Time - an underestimated over-discussed resource

Unlike the articles I wrote until now, this is not going to be a structured conclusive document worth digesting. This is me thinking out loud and blurting out to my extended professional connections. It may lead to a divisive opinion and some backlash, but nevertheless human mind keeps thinking endlessly and multiple healthy contradictions can give shape to something worth discovering together.

Is the title worth pondering? Yes? I think so too. Ever since childhood, I am sure - all of us have heard this proverb at least once "Time and Tide waits for no man", but how many of us are so hell-bent on being on time no matter what all 4 seasons?

Unlike critical yet depleting resources like potable water, fresh air and forest-cover, the resource "Time" has never got its due because we never really exhausted it and it came back again in same number the next day. And few lazy souls kept justifying procrastination. Time may not be a visible object, but yet it brought out the best in a visionary, Time may not be something you can hold onto or hand click picture of or brag; yet every object, picture, topic takes our mind spiraling into a dark room filled with many little storage boxes of thoughts, that we open and re-live. Time is not felt in a form or shape but in effect. No one gives us time, it is with us since we were born and keeps recharging every day with 24 hours until we leave our mortal bodies.

My seven year old read until now and says "I do not understand". Hmm, let me simplify it for her. All of us have been given the exact 24 hours every single day. Every religion or religion-based scientific study may have 23.XX or 24.XX hours but on an average we all have same no of hours as we all now follow Greenwich Mean Time. Every century, generation has taught humanity the importance of being on time - associating it with being on time with duties, saving some one's life, while on race to win, but all these have been coupled with frequent attempt of the generation to find ways on how to save more time - to have more productive time in hand, but we ended up wasting more.

The physical strenuous labor of the previous generation has been eased with modern machinery allowing humans with more time in hand to be with their families, engage in social gatherings and work for a greater cause. But instead the excess time is used - making memes, viral videos on social media for a few shots of temporary dopamine that will give them sense of belonging and in the end help them kill the additional time they saved by modernizing or outsourcing their chores.

Why are we seeking companies to invest in more smartphone apps to keep us entertaining. Kids now-a-days want to be entertained all the time. They feel bored when no device is turned on, they cannot hold onto a page of a physical book and read it to the last line. The theory of relativity plays on them, when with devices the time just flies for them and when with a book time stops.

Facebook I read somewhere, is called as a mini-vacation. It relieves people of their office stress, but that has stole the moments we would/could earn from actually traveling and experiencing our Personal Time Off. People use their time on each trip to take innumerable selfies and not experience the time and later never really get rejuvenated even after a gorgeous trip.

I am no different from all the above type until 2 years back. Now I feel time is not to be considered as a given resource and be wasted. Instead I am now using time as a project plan to achieve milestones that will give me a long-lasting happiness. I planned for my executive MBA after almost 2 decades of attending any college / educational institute. Planned meticulously to work through entire weekday at work and attend weekend college to achieve this dream of learning the trade of business verticals other than IT.

It looked daunting, but then I kept hearing motivational speeches from Eric Thomas and others and kept pushing myself, and literally as the old saying says - As the going gets tough, the tough really got going and I could achieve it this year in January. Did I stop after that - No? I did not want to lose out on my weekend momentum and joined violin classes. Violin, huh? am I too young for starting an instrument that will take 10 years to even clear my basics? Why not, as far as I can keep learning gradually and use my time in picking up a new skill, I do not mind. 

Time should be qualified as a function to commitment resulting into success.

I aim to become a Professor one day and retire my life amidst books and students all around me experiencing their lives. I do not have a road map to achieve but as they say - No matter how impossible you situation may seem, Stay on Course. You may definitely lose if you quit, but you do not know where you will end if you kept going on. So back to time, now time has to be respected. My mother often asks.. why does this generation love to sleep in the day and be up all night.. sleep has become so important medium of wasting time.. sleepy during studies, sleepy when someone is talking to you really emotional things.. sleepy while watching documentaries.. all this shows that we abuse the resource - time and start manipulating our life to make up for the loss.

None but our life will look down upon us for the time we lose, for the adventures we missed, for the games we missed with our kids while they were growing up, for the assignments we missed for our work, that could have made the company rely on our contributions. At one point we are lost in the world of non-stop entertainment - TV, Netflix, smartphone apps, social media forced to us by corporates who believe are making us happier, the other end, companies put unbelievable deadlines to achieve more and more out of an employee who is disconnected with his/her work and looking for constant cheat-code to relieve out of a task.

Time is used as a weapon by managers to evaluate a person's capability. It is this same "time" that the employee is wasting because he / she is not interested anymore. The relationship of time is difficult to explain but easy to imagine. Time should be valued, used and an outcome should be generated - either in the form of experiencing a new feeling or growing up beyond just being a worthless mortal born to eat sleep and wander aimlessly.

Next time we waste time, remember you are wasting opportunities - to be really happy than just insta-lying. Time is precious as we lose time in achieving something great, greater than money, greater than sleep, greater than laughter. A feeling of having trekked a mountain peak and being alone to enjoy the breath-taking view. 

Time is the only resource which cannot be earned. It is an invisible gift from nature and once lost it is lost forever. Why do we celebrate only 31st Dec every year because it never comes back but similarly no date of a year will repeat so let us celebrate every day not by drinking or rash driving or whiling away but by doing something which will add more meaning to the time in doing it...