Aging Capriciously

I am just sitting here wasting some time. How evil! How unthinkable! How thoughtless of me! The idea of “wasting time” has a pejorative connotation. Of course, since time is one of the most precious commodities in society today, it has become almost criminal to waste time. (Refer to the reflection earlier where I spoke about the time police). However, what if we venerated and exalted people who really knew how to waste time? What if time wasters were the real heroes of our society? Can you imagine a group of people who have learned how to ignore time clocks and the other mandates of a culture driven and obsessed by time? What would these “time wasters” be like? Perhaps such time wasters might teach us how to be less driven, more relaxed and to take time less seriously. Why worry about tomorrow when it is hard enough to do anything about today?

All too many of us do not know how to relax. Check out the number of books on Time Management that are listed on Amazon.com. Thousands of books and we are more and more stressed out. Indeed, stress is one of the most common problems in our world. We see it reflected in alcoholism, road rage, domestic violence and heart attacks. If we were less obsessed with time, would we have all of these problems? What if we really learned to waste some time instead of always trying to cut corners and save time? Maybe the time wasters of today should be held up role models. I would like to see studies comparing people who were stressed versus people who were less stressed. I wonder which group would be healthier and happier. I would bet the less stressed out group would not be as concerned with time management or wasting time.

Do you ever allow yourself to waste some time? Can you relax if you waste some time or do you feel guilty about your extravagance? Do you try to work harder later to make up for your wasted time? When was the last time you patted yourself on the back for “wasting” some time? Take an hour and waste it today. Can you do that? Why not? What gets in the way of your just taking some time and doing nothing?

“Time is one of the four key rules. We must all set priorities.” I found this bit of authoritative advice in some guide to time management. There are literally dozens if not hundreds of books giving us advice on how to manage our time. I admit to being obsessed with time (hence this blog) but I would like to think I am not a slave to it. I have never thought of time as a “rule” or that I always need to be setting priorities. I probably set more priorities than I need to and I probably have too many rules in my life already.

Following advice from others and not thinking through our own needs, wants and desires can often lead us to become mindless automatons. As such, we become slaves to the opinions of the “experts.” Those noted seers who have all the right answers for others. However, have you noticed how often the so-called experts change their minds? If we blindly follow the advice of others, without applying our own tests and challenges, we risk losing our creative selves and our independence. This is not to say that we should not be open to opinions or advice or should not seek outside counsel. I would be the last person to advise you as such since I highly value the knowledge and wisdom that others have. Nevertheless, I like the Zen saying that: “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” The message I get from this saying is to process all knowledge through my own filter and to not accept anything blindly.

Can you take all advice on the subject of time and then filter it, process it and ask yourself, “will it make my life easier and happier or will it make my life more stressful and less satisfying?” What rules about times are you following that help you? What rules about time that you have are not helpful? What keeps you from discarding the unhelpful rules? Will life be any better for you if you hang onto these rules?

“Its only 4 AM!” Says Karen in what must seem the middle of the nigh to her. “Sorry, I am awake.” Say I. The former dialogue has often occurred between Karen and me. I tend to be a morning person. I love to get up early and begin my day. Karen is a night person. She loves to sleep late and stay up late. She cannot understand that anyone would want to get up at 4, 5, 6, 7 or even 8 AM. Thus, on those occasions when I arise earlier than she can conceive anyone wanting to, I often hear: “What time is it? You’re not really getting up!” Well, I am getting up early and I love it.

Sometimes it is just so much fun to be up before the world starts to move and no one is out and about. Maybe it is because I love to watch the sun rise or maybe it is because I love to do things and can hardly wait for a new day to start that will be full of new adventures and exciting things to accomplish. The way one views the world may have a lot to do with how one greets the day. On the other hand, maybe it is how one views time. If time is precious, then starting out early means I can make the best use of it and that I will have extra time to do what needs to be done. Many would say that it is simply genetic. Some of us are larks, some of us are night owls, and it is all in our constitution. Night owls love the night time and greet the day with less than enthusiasm. Larks sing early in the morning but go to bed shortly after sunset.

How do you greet the day? Can you hardly wait to get up and start your day? Do you start your day slow or do you start it with a bang? Have you ever been up at 4 AM and started your day off? Would you rather wait until 10 AM and then start off slowly but surely? Do you honor your style or do you try to fit into a mold that others want you to?

Rocks and Zen and Time! Thirty years ago, I belonged to a Zen Monastery where twice a week I would go to sit Zen and meditate. Some of the people lived there and others were commuters like me. The master was a renowned Japanese Zen expert and we all felt he must truly be enlightened. One of the women who lived there told me that once when the master was going to travel back to Japan he asked her what he could bring back for her. She told the master: “I really love ancient and old objects and could you bring me back something very ancient.” When he returned, he had a present for her wrapped in a package and tied with a bow. She was very excited and could hardly wait to open it. When she removed the present from the package, her excitement dropped as all she found was a rock. She looked at the Zen master with great disappointment and all he said was “I thought you wanted something very ancient. This rock is more than 100,000 years old.” She then understood the message that he was trying to impart to her. Most of us are like this young woman. We think we know the real value of things, but often we are only concerned with images, names and brands.

Rocks are not valued by many people but they are truly old and ancient. Rocks are proof that time itself is not the major factor that decides the value of an object. The real value of anything is not in the name, the image or the age. Antiques are valuable because they evoke nostalgic memories or because they remind of us something that we associate with a better life. Time is one of the most precious things in the world, however we never realize the value of time until it is in short supply. How many of us wish we could only live a moment over again or retrieve some moment in time that was ill spent?

Does the law of supply and demand govern the value of time for you or does your time conform to rules of branding and imaging? How many people do you know who love to express their importance by being ever so busy and never having any time? Why do you value time? What in time creates value for you? Would you know a gem from a rock when it comes to time?

We have sometimes heard the phrase “The transient nature of being.” Is this just another way of saying that life is short and passes all too quickly? Transient means passing with time or of short duration. Being can mean living or existence. Thus, the phrase in one sense means to live a life of short duration. However, in another sense it implies a deeper more philosophical appreciation of life. To understand our transient nature is to accept that we are all just passing through one level of existence or being which we call earth and humanity. On another level, the possibility exists of many planes of existence which we may eventually or inevitably pass through. Each plane may exist for us as a transient phase but the entire process continues forever and is thus eternal and universal. Our life as we know it on earth may be transient, but our spirit and soul will live eternally and continue to migrate through these other planes of existence. This is one theory of life and afterlife. There are other possibilities.

Perhaps life is not transient and perhaps it is just a cycle of “from dust to dust.” Some of us want to believe in a life after death and others believe in reincarnation. However, many do not believe in either. For some, life ends with death and we simply return to the earth that created us. This latter view does not elevate humanity above the other creatures and species that walk the earth. People are just one element of the universe and no better or worse. Why should people have souls and be reincarnated if bugs and mice are not? It is because we have minds that we can create concepts like “transience” But what if transience only exists in our minds? Would we stop living or would we be more careful of the lives we live today? Think of the numerous people who throw their lives away everyday. Do you suppose they worry about transience?

Some people subscribe to a theory of life after death and others think it a bunch of hooey. What is your concept of being? Do you think life is too short or too transient? Do you think you will somehow be recycled? Will your recycled life be better than your present life? Why? What is going to make it better for you? What if you could live to 300 years of age? Would you live a better more fulfilling life? Why or why not?

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the gold standard of time. It is the measure for time used around the world. GMT defines both time and place for the entire world. All time is measured relative to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and all places have latitude (their distance North or South of the Equator) and a longitude (their distance East or West of the Greenwich Meridian).

As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept their timepieces on GMT in order to calculate their longitude “from the Greenwich meridian”, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degrees. This did not affect shipboard time itself, which was still solar time. Eventually, GMT became used world-wide as a reference for time as well as independent of location. Today we still talk about GMT time but probably not as often as we do GPS time. Global Positioning Systems are gradually replacing GMT as the standard by which we set our watch and cell phones world wide.

Think of the precision that has occurred in time setting over the last twenty year or so. Watches were once accurate only within minutes. Today, we set our watches and clocks to within seconds of the world standards for time. When you look at your cell phone, it is probably being automatically calibrated to a GPS time standard. You know longer have to worry if you watch is running fast or slow or needs winding. If I say I am going to call you at 5 PM, I can call you within seconds of this time and there is an excellent chance your clock or watch will say 5PM when I call you. This would have been unheard of ten years or so ago. You might be saying well “so what.” However, this precision allows us to coordinate millions of events world wide without losing minutes and seconds of wasted time. This translates to billions of dollars worth of savings in time and energy. In a global system, where time is increasingly more valuable than money, this savings of time is a wonderful benefit to modern life. Well, a benefit to some. For others, it is really a case of “who cares.”

Do you care? How concerned are you about time? Do you see time as a valuable resource or is it something that just ticks by without your giving it a care? Do you have the right balance for time in your life? Are you too obsessed with GMT and GPS time or not obsessed enough?

Finding time has become one of the great feats of human existence. How often do you hear someone say “I will have to find the time?” Where did they lose it? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a lost and found desk somewhere? Anytime you needed to find time, for friends, for family, for exercising, for writing, for spirituality, you could just go to this desk and ask for some time. Perhaps, there could be a lending bank for time. “I need some time, what is your interest rate?” “The First National Bank of Time is happy to help you!”

If time is really so valuable, why don’t we have Banks for Time?” Imagine being the Rockefeller or Carnegie of time! If only we could find a way to save time and lend it to people who have more need of it. What would we charge for interest? Well, more time of course! People would have to pay back time with a time charge. If we had such lending institutions, it might help us address the critical shortage of time that seems to plague life today. Who among us has not had to find time? Well, you would always know where to find some, since the Time Banks would be happy to lend it to you.

Now perhaps you were hoping that I would give you some “secrets to finding time”; some tidbits that would make reading this blog worth the effort. Here is one little secret that being a wise and published author I could share with you- DRUM ROLL – Ta da Ta da! Here it is: “You can find all the time you want if you never lose it. Keep it under your pillow before you go to sleep and it will always be there in the morning.” I hope that helps. More seriously, if you want tips on finding time, buy the following excellent book: Take Your Time: Finding Balance in a Hurried World by Eknath Easwaran. It is available through Amazon.com in both new and used editions.

What would you do if you had more time than you ever needed? What if you knew you were going to live forever? What if you could speed time up or slow time down? Would a real Time Master be someone who had such control of time? Do you suppose this is the real secret of managing your time? Do you think it is possible to have such control over time? Do you know anyone who always seems to have time and still gets everything done? What do you suppose their secret is? Why not ask them sometime how they do it?

What is the beginning of time? Scientists and philosophers have all puzzled over this question now for centuries. Currently we are told by physicists that all time began with the Big Bang. A giant explosion created the universe and was the beginning of everything as we know it. If you are more religious oriented you might point to Genesis in the Bible as defining the beginning of time. However, what about the beginning of “using” time to mark the passage of minutes, seconds and days? When did humans start noting the passage of time? How about the following scenario? Picture a bunch of our prehistoric relatives sitting around a campfire. Matilda notices that the fire is running out and wood is getting short. She suggests that perhaps the time the clan spends together could be measured in “log-woods.” One log-wood equals one increment of time. Two-log woods equal two increments and so on. An entire day together would be equal to 16 log woods. Owing to the inaccuracies of measuring log woods, eventually the sun dial was created and measuring the angle of the sun replaced burning log-woods.

It is much more likely that with births, aging, deaths, seasons and the planting of crops, humans noticed the importance that time played in their lives and at some point created the concept of time. Now we have the Big Bang as a rather fanciful notion of how the universe was created and where everything first started. Not that I side with creationists or intelligent design theorists. I do not accept the idea that a benevolent god created the universe for man’s pleasure but neither do I put much faith in the credibility of science to explain how it was created. Nevertheless, I delight in seeing the creative ideas that physicists have for trying to answer this question. I find it amazing that we gainfully employ armies of physicists who spend their time working on something as nebulous as the Big Bang theory and can still keep a straight face. Moreover, the rest of us are so awed by “scientists” that we would not think of questioning their theories. Scientists have replaced witch-doctors and spiritual leaders today when it comes to creating belief systems.

What creates your belief system in the world? What or who do you rely on to create and define your reality? Do you question or accept whatever you are told? Why not question more and accept less? Who do you think created time and the universe?

One step at a time! You have probably heard this phase many times or variations of it such as: “Rome was not built in a day” or “The longest journey starts with the first step” or “Slow and steady wins the race.” It serves as a useful reminder for us not to try to “eat the elephant in one bite” or that “nothing worthwhile was ever accomplished overnight.” It is one of those rules we learn when we are so young that it has become part of the fabric of growing up along with fairy tales and other pithy sayings. Yet, if we all grow up with this rule embedded in our minds, then why do so many people think they can accomplish things overnight. Fame, fortune, friends, romance and countless material goods are pursued through a filter of instant gratification. We want these things and we want them now.

Have you ever bought and made “instant pudding?” Dr. W. Edwards Deming (a noted quality improvement guru) used this phase (instant pudding) to refer to his observation that managers always wanted new programs to work overnight. The program of the month reflected management’s ongoing search for some new effort that could produce “instant pudding.” Some managers realize that they will need commitment and time but many managers never seem to weary of their search for some new program that will instantly lower costs and improve quality.

Today, we find not only managers but an entire entertainment industry that depicts instant overnight success. This focus on American Idols and overnight fame has the negative effect of allowing people to forget that hard work and toil are generally needed for success. Instead, too many people seek success through lotteries, gambling, lawsuits and freebies that will require little effort or time. If Dr. Deming were alive, I am sure he would say our entire culture is obsessed with “instant pudding.” Is it any wonder, we need to keep reminding ourselves that one step at a time is the way to success. How soon we forget though. Walter Payton, one of the hardest working running backs in NFL history was asked what he would do over if he could play again and he replied “I would work harder.” By the way, he was also one of the most successful running backs in NFL history.

What have you put aside because it will take too long? Do you avoid certain goals because you don’t “have the time” or because the goals seem too far away? What would be different for you if you approached your life and goals “one step at a time?”

What if you could be anybody you wanted to for one day? What if you could be a queen, king or princess for one day? To live 24 hours in the life of someone you idealize or someone you see as regal in the world. To be someone who is exalted and loved by others or admired the world over. Who would this be for you? What would you do with your 24 hours if you did suddenly become this person? What fantasies would you live out? What do you think your day would be like? Would you simply step into their shoes and live the day as they might live it? On the other hand, would you try to step out further into the world and see how they would be reacted to if they were to live your world? What if the “King or Queen” came to your house and drove your car and walked down the street in your neighborhood and you were that King or Queen? What if the famous movie star (You of course) came home to visit in your town and went to all of those fun places that you like to go to?

Imagine if there was an EBay for being someone else for a day? How many people do you think would bid on the opportunity? How much money would you bid to be famous or important? Most of use would probably really like to see what it was like to live like a king or queen for a day. Our day would probably pass very quickly, but I think it might contain many surprises. We see the glamour of nobility and stardom but we often do not see the hidden problems and difficulties. Hollywood is not about reality but about creating fantasies. We do not see the body guards or the constant tension from being in the public eye. We do not see the stress of being a public figure and of having thousands of people who want and even demand our time. Think of having to act or be on view twenty four hours a day. Think of never being left alone to just wander or take a work in the park. Think of someone always wanting to meet you or get you to sign something.

If you did become this person of your dreams, how many fantasies do you think you could you live in 24 hours? (For instance, going back to your old high school to visit) What would they be worth? Would you really have to be this person to live out these fantasies or could your life be more of an adventure that it now is? How many of us yearn for stardom because our own lives are boring and routine? What would it take to transform the next twenty four hours of your life into an adventure or fantasy? Maybe this 24 hour fantasy could transform the rest of your life.