by Rick Baker
On Jan 6, 2011
I don’t have enough time to do that!
How often do you say that? How often do you think that?
Do you ever question whether or not that is true?
I have been thinking about Time quite a bit lately.
I started thinking about Time a couple of months ago when, one after another, I heard a number of people say they did not have time to do this or to do that. It expanded when a friend asked me if I had read anything by the [Canadian] author Eckhart Tolle1. It expanded more when the people in the LinkedIn group called Positive Thinkers started to exchange ideas about Time.
While this was going on I wrote Thought Posts expressing an opinion Successful people have more time2. Some people argued this was absolutely impossible. Other people said they agreed with the view. And, the LinkedIn group discussion of Time continues. And, I wrote and asked Eckhart Tolle if he would share his thoughts about Time. I know, in one of his CDs, he said “Time is an illusion”. Perhaps, that’s enough said?
Eckhart Tolle teaches the Power of Now and the Art of Presence:
- We only have the present.
- When the present passes, it becomes the past...and it is gone. It is at best a memory.
- The future is not guaranteed to any of us. If it arrives then it arrives as the next piece of ‘the present’.
So, I am about ready to set aside the question “What is Time?” Although, before I do that I will restate my views:
- Time is an organizing-tool designed by Man.
- Time is an introductory effort at measuring the incomprehensible [universe].
Setting aside the definition of Time, most people would agree each of us has ‘the present’. And, during our lives we have a string of pieces of ‘the present’. As each piece of ‘the present’ passes it becomes the past. As the next piece of ‘the present’ arrives it ceases to be the future. We do not know how many pieces of ‘the present’ will come to us. All we know for sure is we have ‘the present’.
We can succeed if we make the best use of the present. Successful people have 2 good habits:
- They do better at defining what success means to them
- They make the better use of the present
I continue to think successful people have more time.