Are you aware of your clock ticking?
Whether you are willing to acknowledge it or not, you are here only for a limited time.
Today most people live as if they will live to 97 and beyond. How else can we explain the way people live their lives today?
It is as if they are stuck in this imagined utopia from their childhood where nothing ever changes and they live forever.
In case you are wondering why I chose the number 97 above, it’s only to make my point – so stop fussing about irrelevant things!
No matter how great your world is today, it could all turn horrible tomorrow. It’s just the nature of things and the way the world is. Anything can collapse any moment.
Life is fragile and yet so precious.
Know that you really don’t have a moment to waste of this precious life. So pause for a moment and reflect on just how much time and energy you waste on petty things.
Suppose you could be childlike once again and just focus on those things that bring you joy and happiness?
Suppose you lived your life as if the next moment or the next day was your last, then how differently would you live?
Surely you would then stop taking yourself so seriously and you would stop wasting time on the petty stuff in your life.
Simply by acknowledging that you are here for only a limited time, you might even begin to look after our planet a bit better. And taking better of yourself.
For a start, you can increase the amount of time you have simply by learning to become an early riser.
Ask yourself – does it really matter:-
- How many superfluous emails you have cleared from your inbox?
- How many people are following you on Facebook / Twitter and other social media?
- How much more stuff you have de-cluttered?
- How many friends you have called or not called?
- Who said what and to whom?
- Which blogs you have visited and commented on?
- Who is doing better than you or worse than you?
- Which books you have read lately?
The answer is clearly a resounding NO!
Ok, you guessed it – all of the above listed things are activities I used to do until recently.
What’s on your list of petty things to stop doing from today?
I made an instant decision to stop doing all of the above things – and that’s all it took.
Just a simple decision.
And the moment I made this decision, my world changed – I felt lighter and more joyous in an instant. Since then, I have focussed on those things that will truly make an impact on my life and those of others.
If I can stop wasting time on petty stuff, so can you.
Where in your life can you cut of the stop wasting your time on superfluous and petty stuff and start living again?
Remember – you don’t have to be a superman or superwoman all the time.
Whose expectations are you living up to?
Why devote time and energy on things that are not of importance to you?
And this is a big one:–
Why spend time and energy worrying about things that you have no control over?
In terms of new projects for example, you have no luxury to worry about what’s going to work or not. Just literally move with it!
When will you pull out your fingers, get out there and do what you were supposed to do on this planet!?
Who will you be from now onwards? What will it take for you to become unreasonable and pursue your dream? Even if you get a million NO’s it doesn’t really matter!
Here’s another key thing to let go of:-
Stop bitching and gossiping about those around you.
There are no ordinary people, just look for their greatness.
Life is fragile and yet so precious
To end, I want to remind you of my key point above – life is fragile in every sense – and yet it’s so precious.
Since your life is so precious, you owe it to yourself to make the most of your time here on this fragile planet.
YOU have the responsibility to not only make the most of your time here, but also leave the world a better place.
When will you start?
Image courtesy of sameer_cdac
Thank you for such a lovely post………. 🙂 Many of my questions have been answered here……….. 🙂
Nabanita, you are most welcome.
That’s what my blog is here for – to asnwer your questions:-)
Thanks for the wake up call. I know I always take life for granted sometimes, by doing things that have no purpose, and wasting time on negative thoughts. I dun think I’ve been utilizing my time to best of my potential, and it’s time to change that.
Henway, it’s better to wake up late than never waking up to your brilliance.
Good luck with make the most of yuor time from now onwards and fulfilling your potential:-)
Hi Arvind,
Great advice to stop waisting time and focus on the petty stuff that clouds life’s wonderment. Letting go of and opening up the the miraculousness of life.
🙂
Aileen, good to see you again at my blog.
It’s really high time we stopped wasting time and focussed on the things that really matter. Let’s all open up to the miraculousness of life:-)
Arvind,
Great stuff! Hubs loves to watch CSI type shows on television. He also loves me to watch them with him. I just got a new camera. I’m going to learn how to become a photographer instead of watching crime shows. I’ll do something else with him that I also enjoy doing.
I love your list. What blogger can’t relate?
Tess, good to see you on my blog again. Time to stop watching TV with your hubby!
I look forward to seeing your special photographs on your blog:-)
Hi Arvind, This post is resonates with my own views so much. Especially your comment that “Harsh as it may sound, we are all so insignificant, we might as well be dead”. many times I have reminded myself that I am just a piece of dust on this earth, waiting to be blown away forever. It makes me smile when I see people caught up with status , titles, notions of grandeur. How frail we all are. Brothers and sisters in life. Some with colourful coats, some with holes on theirs but underneath we leave as we entered, with no trappings of this world, accept the consequences we realised, through decisions we made and whether those decisions brought light to anothers life or darkness to our own. Life is precious indeed, live it, love it, extend a hand to those that cross our path. Observe the beauty that is “all” creation. Be grateful for existing for just a while.
Fiona, when I wrote the article about so insignifcant we might as well be dead, I did hesitate initially as it sounded rather harsh. But that’s how I felt in the end – and out of the thousands of readers, I only had one complaint.
It’s amazing really to see so many peole caught up with their notions of grandeur and significance.
Thanks for sharing all your words of wisdom – especially the bit about extending a hand to those that cross our path.
Indeed, let’s all be grateful for simply existing.
It’s a paradoxical world Arvind, the more technological we become (which was meant to free up and streamline our time and lives) the more we get sidetracked by the trivial and unimportant. Witness people on mobiles texting or on social media or playing computer games or always connected to a laptop. We need to stop and think for a second whether what we are doing truly is contributing to our life or merely to our entertainment.
John, as you say it’s a paradoxical world and the more “advanced” we become, the more we retract into our own worlds.
I say bring back the chalk and blackboard!
Arivnd: Great post and great message. It is so true that we should never overlook the potential we have to live this moment in the most amazing way and it is something we should always focus on and take advantage of. Life really is precious. Thank you for that message this morning.
Sibyl, when I look back on my life, the most memorable and touching moments have been when I have been living in the moment.
Time to cut out even more petty stuff and live in the moment, every moment.
Hi Arvind:
Your philosophy is near and dear to my heart.
There are always going to be people who don’t want to be reminded of the fact that life ends, but those are precisely the people who need to hear that message.
Keep up the great work!
-Patrick
Patrick, welcome to my blog – and thanks for all your kind words of encouragement.
I have just checked out your profile and I am totally resonant with your message too. You have a great story to share – and I am so happy the doctors were wrong about you:-)
Mmmmm…..pretty straightforward post, and challenging.
Once again it starts with you making a choice. If the process seems overwelming, choose one simple thing (that’s easy enough!) and stick to it. Therein lies the challenge! 😀
Hi I’m new to your blog and while I’m all for putting your time and energy into things that matter I have one question to you. As a blogger – which I am too, and a writer I would say that much of what you do relies on social media for awareness and community building.
You write on a blog platform, you ask people to share your blog via Twitter and Facebook and comment, For you to just stop doing those in an instant to me seems to be turning your back on the very things that make this blog popular.
Be mindful of what you consider petty and what is in fact worthwhile and giving back
Natalie
Natalie, welcome to my blog:-)
As you rightly say, bloggers like me do rely on social media for building awareness and community building.
And of course I shall continue to do so. My point was that I have stopped getting hung about these things.
For so long, I was putting so much pressure on myself to achieve high numbers of subscribers, followers and “friends”. Now I don’t care – and letting go of that need to be “successful” has been liberating.
I still insist that in the scheme of things and knowing how precious each moment is, our social media activities are a low priority:-)