“Normal people constantly think how they will SPEND their time; wise people constantly think about how they will USE their time.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
The observation by this German philosopher made me think of what Theophrastus (a student of Aristotle - born around 370 B.C.E) had to say about time. According to him, time is the most valuable commodity one can ever spend. This is true, unfortunately, many people consider time to be money. I will never agree with such a commodification of time. For me, this is an absolute misplacement of the essence of time. What is the essence of time? For me, time is LIFE, not money. Benjamin Franklin observed the following: “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of”.
This is my point, your life will one day be measured according to the years you lived, not according to the money you made. I have never seen a tombstone reflecting bank balances, only years lived. Every second we waste is a second of life wasted. Taking into consideration that we have only one life to live, and that this life is but a wink of an eye, then it makes no sense at all to waste any time on trivial things while on your journey of living this short-lived, precious life.
Jorge Luis Borges (an Argentinian author) said that time is the substance from which we are made. Time is a river which carries us along, but we are the river; time is a tiger that devours us, but we are the tiger; time is a fire that consumes us, but we are the fire. Carpe Diem – seize the day, strive towards managing and utilizing your time to its fullest and most constructive potential. Remember – time wasted is life wasted.
Time is a tool, as Kennedy said,
not to be spent on a couch or a bed…
Time ought thus to be constructively used,
unfortunately it’s the thing mostly abused.
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