Just how Important Is it to Live Every Moment?
Time defines our successes and our failures.
What is the difference between an Olympic runner and someone who jogs casually, a world-class violinist and a violin hobbyist, a CEO of a billion dollar company and someone who makes a few bucks by selling ice water?
Some say the key difference is the mindset. High achievers tend to have clear goals, high levels of self-discipline, unbreakable determination and a remarkable resilience when facing failure.
Yet, time is an equally important factor to consider.
The very concept of time itself remains mysterious to this day. Time seems to prevent everything from happening at once, to allow entities to interact with each other in the observable world.
“The only thing you have in your life is time. If you invest that time in yourself to have great experiences that are going to enrich you, then you can’t possibly lose.”
— Steve Jobs
Time is free but is irreversible. One day, we came into existence. One day, our existence will transcend into another dimension of reality. Within the time between these two extrema, we have the opportunity to live in one direction, moving away from the past and towards the future.
Due to the irreversibility of time, our past actions cannot be modified. If they could, they would change the course of events in the present, which would sow the seeds of chaos.
Given this fact, it becomes essential that the present moment is crucial. If we were to live the present by creating enriching experiences from this point forward in life, then there is no way we can say that our lives weren’t lived to the maximum.
This concept becomes fundamentally important in modern society. In a capitalist world, individuals who can deliver exceptional talents or skills are valued. These people who stand out can be from any domain, from a professional athlete to a renowned writer or a Nobel-winning scientist.
With time being so valuable, how can we ensure that our days are not spent to waste? Having consulted multiple resources, I came up with 3 key guidelines that can help to live every day to the fullest.
Goals
Every day is a blank day. Write your day by setting goals. Goals are guidelines that will push you to exit your comfort zone and to reach new heights.
From personal experience, a day without goals tends to be time spent wandering and avoiding productive work (though exceptions may apply).
Scheduling and Constraints
“Work contracts to fit in the time we give it.”
— Parkinson’s Law
Imagine giving yourself 7 days to assemble a 2-minute presentation of a project you’re working on.
Now, consider the same activity but with only 2 days’ time.
In both cases, you’ll likely get the work done with similar results, although the latter would be done in less time than the former.
By adding time constraints (e.g. designated work hours instead of endless hours of work every week), you oblige yourself to finish work faster and to use creative methods to do so. As long as these constraints are reasonable and are not put to the last minute, you might have just earned yourself a valuable tool in boosting your productivity.
Priorities
You can do a million different things at any given moment, but you must only choose one. This is where priority comes into play. Is it more important to run 3 kilometres every morning or to use that same time to work on your personal project? By deciding yourself which is more important, you are then better using your time and making your day more productive.
I started writing this article in November 2018, but left it unpublished in my drafts for several months. Then, in early 2019, I had a dream of my great-grandfather (I am grateful to have met up in my childhood) come to me with some other family member in a sunlit room, telling me how precious time is.
Today, I still would like you to hear my message of just how important it is to grasp every second and to fully live every moment.
If there is one thing I would like you to remember after having read this article, it would be to live the present to its best by taking control over how you will spend your time as of now.
