Time Stands Still...

“Time stands still for no man.” - Leonard Reiss

We all go through life with the belief that tomorrow will be a new day. That sometime in the future, we’ll draw our last breath. That those people and things that we love will be around for us to enjoy, well, really, forever. Right? No one ever likes to dwell on the mortality that is Life. We don’t like to discuss Life ending and all the myriad ways that it can end. We all know that life ends, we’ve all seen it. Maybe not first hand, but we have all experienced the loss in some way.

Death. It has a certain finality to it, doesn’t it? Of course, it should. It’s…well, Death. Why am I talking about Death, when no one wants to talk about it? I could say, because I’m like that. :-) Ask my friends. But, my reasoning is to make a point about Life.

Life is all about time. How much, how little, how well spent, how exciting, how boring, and so on. You get the idea. How you fill up your Life Time is what determines the quality of your life. Notice that I said how YOU fill up your time? That’s right boys and girls. The quality of your life is up to YOU. There is no blaming anyone else for the quality of your life or the situation you find yourself in. Those are excuses that mask the true problem.

And what IS the true problem; I hear your little minds asking. Responsibility. Wow. I know. That’s one of those words that we don’t like to talk about when it’s directed at us. So, let’s talk about responsibility for a bit. Just cuz I’m like that. :-)

You are in the place that you are in life, because you directed yourself there. That’s nice and simple, right? And most everyone will not like hearing that at all. I have heard it put forth that we are respons-able people. That means that we are able to determine our response; that responses to stimuli are chosen. Granted, sometimes the response is chosen in less than a heartbeat, based upon convictions held deep within our beings, but, it’s still chosen. In fact, responses like that are chosen before the stimulus ever presents itself. We determine our reactions based on how well we develop our own personal morals, ethics, and integrity.

So, if you are where you are, because of your own responses, where does that leave you?

Remember, “Time stands still for no man.” It’s a blessing and a curse, really. Time is the downfall of all people and yet, it allows us to change into different people. To cultivate different thoughts, beliefs, and habits that will allow us to have different responses to those blink-of-an-eye stimuli.

I believe that it comes down to knowing yourself. Knowing what you value, what you like, what you don’t, what you want, what you will stand for, what you will die for. Those are some of the things that make you, you. And they are probably not the same things that make me, me. Know what? That’s OK. There is no one on this planet that can judge you for what you believe and value. But you need to know what those things are, firmly, so that when you are called to, you can defend them and stand firm in what you believe.

OK…with me so far? Let’s figure out what some of those things are. :-)

Take out a piece of paper and write on the first line: What I like. Then just go for it. Write down everything that you can think of. Nothing is too small or insignificant to not be written down. I like Rum and Coke, Reading, listening to music, playing with my boys, sleeping late, girl watching, Buffalo wings. You get the idea? Let’s be honest. You’re going to need a lot of paper if you’re going to do this right. Don’t be afraid to stop and come back later to add more. Take as much time as you want doing this. It’s just for you. Once you’re exhausted from doing that, take a new sheet of paper and on the first line write: What I don’t like. And run through it again. Do a list for each of the topics I listed above and any more if you think of others that matter to you. Remember, this is FOR YOU! So, please, be honest. If you like walking around with cold play-doh in between your toes, OK. Put it on your list, because that’s YOU.

See how easy that was? Now you know a little bit more about yourself. Now you can pick the biggest, most important things from those lists’ and make certain that you are devoting Life Time to them. Then, as you spend more Life Time with and on the things that you love and care about the most, the quality of your life will start to improve. Isn’t it neat how that happens?

Here’s to choosing the responses you want and to having the quality of life you’ve always dreamed of.

At the end of every day, you will have traded an irreplaceable part of your life for something else. Make sure it's a fair trade.