Time Is Your Ally. Use It Wisely

Time itself is of no value. What you do with the little time you have will define what you become and where you will be. Just because you have time doesn’t mean that you should take time. If you haven’t achieved something by a certain point in your life, what that means is that you had an opportunity to do something and chose not to do it.

Time is your ally. It will always be the one thing you can't get back. You can use it to your advantage, but if you don't take advantage of it, it will be gone before you know it.

I first learned this lesson a long time ago. I was young, in high school and struggling to figure out who I was. At that time I began to realize if I didn't take any time to reflect and learn about myself, I would never get anywhere in life. Time management isn't just a workload issue, it's a life issue.

The reason why managing your time effectively is so important is because you will never get it back. Once you spend it, you will never get that opportunity again.

At some point in our lives we focus too much on the things we have to do and forget about our priorities, or even worse, we assume we have all the time in the world and squander it away doing unnecessary and unimportant tasks. In other words, time is a gift to you and as time goes by, you have to learn how to use it wisely and not spend it foolishly.

I used to believe that every moment was an opportunity to grow, to extend my network, to gather information. I'm grateful to the many people who taught me this isn't true. Sometimes the best thing you can do with the time you have is to breathe. Our time here is limited. We get so many opportunities to live in the moment, savor it, and then invest our time into making what we're doing now matter.

This may sound like a simple lesson to learn, but it's not over-until-it's-done simple. It's an ongoing practice. And despite our best efforts, life's going to get in the way from time to time. A big part of smart time spending is being okay with the fact that we can only do so much. Some things will be out of our control and that's okay. We don't need to fight it all the time.

The value of time is a lesson that many of us, at some point in our lives, are forced to understand and internalize. It is something that each of us has to learn for ourselves, and as we do we become more equipped to handle the difficulties of everyday life.

It's easier to solve it ahead of time. When you have forewarning that you are going to fail a class, it's easier to catch up on your homework. If you know you are going to be late for a meeting, you can call ahead to reschedule it. If you know that you are going to miss your workout today, it's easier to schedule two workouts today than one workout tomorrow and another workout the next day.

The only chance you will get is right now. There are no second chances and there is no tomorrow. Time always wins and the past is gone.Life will never, ever be perfect and you don’t know what the future has in store, but one thing we do know for sure—this moment is all we have. So how we choose to spend our time reflects how we want to live our lives. If you don’t spend it wisely, it isn’t your fault; it is only because you don’t know any better.

For most of us, time is something we curse because it's running out or something we're frustrated with because it just doesn't move at the speed we want. But the truth is, we all have the same amount of time on this Earth: 24 hours in a day. And since we all have the same amount, why not spend it how you like?

I have chosen to interpret time as an ally because, let's face it: you can use it how you want. If you want to spend your life running around trying to do everything and seeing everything, then use your time for that.