As the old year ends and a
new one begins, I often look back and silently chide myself over the time I
might have squandered and should have used more wisely.
The New Year is always a
great time to say good-bye to all our yesterdays and give a hearty, forward-looking
hello to a new start in a new year. It’s a feeling that invades our thinking and
whispers, “Your slate is now wiped clean of all the troubles and missteps
you’ve experienced. Let’s begin anew.”
So, how will you use this unbiased
fellow we call TIME--who credits you every morning with 86,400 seconds in the
day? (Or 31,536,000 seconds in the new year?)
Imagine a bank that credits
your account with $86,400 each day. It carries no balance over from day to day,
and every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use.
What would you do? I believe everyone would agree we’d be foolish not to draw
out every cent.
Each of us has such a bank.
It’s called TIME. And every morning we are offered 86,400 seconds. Every night,
TIME writes off, as a loss, whatever seconds, minutes or hours you have failed
to invest in good purposes. There is no balance. There are no overdrafts. Each day
TIME opens a new account. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is
yours.
What am I really saying? I’m
telling you the clock is running and you must live in the present of today’s
deposits. Invest your time so you get the utmost in health, happiness and
success. Make the most of today. Treasure and use wisely each moment in both
work and play.
To realize the value of one
year, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of one
month, ask a returned soldier how he felt during his last four weeks of
deployment
To realize the value of one
hour, ask lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of one
minute, ask the person who just missed his plane flight, train or bus.
To realize the value of one
second, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of one
millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.
Treasure every moment you
have. Remember, TIME waits for no one!
