KC9: The Illusion of Time Episode
So many endless things have been & can be said about time.
And it can be viewed in so many different ways… spiritually, scientifically, philosophically, psychologically, perceptually, etc.
Albert Einstein has discussed about it many times before. He said that time is an illusion.
Isaac Newton too has talked about time. So has the myriads of great spiritual teachers, philosophers, thinkers, scientists through the ages.
Of our current times, Eckhart Tolle, a German-born spiritual teacher & author said…
“Time is an illusion… What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the NOW… that is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time – past and future – the more you miss the NOW, the most precious thing there is.”
From the onset, let me state that the intent of this episode is… to realize just one facet of the illusion of time resulting in a more purposeful use of time.
Now I say time is an illusion because we live each day as if all of our tomorrows will come.
It’s AS IF we will go on living forever as we know life to be each day.
This is DEFINITELY not the case.
Do you know some 151,600 people do not live to see the next day?
Here’s PROOF…
(and you can see it on the 3rd row of the right-hand corner)
And some day this will be true for you and me?
Do you know the global average human lifespan ranges from…
A mere 69 years… according to The World Factbook (not Facebook!)… =)
To 71.5 years… according to the United Nations World Population Prospects 2015 Revision…
Here’s PROOF…
Our short lives are based on time.
All of us have 86,400 seconds each day… not a second more… not a second less.
To have a great life, you need to steward the time you are given well.
With any resource such as time, money & energy, we can either INVEST it, SPEND it or WASTE it.
When we INVEST it, it returns more than what we put in… Input < Output.
When we SPEND it, it’s a breakeven deal… Input = Output.
When we WASTE it, it returns less than what we put in… Input > Output.
My mentor would remind just about every time he meets me and say… BE PRODUCTIVE.
Again everyone has the same amount of time. But the fruits of that time vastly differs from person to person.
I have a specific way of stewarding the time that’s given to me every single day.
Generally speaking… the more productive a person is, the smaller their time blocks will be.
Donald Trump is known to have meetings lasting no more than 15 minutes. Not sure if this is the case since he became the President of the United States.
Elon Musk breaks his day in just 5 minute slots and wolfs down his lunch during a meeting.
At this point, I organize time in 30 minute blocks.
I learnt many years ago that…
The past is the past, NOW is all we’ve got… and the future “does not exist”
Because when the future turns up, it is a new NOW…
The late Alan Watts, who was a British philosopher, writer & speaker said…
“The future is a concept, it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow… there never will be, because time is always now”.
Humans have for a long time been fascinated about immortality, anti-aging and life extension…
Until we achieve it (if ever we do)… a much more pragmatic way would be to use the time that we have much more purposefully.
Someone once said “The trouble is, you think you have time…”.
The late Steve Jobs said “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life…”.
Colossians 4:5 (ESV) states “Walk in wisdom…, making the best use of the time”.
The problem that most people THINK they have is “Not enough time”.
Here’s the solution…
To have “more time”, MAKE THE BEST of the time that we have.
And what’s the best way of making sure we make the most of our NOW moments in our lives?
Here’s my take…
Go figure out your personal purpose, mission & vision which I’ve discussed before.
If you have yet to listen to those episodes, I HIGHLY suggest to do so. It won’t take longer than an hour yet will revitalise people’s lives in many cases.
Because until we’ve figured out our priorities, there’s little point talking about productivity. And until we’ve figured out our purpose, there’s little point talking about priorities.
Gary Keller talks about this in his The One Thing book… great book by the way!
As a last point…
People’s actions generally follow what their true beliefs are. You see… it’s not what we know mentally that dictates what we actually do. This explains why people quickly go through a COMPLETE transformation in how they live their lives immediately after a near death experience…
So… what are you NOW going to do with your life?
In closing, I trust this has been a great investment of your time.
To make this profitable for you, decide at least 1 way in which you’ll better use time.
Also feel free to go over this episode again so you catch the spirit of it.
While this is the first episode on the subject of time… it certainly won’t be the last.
Because while I have the time to do so… there’s so much more I’ll love to share about time.
Let me know what you think about this episode…
I’ll love to hear from you at KelvinChan.org…
Carpe Diem!
