A wise man once asked a rich man,
What is the most precious and valuable thing you have?
The rich man extended out his arm and said,
This watch,
Which was given to me by my father on his deathbed.
His last words were,
Take care of this son,
It's invaluable.
The wise man smiled and asked,
Are you sure he meant the watch?
Your watch may be expensive,
But your time is priceless.
You may be able to buy hundreds of watches in life,
But it won't be able to buy you a single minute more.
Most of us have wondered at some point,
Why do I never have enough time?
The truth is,
We all have exactly the same 24 hours in a day.
No one has any more or less time than you.
But it's how we use our time that becomes really important.
Whether it's deadlines that we have to meet for our work or our studies,
Some of us care for others and have family responsibilities.
It seems that we all have commitments that we can't get out of.
And then on top of all of that,
We have desires to do more enjoyable things with our time.
So what do we mean when we ask for more time?
Is it free time that we're looking for?
I always think of free time as some moment in the future where there are no more commitments.
When my kids are asleep and I've replied to all my emails,
That's when I can sit back and enjoy myself.
I tend to think that when I'm free,
Then I'll be fulfilled.
But in my experience,
There have been days when I've had all the time that I needed,
But I've still not made the most of it.
I got bored very quickly and I look to fill my time with entertainment.
And at the end of the day,
I've still been unsatisfied,
Feeling like I've not done anything useful or enjoyable.
Maybe we need to stop waiting to free ourselves and stop waiting to free our time and start fulfilling our time.
Free time requires all the circumstances to change,
To reach a point where there's no more responsibilities.
But fulfilling time can be any moment where we're enjoying whatever we're doing.
It's so easy to worry about what we spend our time on.
Instead,
How we cherish each moment is so much more important.
So how do we go about achieving this?
Regardless of what's happening right now,
We need to question,
Can we be blissful and graceful right now?
Can we speak and act in kindness?
It's about not having your head in the future or worrying about escaping your commitments.
It's about slowing down and becoming aware,
Allowing yourself to enjoy the present moment.
Right now,
As you're listening to me speak,
See if you can enjoy the experience of breathing at the same time.
I'm sure you've heard people describe their experiences by saying,
Time stood still.
And we've all had glimpses of this,
Like when we're staring at a beautiful sunset.
It's so hard to recreate that because we spend so much of our lives reliving the past or worrying about the future.
And when we do that,
We completely miss what's happening in this moment.
And this doesn't mean that we don't ever plan for the future.
It means that we do it in such a way that we're not missing the present.
Because the truth is,
The future and past are just ideas in our mind.
Now is the only thing that's real.
And when we become totally present to the moment,
It feels like time vanishes and then we're in bliss.
