Time for Dinner
Mar 04, 2022Posted on March 4th, 2022 by Jordan Dessauer
In my reading this week, I came across some interesting information about time. I have found it interesting how time plays such a role in our lives, without most people knowing it. It comes down to the 3 C’s when it comes to time. They are control, create and cognizant.
Control. How do you control time? You control it by minimizing the things that eat it up. Watching TV, hanging out at the local watering hole, or gossiping eat more time than most things. Usually, when you allow things to eat time, they start to control you. Today’s technology can hurt us in this way.
By the time an average child in America is 21 years old, today, they have played more than 10,000 hours of video games. When they are playing the video games, they are in present time. They are being “in the moment.” In my quest for living in the moment, I want to be in a position where I control the present, not a game. I want to be able to enjoy the sights and sounds of my world. A great way to start that process is to read Ekhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now.
Create. Instead of the game creating what happens in the present, you should have your mind be in the position of creation. Take a new business that you are going to start or a new project. Think about all the ways that you can create your success. Think about ways that may make your tasks easier or more profitable.
Then, create a task list to start the ball rolling. What I typically find when I go through this exercise is that time starts to move faster when I am progressively moving toward a goal. It’s very much like that saying, “Time flies when your having fun (or being productive).” To do that you have to be aware of your situation and what your mind is doing. That is our third C.
Cognizant. In my second book, The Alchemy of Wealth, I wrote about being self-aware. I use that to my advantage when I ask myself about what state of mind I’m in. Am I present, past or future? They are the three areas of time. All three have one of two areas that people spend most of their time in.
The past has people thinking about good things like success and family. People tend to talk about how good they once were at sports or how they used to have a lot of money. Dwelling on these things too long can hold someone back from creating new success now or in the future. Thinking about the past also has people remembering the bad times. Bad times such as how they failed at something, or how they got hurt by someone or something. We need to let go of those items to make room for new positive things in our lives.
The two areas the present contain are hedonistic satisfaction and predetermination. Hedonistic satisfaction is the basic idea of collecting pleasure and eliminating pain. Addictions are examples of this type behavior. (Interestingly enough sometimes to escape the past or the future). Addicts want present pleasure, while often times not considering consequences of the future. The other side of being present is considering the idea that it doesn’t pay to plan. People with this mentality consider their life as something that is already predetermined. They do very little planning in life and live life as it comes being fully satisfied with whatever situation they find themselves in.
The future element of time gives people the “free beer tomorrow” mentality or the “Life begins at death” idea. There was a sign at a bar in the Florida Keys that said, “Free beer tomorrow.” You would show up tomorrow and the sign would still be there. Putting off the day when gloriously there would be free beer. These are the procrastinators in life, they put off today what they could do tomorrow. The “Life begins at death” group, usually is tied to a religion. They can’t fully enjoy the life here on this planet because of the promises of a better life after death.
Keep in mind I’m not knocking any of these time frames, just merely stating what they are and how they play a part in shaping and sculpting our life. Remember the 3 C’s if you are thinking about change in your life. That change will usually have time as a big component. That time perspective can also have a lot to do with where you live.
People that live closer to the equator usually have more of a present or past time perspective. People that live in the North or in colder regions typically have more of a future perspective on time. The reason for that is that historically as we developed as a people, we knew that we would have to prepare for winter by harvesting crops, gathering firewood, and preparing for harsh winters. People in the South didn’t need that mindset, for it was easier to get food, stay comfortable climate wise, and they didn’t have to prepare for much for the whole year.
There is an interesting book you should read called the Geography of Time, by Robert Levine. In it, he discusses the different ideas of how time shapes our world. He talks about how we compartmentalize our time such as how long we waited in line, or how long until we retire. He even ranks 60 cities in the United States by the pace of time. It intrigued me to learn that the faster paced the city, the higher the percentage of men with coronary medical issues. People sacrifice a lot in the name of time.
There is a study by USA Today that says that people are busier now more than ever. The study says that that business has caused their success, but the sacrifice is friends, family and sleep. It asked people what they would do if they had an extra day during the week. People in the study said they would use it to be more productive, but not with friends, family or sleep.
The study also went on to say that 20 years ago, 60% of the families in the United States had a sit down dinner at least once a week. Today that number has dropped to 20%. Its hard to have family values in this country when we can’t spend quality time together anymore, because we are too busy. Maybe that’s some of the issues in solving our worlds dilemmas, we don’t understand the time perspective of our counterpart OR maybe we just need to have a sit down dinner more regularly. You can’t get much more simple than that!
“Remember, wealth has nothing to do with money, success has everything to do with failure, and life is as simple as you want to make it.”– John Dessauer
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