How Much Time Are You Devoting to YOU?
- Jon Parker
- Feb 6, 2018
- 3 min read
"You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of y our frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed...What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to postpone wholesome plans to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained!"
-Seneca
I get a lot of people saying that this message, this idea that we should focus more of our time and attention on ourselves, is selfish. Of course, the word "selfish" applied in a negative way.
People say things like this all while binge watching television, spending every weekend night wasted, eating shit food, etc. Sometimes I can't help but laugh at the irony of it all.
I'm selfish for exercise, eating right, reading, learning, spending quality time with my wife and kids, writing...? Then so be it!
If you're the guy who prefers to spend his time absorbed in the latest sports stats, drinking and playing poker, then you are an idiot.
If that is how you want to spend your life then go for it, but you should know that you are nothing more than the fat pot calling the fit kettle black. I get that having leisure time is nice, in fact I just went to the beach (for the first time ever) this past Saturday and it was absolutely awesome, but we all need balance.
I didn't start this post to complain, though. I wanted to write this so that any who read it would understand that there's a good chance that you're doing it wrong.
You've got the example above, the guy who is just mired in leisure time, then you've got the other extreme which is the guy who never stops working. To be clear, I would err on the side of working too much rather than having too much free time.
But in truth both of those guys are doing it wrong. The guy who works non stop is lauded for his work ethic, but does he stop for a moment to take it all in, to truly enjoy the fruits of his labor? If not, then what's the point?
Does the guy who does nothing worthwhile ever wonder what his life would be like if he got off his ass and did something productive for his own sake? If not, what's the damn point?
As will all things, I think that the best form of existence is in balance. You work your ass off and you enjoy what comes of that work.
Do not work just so that you can have money to get fatter and more drunk. Work so that you grow and become more than a slug. Work so that you leave the world a little better than it was when you found it.
And enjoy it. Enjoy the grind and the pain and the sweat. And enjoy the peace and the stillness.
The extremes of working non stop and being a hedonistic fool are different sides of the same coin. They are both people that are living as if they have all the time in the world; as if they'll live forever.
They won't. And you won't.
Your time is limited, so use it wisely.
Until next time,
Jon
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