Frivolously Spending
It’s 5:03 PM on a brisk December Friday and you decide it’s time to get into shape.
You’ve been feeling really sluggish lately, haven’t been happy with your current level of fitness, and the pathetic fit of panting and gasping for air you just had halfway up the broken escalator in the train station sparked a new found intolerance to the guilty pleasures that coalesce into the cycle of your bad habits. This time, you've let yourself go for too long now and you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. So you go to your computer.
First step: Find a workout that fits your lifestyle, something sustainable, easy to build upon.
You begin to enter Google search terms when your phone screen suddenly flashes, prompting you that it is low on storage space and that some must be cleared out so. As you sort through your camera roll, deleting the pocket pics and other clutter, you see one from last weekend. A wild weekend with the boys, of course. The memory still fresh, but only as fresh as Sunday morning memories of the previous night’s drunken debauchery can ever be. Some of these pictures can never see the light of day but you see one, very socially acceptable photo and you directly open up Instagram and post it, tagging all your boys and having a good chuckle.
Oh yea, you were looking for a workout, you almost forgot. You get back to the Google tab in your web browser. As you wait for the page to load your search results, your phone vibrates. On of your boys just commented on the post, the first of many notifications that come pouring in as a result of the newest addition to your Instagram profile.. As you begin to type a reply to the comment, another one of your friends calls you and you pick up.
"Whattup!"
"What's good homie?"
"You ready for round 2?"
“It’s friday,” you think to yourself “I don't work tomorrow and all week I been trying to look for weekend plans”. So you reply with a very loud "Hell yeah!”
This is the oldest story ever told, and we all know how it ends:
The weekend flies by in blur like The Flash in a footrace. You wake up at work on Monday, fighting a serious hangover, questioning if the weekend was a success if your body feels regret for it. As you enter another week on the heels of a drunken weekend binge, your body is starved of key nutrients needed to keep your body in top shape. Your boss is yapping in your ear from over the wall of your cubicle but you're not hearing a word of it. Right now you are just trying to figure out how you fell back into the destructive cycle you swore off just a few days earlier. Probably not in this state. The issue we are facing is one of extreme procrastination brought about by our dear old friend Mr. Distraction.
We live in a world where people are judged on their ability to multitask. The question is does multitasking really determine efficiency? I don't think so. When we multitask we lower the percentage of concentration on each task. Thus tasks can never be done with that 100% efficiency. Multitasking is what our world is based on. We surf the internet and in every corner of the screen, there is an ad or suggestion of something we might have looked at yesterday. The world is filled with distractions. They are in our phones, on our laptops, lurking around street corners, handed to us out of the pockets of our friends. The world is filled with things that eat time.
Time is the greatest currency to ever flood the world market. It’s too valuable to waste. It's the one thing we cannot make more of. It is backed by life and death so its value never waivers. We don't get receipts for it so when it’s stolen or spent foolishly there is no fraud prevention hotline.
So lock in on your goals and complete them. Don't allow distractions to make you stray from your dreams. We all can think for ourselves so why do we allow other people's goals for us to draw us away from our own goals. Sadly it's because of this thing society created called "Consideration". Men and women who achieve their goals realize two things that the masses can't process. Selfishness and solitude are the dream chasers best friends. Hitchhiking and Hijacking are the wanderer's acquaintances. Hitchhikers have a general direction they're headed in the movies but they are at the mercy of the considerate drivers that stop to pick them up. They are in hopes that they land somewhere near there destination but the truth is when it’s your destiny, can you afford to put it in the hands of others. Can you afford for someone else to be the captain of your own ship? Is it practical to live your life by another's North Star? I think not. You have one choice live your life or live the life they set out for you. This goes for parents, teachers, friends, spouses, and strangers. When you value your time you will move differently.
Think about relationships. We search this Earth for another person who will either enhance or just generally support our vision, but if they don't live in our mind how can they speak from our soul. That's the issue with settling before your dreams are achieved you take a chance in hopes that someone will be the wind for your sails when it's highly likely that their ship was headed elsewhere. Same with friends you cannot tell where a man is headed until you scratch past the surface. Until you find out what sets one's soul on fire they are not to be trusted with your Gold(time).
When time becomes the priority watch how carefully you spend it. Prioritize your life and put yourself first. Never waiver, never stray. If you don't put yourself first who will. Don't be distracted cause there is no circling back to collect the wasted time. Build with those that are headed towards the same mountaintop. There will be more than enough time once you've reached the promised land to frolic and lollygag. So start now! Hone your craft and welcome your potential. The more you procrastinate the farther your potential travels. The more you slack the harder you will have to fight. Things may become so difficult that it is easier to quit and remain in the comfort of your current dwelling. That's fine if you reside in the house of comfort but then why did you start in the first place. How much time did it cost? It's like putting a deposit with your last but never following up and collecting your prized item. Why waste the time if you're not going to see through to completion. Give it your all or don't give any.
Until next time keep it LYM.
A Chart that interested me. Whats your take? Everything Costs Time.
