking rocks, jumping rope, fishing, swimming off of the old bridge, camping with our friends or weekends at the cabin with our family. Perhaps these are more traditional Minnesota memories but no matter where you live, you will have your own memories associated with summer time. All over the world, people are in vacation mode during the summertime. Maybe you will spend your summer traveling to exotic destinations or simply taking a short trip to visit relatives. Summer brings a longing for what we want life to have in store for us as we age. Summer is a time of psychological retirement years before any of us will ever retire.

What are your best summer memories? What did you once do each summer that is now simply a memory? What summer traditions do you still celebrate? What do you hope your future summers will have in store for you? Are you living your dreams now or waiting?

What if it does take long?

This won’t take long! How often has someone said that to you or you have said that to someone else? A few years ago, I bought my first gas grill. I had never owned one and Karen and I decided it was time. To save a few bucks, I ordered it through the Internet. When it came, it was in one huge box which I had a hard time moving into the garage by myself. I vaguely remember something about it only taking fifteen minutes to put together. Well, it took me 30 minutes just to lay all of the parts out. Three hours and forty five minutes later, I had finished putting my grill together. Except for putting the batteries in backwards, I was able to fire the thing right up and do my first outside grilling at the age of 60. I was thrilled except when I thought how long it took me to put it together. I was even angrier the next day when after going to Home Depot, I found the same grill assembled. I could have purchased it there pre-assembled; with delivery and it would have only cost me 25 dollars more. Thus, my savings did not even come close to paying for my time, not to mention my aggravation.

We often underestimate the length of time it will take to do things. Sometimes we are misled by advertisements but often by our own misconceptions. The thought “this won’t take long” should be a red flag for most of us. On reflection, the phrase is seldom true. They say anything worthwhile takes time. We can do the worthless fast, but those things that are really meaningful and valuable will take more time.

What things and events do you most often underestimate? What jobs or tasks do you rush through? What work do you have to do today that you should allow more time for? What areas in your life should you spend more time on? It is a lot easier to be less frustrated and to do a better job when you can allow the right amount of time needed for the job and not worry about it “taking too long.”

Are your memories REAL?

Age gnaws at life
Without respite –
Incessantly; insidiously;
Unnerving in its non–rhythmicity:
Irregular pendulums–
Not on clocks–
Dump cold milestones:
Another wrinkle; another grey hair;
Another memory…Mark R. Slaughter, (From his poem Memories)

Have you ever noticed how time can change your memories? Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse! The old house that you were brought up in seemed so much bigger in your memory. The places that you visited seemed so far away. The people that you knew, some seemed kinder and some meaner. Time has a way of making things both greater and lesser than they really were.

Time also has a way of etching things in our memory that may never have been. Have you ever thought you were at some event or place and you can’t really remember how or when you got there? A friend of ours thought she had attended some such event and her husband insisted that she had not. They finally concluded that she might have seen some pictures of the event, known some people there and “projected” herself into the event. Her memories of being there were crystal clear, but she had never really been there. I can think of many places and events that I thought I was at but then realized I was “projecting” images and events from a book or article I had read. Over time, my mind imagined that I was part of the event. The event or place had now become part of my memory of places that I had seen or been to.

Sometimes time can change memories for the worse. People remember a negative event in their lives, perhaps someone hurt them or insulted them, and this event or person can grow in their minds until it engulfs them in anger or pity. It might have been a slight in some bygone role or some unintended rebuff from someone you cared about or whom you thought really cared about you. Or it might have been much more serious. Perhaps, it was a mother leaving an abusive relationship behind or perhaps it was a child running away from an abusive home. Over time, the negativity associated with the circumstances may grow until the only memories are filled with either anger or sadness. Our memories tend to paint things as black or white and we are often unable to see the shades of gray that really existed. People become all good or all bad.

Today I am going to wonder about the events and people in my life. Were they really what I remember them as being? Were they really that good or that bad? What if my memories are not actual projections of reality but fantasies based on hopes and desires in my mind and dreams? Do I want to change any of my memories? Do I have the power or desire to do so? What if I just let sleeping dogs lie? Is that the best solution?

What rules your life? Time or Passion?

I lost track of the time. Where did the time go? How often have you heard someone make this comment? Generally, it means we were so engrossed with what we were doing that we forgot we had another appointment or schedule. When we lose track of time, time no longer seems to exist. It is not moving fast or slow, it just does not seem to matter to us. I heard someone say recently that they did not wake up and say “gee, I have to go to work today.” Instead, they woke up and said “Wow, I get to go to work again today.” Can you imagine the difference between time for the first case and time for the second? Time in the first case is drudgery and time in the second is a joy.

When you do not enjoy what you are doing, time is the most oppressive. You check the clock. You wonder when the time will go by. You find ways to “break” up your time. The more “breaks” the better. When you enjoy or even love what you are doing, you forget the clock. You don’t worry about breaks or when it is time to go home. Sean John’s says “life without passion is unforgiveable.” He lives this in his daily life. His message is important for all of us. How many of us find lives that are full of passion? Why not? Is such a life beyond our reaches or do we just fail to make the choice?

The more our world is dominated by time, by pressures to do things faster, to multi-task, or to live in the fast lane, the less happy and more stressed we will be. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if time did not matter anymore and we could lose track of time on a permanent basis? What if our lives were so filled with passion that every second was one we could live with for eternity? What if we counted Passion instead of minutes?

When was the last time you lost track of time? Can you hardly wait to go to work today or do you count each workday between Sunday and Friday? Is your life filled with passion or wondering when the minute hand will move forward? Are you in the “Thank God it’s Friday” camp or in the “I am looking forward to Monday” camp.

Do you still use time clocks or time cards?

Time clocks are synonymous with the industrial revolution. Prior to industrial work, people thought of time as more cyclical. Time clocks went hand in hand with factory or machine and assembly line work. The concept of a “Time clock” is an oxymoron. Aren’t all clocks, time clocks? The industrial revolution was a period when brawn became more valued than brains. It was more important to measure the amount of time that a person worked (and this was equated with productivity and quantity) then the quality or creativity of their work. The information age and knowledge age has reportedly ushered in a quantum change in how we view and value work. Today, creativity and innovation have become highly prized, at least in word if not in deed.

On hears today that quality, creativity and innovation are the cornerstones of success in the 21st century business world. Nevertheless, we still see managers who are more concerned with the time clock as a measure of productivity than anything else.
How long did you work today is often more important than how much you accomplished or what new ideas and innovations you could come up with. We talk about allowing workers to telecommute, yet many managers express the view that: “how will I know what they are doing or if they are really working?” “Well, perhaps they will not get their job done and then you would know!” We may live in the knowledge age, but the industrial era mindset is still dominant in many workplaces.

It often takes a generation before minds catch up with new technology and paradigm shifts. We have 21st century needs and technology still driven by 20th century minds and concerns. Companies that cannot make the change are destined to go the way of the dinosaur. The same might be said for managers who cannot change their mindset.

What do you value in your workplace? Do you measure how much your employees contribute, including ideas and innovations or are you measuring how long they work and how many hours they put in? Do you have the power to change things? If so, when will you go from the 20th century to the 21st? When will you start treating your employees like knowledge workers rather than machines?

Are you aging like fine wine or moldy cheese?

We often hear the comment from someone getting older that they are “Aging like fine wine.” Well, yes, wine does gets better with age, but sadly, the human body does not. My joints and muscles are no longer as flexible as they once were. My body does not recover as fast from aches and pains as it once did, and I no longer dream of playing football on the weekends or any rough contact sports for that matter. My body seems to be aging more like cheese. It is getting softer and moldier around the edges. It might still be edible but it is not as fresh as it once was. The good side of this issue is that my brain is more nimble and astute than ever. The body will inevitably deteriorate, (even with plastic surgery), but the brain does not necessarily age the same way. Studies have shown that IQ can remain the same throughout one’s life, if you keep “exercising” the brain by reading, studying and learning. Now of course, the body will stay in better shape as well if you keep up with some exercising. However, no amount of exercising is going to keep the body in the same shape as when we were 21 or younger.

Then we come to the soul and spirit. Here is where age can really excel over youth. Through experience and moral exercise, we can all become better then we were. We can continue to grow spiritually and morally throughout our entire lives. We can leave this earth as better people. We can give back to the world some of what we took from it. However, this also requires exercise. It requires exercise of both moral and spiritual values. It requires moral and spiritual discipline. You will not grow in either area if you do not take the time to practice skills that lead to moral and spiritual development. The virtues of faith, hope, charity and love must be practiced daily or they atrophy like old moldy cheese.

What exercise do you get each day? Do you exercise morally and spiritually as well as physically and mentally? Which areas do you need to concentrate more on? Are you aging like a fine wine or like moldy cheese? What do you need to do to perk up your aging process?

Are you balancing your time?

Balancing time is one of the biggest juggling acts facing most of us. Considering how well we do, we should all think of ourselves as “jugglers of time.” We schedule this meeting, then that meeting and still another meeting and in between meetings, we must do paperwork, find time for lunch, get some errands done, meet with our boss and then get more paperwork done. We return home and then must balance time for ourselves, our spouses, our children, our family, our friends and also more errands, housework and chores that demand time.

I sometimes think that someone could make a fortune starting a time service for people. I would show up at your house and do all the minor things that take up so much time and don’t really add value to your life. Of course, if you have money, you may already be paying people to do the housekeeping, the yard, the chores etc. You are then juggling a variety of services that help to “save” you time. Many of us cannot afford these services and must juggle lives, jobs, chores etc, ourselves. As society has become more modern, we seem to be juggling more and more. Perhaps this is because we are not run by “natural” clocks anymore and in a sense (unlike milking cows or farm chores), the time we have is really discretionary. This puts more power in our hands to manage time but also demands more of our balancing skills.

What do you need to balance today? Are you balancing the unimportant things and forgetting to include the really important things in your life? Is your present balancing act bringing you happiness and satisfaction or is your balance out of kilter?

Do you want to know what the real time wasters are?

Stop wasting my time! This is a comment that is frequently heard and seldom reflected on. What does it mean to waste someone’s time? Does the person know they are wasting your time? What was the person doing that “wasted” your time? Is it like wasting food or wasting money? When someone tells you something that you are not interested in, does it waste your time? In a country where the average person watches more than 25 hours a week of TV, it seems preposterous that anyone could dare use a phrase like “stop wasting my time.”

We spend four hours per week watching people hitting a ball, carrying a ball, throwing a ball and bouncing a ball in games that we call sports, but we do not consider this a “waste” of our time. If sports and TV are not time wasters, then what qualifies? What wastes your time? Is this time when you are not doing anything? Whose fault is that if you have nothing to do? If we were honest, we would admit that most of us waste our own time with silly meaningless activities designed to take our mind off living and perhaps really accomplishing something. We are each experts at ways to waste time. TV, gambling, casinos, watching sports, newspapers, endless meetings, etc. are only a smattering of the myriad ways we waste our time each day.

Wasting time may be a very subjective term, since what I think is very wasteful, you might think is very useful. My ideas of what constitute a valuable use of time might fit your definition of “time wasters.” Nevertheless, we all have our own ideas of what time wasting means to us.

What if more of us started “wasting” our time on the activities that could really make a difference to the world? What would the world be like, if more of us took an interest in government, law and politics and less in TV, gambling, sports and other such time wasters? What if we spent more time in charitable activities, loving others, finding ways to bring peace to the world, building bridges and creating friendships with those in need? What if we spent 25 hours a week on creative activities instead of watching TV? Could you spend one hour less on TV this week and one hour more on peace? Where would you start? When will you start? Why not today?

What if this was the last year of your life?

You have one year to live! What if your doctor told you today that you had only one year to live? It’s not a pleasant thing to think about, but it might be true right now. Who among us can know the day of our death? We all know people who were healthy and active and died unexpectedly. We also know people who smoked, drank and never exercised and died rather less expectedly. Nevertheless, none of us know the exact day we will die. My sister was a smoker and like my father she was diagnosed with cancer. They predicted she would die within six months and she lived nearly four years longer. Neither my father nor sister had a very active or healthy life. Neither of them lived to their expected old age. My father was sixty when he died and my sister was fifty four. They both had ample warning to get their lives in order but both did little or nothing about it.

Perhaps too many of us live with no thought of dying because we “assume” we have a great deal more time to live. Maybe we are young and think we will live forever or maybe we regularly work out and think this will prolong our life. By assuming we will live longer, we put up with a lot of stuff that we would be better off dealing with. We stay in dead end jobs, we ignore things we really want to do, or we put off living until we are retired.

Are you waiting to live your life? If you died today, would you have any regrets? If you thought about the possibility that this proposition was true (that you only had one year to live), would you do anything different? Do you think you would try to get your life in better order? What do you need to do to make this next year the best year of your life?

When do you lose track of time? Does it matter?

Losing track of time! You thought it was 4 PM and it was now 7PM! Where did the time go? We have all had the experience of losing track of time. What causes us to lost track of time? I think for many of us, when we are so focused on what we are doing, time seems to simply fly by. It goes a hundred miles an hour when we are focused and disciplined. Time flies and we do not even notice. The minutes or even hours that we lost seem to have been compressed into a few seconds. Paradoxically, those times lost are some of the most memorable times in our lives.

The first time we met someone we fell in love with, our first day on a new job, a trip to a special place, a meeting with someone extraordinarily interesting; in each of these instances, time either flew by or we did not even notice the clock passing. We became so engaged that time no longer existed. And who can forget those times? The fact that we lost track of time is unimportant. What remains important to us is the experience of being so absorbed and so immersed in what we were doing or who we were with that time no longer mattered to us. We lose track of time because we stop caring about time and its passage. The present becomes more important than the past or the future. We are truly living in the present in these moments and time no longer counts.

When was the last time you lost track of time? What were you doing? How often do you lose track of time? Do you ever regret losing track of time? What if you lost track of time more often? What would your life be like if you were more absorbed in the present and less conscious of the past and future?

How to find lost time?

Losing time is an expression that one hears as “I lost a great deal of time waiting for him to show up.” In actual practice, this concept of losing time may either be an oxymoron or perhaps simply an outright impossibility. I suppose that you could argue that since we “find time”, perhaps someone has lost it somewhere. However, can you actually lose time? Have you ever lost time? I would like to know how one could lose something that exists only in our heads.

You might have used more time than you thought you would, but you never lost time. Even if you waited four hours for someone to show up whom never did, you did not lose time. You might not have got much done and you might have better used your time elsewhere but you did not lose anything; unless, it was faith in the person you were waiting for. Perhaps we are really talking about “misusing time, but that would be different than losing time.

If you misuse your body by smoking, excessive indulgences, lack of exercise, lack of sleep or too much stress, you will undoubtedly “lose” time, in the sense that you will live a much shorter life. Nevertheless, there are always those lucky few who will still outlive many of us regardless of how well we use our time. But for most of us, if we abuse our health and our time we can count on a shorter life. Thus, losing time is not like a watch that runs slower, it is more like taking time out of your bucket of time and throwing it away. The problem is you might never find it again. Once it is gone, it is gone forever.

Using your time properly, you will never lose it and it is never too late to start. Make a commitment to start exercising today or to stop smoking or to practice a better diet and you are making a commitment to finding time. These practices will help you to find the time that you lost by using your time properly. The correct use of time is the only way to really find time and the incorrect use of time is the only way to lose time. Use time to do the things that really add years to your life and you will be happier and live longer. What do you need to do today to start finding your “lost” time?

How to find more time in your day!

“Find More You Time!” This was a heading from a recent magazine cover. The byline was: “ten tips to try today.” Would you like to know what they are? First, let’s talk about the subject of this article. How often do you see tips for saving time? Seems just about every day another article or expert is telling you how to “save” time? Do you know anyone who has time in a bank someplace? “Yesterday I saved forty minutes and added it to my bank.” I now have six hundred hours in my bank to use or to extend my life-time with. Wow, now that would really be something! Imagine if we could add our “saved” time on to the end of our life. To date, I have not heard of any time savings plan that would allow us to do that. Mores the pity!

Whenever I “save” time, I usually end up just relaxing. I suppose I could apply it to my next task and have more time to do it in, but it never seems to work that way. I mean, if you save time traveling someplace, what does that really get you? More time to do the next job or maybe a little more piece of mind. Savings time seems to be akin to those ubiquitous diet plans that are always going to save you calories and thus help you lose weight. Do you see all of the people that have lost weight?

Maybe we are trying to do the wrong thing. Maybe saving time is not the right way to look at time. If we cannot really save time, then why describe it that way? What most of these ideas are about is really doing things faster or more efficiently. However, isn’t that what puts us on the treadmill in the first place? Always trying to do things faster and more efficiently; how many of us have become multi-taskers and to what benefit? Does multi-tasking really make us more productive or does it just cause us more stress. Maybe we need to learn how to waste time more. Maybe we need to play more and have more fun?

Are you always trying to save time? Have you managed to store time up for a rainy day? Are you always multi-tasking? Are you stressed out about not having enough time? Is your concern for saving time making you happier or more productive? What if you took more time for fun and play in your life? The hell with saving time!

Will the clock help you to stay fit?

Staying fit by the clock. Can time affect our diets? Some experts proclaim that there is a best time for everything. They say this applies to eating, sleeping, drinking and exercising. By following the best times, they report that you can stay healthier and happier. Staying fit by the clock is a philosophy that stresses consistency. You exercise and eat at consistent times during the day. However, with the many changes that each of use faces in our lives, we must fit our exercise and eating into the varied patterns that our daily schedule will face. Modern life does not allow many of us the luxury of a fixed schedule that never changes.

For instance, in terms of my own exercise schedule, I find that it must be flexible to accommodate my teaching schedule. My teaching schedule changes from quarter to quarter. Thus some quarters, I am teaching nights and others days. I adapt my exercise schedule to these changes. Some months, I exercise in the morning, some in the afternoon and some in the evening. There might be better times to exercise, but some exercise is better than no exercise regardless of when I do it. I have even run as late as 11 PM when it was dark and quiet.

I also like to pay attention to my body clock as well as my time clock. I don’t care if it is “eating” time or supper time. If I am not hungry, I am not going to eat. Eating by the clock seems foolish to me. We have so many experts giving us advice that we forget to listen to our own common sense. What does your body tell you? Do you feel good? Do you feel healthy? Are you proud of your looks and your health? If not, then you probably need to do something different. Explore, read, and ask an expert but DO NOT put all of your health and happiness into an expert’s hands, no matter how many degrees they have.

How can you take charge of your life and your time now? What is keeping you from taking responsibility for your own life? If you already feel that you do, wonderful.

Does early to rise and Ben Franklin's advice lead to success?

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. This is another popular old saying having to do with the virtues of getting up early. I must confess I have tried to adhere to this one as well in my life. Perhaps, it just suits my lifestyle but somehow I can always hear it in my mind as I rise out of bed. I love to get up as early. The world is my oyster and it is just waiting for me to open it. The sooner I get up the faster I can open my oyster.

In terms of accruing benefits (health, wealth and wisdom), I would say my life has been blessed by at least one of these benefits. I have been very healthy (to date). Has this benefit accrued because of my tendency to rise early and go to bed early? I seriously doubt it. More likely it has to do with my exercise routine and watching my weight.

This saying is generally attributed to one of the founders of this country and perhaps its wisest person ever, Dr. Benjamin Franklin. It is quoted almost verbatim in his Poor Richards Almanac, thus helping to make it a very popular aphorism. However, recent research shows that the saying can be found quoted in the Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina or Proverbs English, and Latine (1639) almost one hundred years before Franklin used it.

Thus it seems obvious that old sayings have a way of being around and recycled. Perhaps, we need to rephrase it for the 21st century. A new version might go as follows: “Early to bed is quite impossible and early to rise is a silly waste of a good bed.” I know my spouse would agree with that. Can you think of a better way to rephrase this old saying?

Does the "early bird" really catch the worm?

When I was young, I learned the saying “the early bird catches the worm.” Somehow, I really internalized this phase and it has become a sort of mantra for me. I can hear myself saying this a million times over in my life. Perhaps this ingrained bit of advice has become the defining way I live my life. I am forever up early; early to appointments, early to airports, early to parties, early to events. It does not really matter what the meeting is, I will be early for it.

Reflecting on it a bit, what does this little advice about catching worms really mean? I have seldom, if ever, caught a worm and when I did, it was in the evening. I remember shining my flashlight at night on the lawn and finding all sorts of worms. I don’t ever recall seeing any worms in the morning. You might say, well it is evident that getting up early helps you get the day going sooner, you have more time to spend and you will be more successful. At least, that is what I think it was supposed to mean. I have done this all my life, always gotten up early, been early to all my appointments and I am still waiting for my worm. Maybe, if we knew what worm we were supposed to be looking for, it would be easier. However, I am still not sure what kind of worm I want or even if I really want to catch a worm. Judging by the amount of late people out there, it would appear that many other people are not interested in catching worms.

Is there any validity to this bit of wisdom? Will you really be more successful, if you are an early bird? Do you think the “early birds” are catching more worms in life than the latecomers? Have you caught all the worms you want yet? Did you find “getting up early” was your key to success? Do you think you would be more successful, if you were more of an early bird? What works for you in your life, sleeping late or getting up early? Does it really make a difference?

What does Thursday mean to you?

Thursday is the day we are on the downward side of the week. In some countries, Thursday is the fourth day of the week and in others, it is the fifth day of the week. It was first named after the Roman god Jupiter. In English, Thursday became "Thor's Day", since the Roman god Jupiter was identified with Thor in northern Europe. Thor was the Norse God of Thunder. The Scandinavians believed that as his chariot crossed the sky, Thor wielded a hammer that shot lightening through the clouds.

When we think of Thursday now, we probably don’t think of Gods and Thunder any more. We are probably thinking “Tomorrow is Friday, one more day to go this week.” Even though many of us love our work and miss it when we are on vacation too long, the freedom of the weekend and what Saturday and Sunday represent beckons us the entire week. We mark the days until the weekend. Each week becomes a journey we take and on the way, we pass through Thursday. It is not the most remarkable day in the week nor is it the hardest day in the week. Its primary significance seems to be that by the time Thursday comes around; we know that tomorrow (Friday) will be the END of the week.

Of course, if you work weekends this will not be true. If you do not work a standard week, then very likely Thursday will not have the same meaning for you.
What does Thursday mean for you? What notable or special events in your life do you associate with Thursday? What is the single best thing that ever happened to you on a Thursday?

Can we make time?

“Make time!” is a phase that rings hollow in our ears. How often have you been told to make time for something that you needed to do? Do you know what you can make time out of? Is time made out of clay or wood or steel? Are there blueprints for making time? As valuable as time is, I know of no one who can professionally make time. Only God can make time. If we could “make time” we would also be gods, since God was the only one in the bible who made time.”

Of course, you might say that I am missing the point or at least not responding accurately to the true meaning of the phrase. What people really mean is that they want us to find the time, to reprioritize our time or to drop something else that we are spending time on so that we can do something else. None of the activities that we can do to reschedule our time really “make” time; they simply shift our priorities or they shift what we spend our time on. If I could really make time, I could have a 48 hour day each week in which I could catch up on things. While everyone else would only have a 24 hour day, my day would be twice as long. I would say “today, I have 48 hours.” I would not want to have to work twice as long or twice as hard. I would simply “will” my day to have 48 hours compared to the rest of the world. As I watched each of you work, it would appear that you were moving in slow motion compared to me. One day like this each week would be enough.

If I could sell this ability to make time, think how rich I would be. How many people would love to be able to purchase a 48 hour day each week? How much would they pay for it? What would I make this time out of is another question. The third law of thermodynamics states that matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed but simply changed from one form to another? I would be making something out of nothing which again is beyond mere mortals. But what if you and I could make time simply by willing it so? How much extra time each week would you make for yourself? Why? What would you do with it? Would you share it with others or keep it for yourself?