Time
“In reality, beginning the minute you are born, time is all you have. It is your only true commodity. People can take away your possessions but–short of murder–not even the most powerful aggressors can take time away from you if you let them. Even in prison your time is your own, if you use it for your own purposes. To waste your time in battles not of your choosing is more than just a mistake, it is stupidity of the highest order. Time lost can never be regained.” Robert Greene 48 Laws of Power
I am so unbelievably bad at this. Something to shoot for.
Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying, The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and other books about marketing, culture, and the human condition. His work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared everywhere from the Columbia Journalism Review to Fast Company. His company, Brass Check, has advised companies such as Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as Grammy Award winning musicians and some of the biggest authors in the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.
Not that this is a particularly insightful observation, but it certainly is true. It’s always funny to see someone talk about “killing time”. Why would you ever want to do that?
Actually that’s 33 strategies of war.
The surrender strategy, trade space for time.
“Killing time” sure is a funny phrase, Charlie. I mindlessly used it along with everyone else, until I made the realisation that every action I take should have a purpose. Distractions, whatever they may be – online gaming, Facebook poker, Guitar Hero – only serve to take away our time that could be otherwise used for useful purposes.
There’s a huge market in selling distractions. The personal challenge is to indulge sparingly and knowingly.
“To waste time in battles not of your choosing is more than just a mistake, it is stupidity of the highest order.”
Doesn’t this relate right back to what you once said about dignity — “When you die, you take self-respect with you and the rest stays behind – it was never in your possession to begin with.”? It would seem to me that folks with the greatest self-respect, discipline, and confidence would be the least likely to pursue petty disputes which only waste such a precious resource.
Organizational and time management skills are a whole other matter entirely, but there is certainly something to be said for wisely fighting your battles.
Money for example takes time to get. If someone takes my money away I will have to waste time getting it back.
I’d have to strongly agree on the general point though, I waste resources quite often too and it is tragic, especially time, especially battling in my mind with something I do not even slightly care about.
Straight to Facebook. I’ve always thought that the smart play is to sacrifice a little to get a lot in the long run (long run being the rest of your life). Guilt and cognitive dissonance are motherfuckers.
“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Henry D Thoreau
The man has a point. This is an area alot of us could improve on.