Your Limited Time & Greatness
Some of you are very protective of your money and possessions and all the other transient things that come and go. Yet very few seem to care how they distribute their highly valuable but limited time. Time - the thing that is truly yours - you spend foolishly. But for things that are not yours, you cling onto and remain selfish.
“Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost - Life.” — Steve Jobs
Nobody’s life purpose is to do everything - but to do the things that matter… to you.
I’d like to invite you to become more aware of who it is that is spending your time, your life. Is it you? Or the movies, the videos, the apps, the games? The things that take, but not give. Enough! Take control! It’s you and you alone who can decide how to walk this road. The only way to fail at life, is to live it according to someone else's way.
It’s about time, you transition from the current way you’re living to your way of living. It’s not at all about living the life, it’s about living your life.
We’re very much alike. But we’re also very different. If we were all to live, work, and love in the same way, and ultimately achieve the same things, we’d be forever dissatisfied. We need chefs, we need artists, we need doctors, and inventors, and architects, and mechanics, and dancers, and engineers, and poets, and firefighters, and - and people. That’s why we thrive, because we’ve got each other’s backs. Because we exchange valuable abilities to grow and expand beyond our imagination. And you have to play your part just as much as I have to play mine! But we have to go our separate ways to ultimately build a great whole.
It begins with reducing or (preferably) eliminating the things, activities, and people that only take from us, but do not reciprocate.
Most people don’t analyse the outcomes they achieve as a result of their actions, and thus are not aware of their impact. It’s time to take inventory of the things we engage in and classify them by most and least helpful. You are not going to become better (earn more money, be a better role model for your kids, etc.) by continuously repeating detrimental actions such as searching the internet aimlessly, or watching one show after another on TV.
If something or someone doesn’t help you move closer towards your personal goals, they are working against you. You don’t necessarily have to antagonise these activities or people, but if it helps, and you and all you care about benefit as a result of ignoring them, by all means go right ahead. However, what you need to do is to realise that if one thing does not push you forward, it pulls you back, or worse (which is harder to detect) it keeps you stationary.
Our loved ones may have the best intention at heart when they ask us not to change, or not to venture too far from what we’re familiar with, but this is the exact resistance that prevents us from growing. Allow yourself to be held back and you are doomed to a life of more of the same — and if “more of the same” doesn’t look too good, you’re in big trouble. The funny part about this entire situation is that if you were to go ahead and do what you had in mind and then after you accomplished it, you informed them about what you’ve done, they’d be super excited to hear of your results. But because you told them before, they will always be fearful of what could go terribly wrong, and they’ll transfer those fears into your mind, which then cause you to doubt your actions. Moral of the story: if it doesn’t cause your loved ones too much pain, it’s best you do things your way. It’s better to say sorry for trying than to regret not even attempting.
“The enemy of great is good.” — David Foster
This cliché holds so much truth. And for most people this will hurt, more than a little. Sometimes, in order to progress, you will have to knock down what you have and rebuild from scratch. It’s scary because you can lose the fruits of your labor; but what’s also possible is the chance of being, getting, or doing something even better than previously. Some may consider this strategy a risk, others see it as a certain method for getting what they want - their mindset tells them that one just has to keep chipping away at it until the desired outcome is attained. There’s no guarantee that you’ll have greatness once you let go of the good, but this is exactly what separates the good from the excellent - betting on a minuscule possibility of having your world shaped in your image.
