We know when we were born, but since we don’t know when we’ll die, the time we have to work with is a mystery.  This unknown factor is what should cause all of us to hold every moment close and enjoy life every day, no matter where we are in our journey.  Too often people are just cruising along, taking life for granted, and acting as though they’re going to live forever.

Some people don’t enjoy the present because they are constantly thinking about the past or the future.  Others waste their time dwelling on what they hate so much that they’ve lost track of what they love.  Instead of using their energy to make their dreams come true, some stay stuck in the dream.  They’re safe there.  Nothing’s required of them.  Some people think  “I’d be so happy if…”  this or that would happen.  Don’t ever put off being happy, even if your dream never comes true.  Dreams are important, but we are more than our dreams.  Life is the prize.  Things could always be worse.  Be happy no matter what, and always be thankful for the blessings you do have.

The wonderful thing about life is we have the power to change at least some things that we’re unhappy with.  Become friends with that power.  Increase your level of awareness and get your actions in line with your goals.  I’m not saying change is easy, but it’s possible.  And you learn so much about yourself when you see a need and you try to make a change.  Use your time wisely to accomplish what you want to do with your life.  Discover your purpose and pursue your dreams.  You’re the only one who can!

Donna Fargo

This story about Ben Franklin applies even today.

One day, Ben Franklin was busy preparing his newspapers for printing when a customer stopped in his store and spent an hour browsing over the various books for sale. Finally, he took one in his hand and asked the shop assistant the cost.

The assistant answered, “One Dollar.”
The customer said, “A dollar. Can’t you sell it for less?”
The assistant replied, “No, the price is a dollar.”
The customer said that he wanted to see Mr. Franklin. When Franklin appeared from the back room, the customer asked how much he wanted for the book.

Franklin said, “One dollar and a quarter.”

The customer was taken aback. “Your assistant only asked me for a dollar.”

Franklin said, “If you had bought it from him, I could sell it to you for a dollar. But you have taken me away from the business I was engaged in.”

The customer pressed on. “Come on, Mr. Franklin, what is the lowest you can take for it?”

Franklin said, “One dollar and a half. And the longer we discuss it, the more of my time you are taking up and the more I’ll have to charge you.”

What do you do when you are caught in a traffic jam? Noel Coward didn’t fuss and fume; he took out a piece of paper and wrote his popular song, “I’ll See You Again.”

Dale Carnegie told the story of two men who were out chopping wood. One man worked hard all day, took no breaks, and only stopped briefly for lunch. The other chopper took several breaks during the day and a short nap at lunch. At the end of the day, the woodman who had taken no breaks was quite disturbed to see that the other chopper had cut more wood than he had.

He said, “I don’t understand. Every time I looked around, you were sitting down, yet you cut more wood than I did.”

His companion asked, “Did you also notice that while I was sitting down, I was sharpening my ax?”

Ivy Lee, a management consultant, was called in by Charles Schwab, chairman of Bethlehem Steel Company, to give him advice on how to better manage his time. Lee told him to write down every evening the six most important things he had to do the next day and to list them in the order of importance.

Schwab asked Lee how how much he wanted for this advice and Lee said, “Use the plan for several months and send me a check for how much you think it is worth.” Eventually Lee received a check for $25,000–not a bad sum sixty years ago.

In 1939, Frank Whittle and Hans von Obain were both working on the idea of the jet engine. Von Obain was in Germany and Whittle was in England.  Both were in different geographic and political arenas but were separately working toward the same goal.

No matter how original our ideas may seem to us, someone else may also be racing to the finish line with the same idea.

The old storekeeper, who also was the community’s postmaster, was a real go-getter.  He had no helper, and when he had to leave his store to meet the mail train, he was tormented by thoughts of tourists stopping for gas and soft drinks, and finding him gone and his store closed.  Finally he hit upon a shrewd solution.  He printed a sign in bold letters which explained everything during his enforced absences:  BACK IN 15 MINUTES – ALREADY BEEN GONE 10.

Author Unknown

Benjamin Franklin said, “If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.”

One minute.  It doesn’t seem like much.  However, never underestimate the cumulative effect of each minute we live.

Let’s suppose, for example, a minute is worth one penny.  You see a penny lying on the street but pass it by because it is hardly worth the effort of leaning over to pick it up.  But suppose you began to double that penny each day for a month.  At the end of a week, you would only have sixty-four pennies.  I know that’s not much but at the end of a month you would have 536,870,912 pennies.  Translated into dollars, that’s 5,368,709.12.  The value we place on each minute of every day will have a cumulative impact on the remainder of our lives.

Author Unknown

Only you can waste your time.  Years ago, while serving in the U.S. Navy, I was stationed aboard an aircraft carrier.  I was faced with the prospect of wasting two years of my life floating around on the Pacific Ocean.  It was during these two years that I learned a valuable time-management tool.  After complaining to a fellow sailor, he said, “You are the only one who can waste the two years.”  This advice has served me well.  I always try to find a way to productively use my time no matter where I am.  For example, I edited the bulk of this book (Speaker’s Library of Business Stories, Anecdotes and Humor) at 30,000 feet when other passengers were staring out the window.

Joe Griffith

The present life of men on earth, O king, as compared with the whole length of time which is unknowable to us, seems to me to be like this:  as if, when you are sitting at dinner with your chiefs and ministers in wintertime, …one of the sparrows from outside flew very quickly through the hall; as if it came in one door and soon went out through another.  In that actual time it is indoors it is not touched by the winter’s storm; but yet the tiny period of calm is over in a moment, and having some out of the winter it soon returns to the winter and slips out of your sight.  Man’s life appears to be more or less like this; and of what may follow it, or what preceded it, we are absolutely ignorant.

St. Bede