Time & Timing

--- Time ---

“I simply cant find the time!”
“I’m still young, I will have a lot of time to do that later.”
“I’m too old to try and do that now.”

Sound familiar?

Most of us identify with one or two these statements. We have all said it. We have all felt it. And what the heck, it’s so damn true! It even sounds right!
But it isn’t.
And the crazy fact is that you know it and will not acknowledge even if a gun is put to your head. It’s just convenient. To play the blame game with time is the easiest way out.

Time is not about preaching, but about self reflection.

“I gotta work out. I keep saying it all the time. I keep saying I gotta start working out. It's been about two months since I've worked out. And I just don't have the time. Which uh..is odd. Because I have the time to go out to dinner. And uh..and watch tv. And get a bone density test. And uh.. try to figure out what my phone number spells in words.” – Ellen DeGeneres.

If you are amused, or have smiled, you have an idea of where this coming from, and where it’s headed. Admission. That’s the first step right there.
Admit it! There is always time. You don’t need to make it, it’s already there.

It’s really not rocket science. And it’s actually as easily done as said. All you got to do is prioritize. And if that sounds too philosophical, here’s the deal:
‘That extra hour of mind numbing television?’ or ‘…those guitar classes you have always wanted to take up?’
‘An extra hour of sleep?’ or ‘…that art class you have wanted to take up?’
‘That extra hour of sleep?’ or ‘…an hour of working out in the morning?’
‘An extended lunch hour and a few extra coffee breaks followed by an extra hour of work’ or ‘Getting off work with the sun still out?’ (You can even perhaps fit in that workout hour in here if you can’t wake up in the morning.)

You don’t have to create time. You just have to use it as best you can. All that needs to be done is to make sure is that you use and chart out that fixed time in the most productive way possible.

--- Timing ---

“…I have commenced on the great mission with a great vision in a great season [spring season] to fight against the mighty Mt. Everest with the will-power of my mind and the clean energy of my heart.” – Min Bahadur Sherchan.

Min Bahadur was 76 years old when he said this. He was successful. He became the oldest man to have scaled the mountain in 2008 beating a 71 year old from a year earlier. He was 25 days shy of turning 77, and he is still going strong.

The only real response to this information is of course, “Damn! What a nut-job!” followed by a crazy look of awe and recognition towards what this man has accomplished. That really is some crazy shit right there.

So smell that fresh powder on the top of that summit. Almost anything you use at this point with respect to time and age to make an excuse will fail in relation. Not to mention what you read in the papers every other day about 90 year olds going back to school and taking driving lessons.

It’s never too late to start or do anything. If a seventy six year old can climb Mt. Everest, we have run out of excuses. We are not too old to learn to surf or take those music classes. We are not too old to ride a horse or to take up tennis lessons. We are not too old to go back to school or take driving lessons. We will simply never be too old to do anything ever again.

And this also extends to emotions too. It is never too old late to admit a mistake or to try to amend one. It is also never too late to say sorry or forgive. And it is never too late to mend relationships.

Physical or emotional, its never to late to accomplish what in your heart of hearts you know can be done, something that you know to be possible, no matter how much you wish it wasn’t. If it can be done, and you want it done, then it should be done, no matter how soon or late you realize it.

Know this:

There is always time. And it is never too late.

The Solution to happiness

Its Diwali. You are very young, you like those little red dots. They burst when thrown on a wall, they burst when you use them in toy guns, they burst when rubbed against a wall. You enjoy rockets too.

You get a year or two older, and you enjoy those little crackers rolled in red paper. You burst them all day, in tin cans, under leaves, under rocks, in bottles. That and you enjoy rockets with little plastic men in parachutes coming out of them.

You get a couple of years older, and you enjoy those ‘atom’ bombs, the crackers wrapped in green rope. These are more potent with louder bangs. Now, you enjoy rockets with colorful fireworks. The larger the better.

You get a few years older, and you no longer find interest in crackers. But if you were shown the detonation of dynamite anywhere, you would perhaps leap at the opportunity.

Life is a little like that. The smaller things that we enjoyed as youngsters, we take of granted. They no longer interest us and we want more. We want bigger things. We want more exclusive things. We begin to lose track of what makes us happy and why. The wonder and amazement falls off the wagon and nothing we have or had seems enough. We compare and then we compare some more. The little things in life that should give us happiness no more do. Call it an inescapable journey which each of us must tread. Happiness is at a premium and our quest seems unending.

We often want to go back to childhood, when we were less jaded and those little red dots and flower pots gave us the most happiness in life. But we cannot.

We know we must find a way out, we know that we might never be able to go back to the innocence where the smallest of things gave us the most happiness, like a grandfather buying a cheap little plastic car. You were on top of the world! Today anything less than a nice plush real car would not give that kind of happiness.

So how do we get back to true happiness, the kind that we had when we were younger?

I don’t really know.

There are a lot of questions that each of us have. There are a lot of short comings. And answers are not always at arms length. This passage is not about absolute solutions.

As the old saying goes, a man must be taught to fish, not given it.
So here is the deal.

Knowing that there is a problem is the solution.
It is not the answer, but it is the first step to that basic happiness.

We all have issues and problems, and acknowledging that we do, is that first step to an answer – the prologue to a solution.

The truth is, answers to some questions we will never find, answers to some, we will in time. But regardless of whether we do or not, just knowing that there are short comings will help us build on ourselves.

Knowledge and acknowledge will help us know understand where we stand against ourselves. It will help us emerge as stronger individuals, aware individuals.

The first stage of a solution to happiness is in that acknowledgement.