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!