第1543期：Are you time poor?

Are you time-poor?

Most people feel they are.

Feeling time-poor means you (think you) have too many things to do in a day but not enough time to do them.

Pathetic, isn’t it?

Some say they are work-rich, but how can one be work-rich while time-poor?

Where did all the time go?

It went into your ambitions, daydreaming, water-cooler gossip, conference calls, emailing, business nonsense, and meetings.

The more professional you think you are and the more you believe you belong to the middle class, the poorer you find yourself in time.

As you climb up the social rungs, you pick up milestones but ultimately become time-destitute.

Such is the destiny of most people.

* * *

Why and how so? You may wonder.

The other day I read in a magazine about the number one time trap that makes us time-poor – BUSYNESS.

Busyness is a worldwide plague, contagiously fatal. 

It makes you feel like a failure and loser if your calendar is not filled up to the brim with back-to-back meetings or your email box doesn’t have a box-bursting inflow of messages the first thing in the morning.

You see your boss and colleagues running around like estrous cats, feeling, “Wow, they must be so important and popular, and they must be valuable to the company.”

The truth is they are not.

Some of them are dogs chasing their tails, just like you; others make up fake appointments on their work calendars to scare people away – another way to say, “Do Not Disturb.”

* * *

How do you greet people you first meet at a party or a social gathering?

Hi, I am so and so. Nice to meet you. Blah blah blah, and here comes the real question you want to ask – what do you do?

Instead of “How do you do?” which means nothing other than hello, we ask people what they do (for a living). In other words, you care so much about where others stand on the social ladder, most important, compared to you.

Why do we do that?

Because we need to know that answer to decide how to deal with them – depending on whether they are of any value to us or worse off than us.

You see, that’s why I shy away from all social gatherings.

If social norms permit, I’d rather bring a dog to the social activities I must attend.

Then I can talk to my dog if no one talks to me or I find no one interesting to talk to – at least my dog won’t give me a dirty look that insinuates – “This guy looks like a piece of shit and a useless life loser; I am not making acquaintance with him.”

* * *

So, amigo, are you time-poor, too?

Say yes, and we are in the same boat.

Ask yourself this:

If you could accomplishe only one thing in life, what would it be?

If you can name that One Thing, do it.

If you can’t, find it.

I hope you won’t feel poor in anything anymore and have your life fulfilled all the time.

* * *

“You have two essential tasks in life: to be a good person and to pursue the occupation that you love. Everything else is a waste of energy and a squandering of your potential.” – The Daily Stoic.