Time Well Spent

All of my life I have heard people speak of wasted time.  I'm not sure they all meant the same thing. 

We are all given the same daylight period, measured in hours and minutes, in which to accomplish the things that we choose.  We each determine how we will use that time.  We use a portion for performing the daily needs that we have and we sometimes sell a portion of our time to an employer.  The key is that we choose how we spend our time.

I know that some folks will argue with me over that last statement.  They will say that often, our time is taken up by things out of our control -- that it is not our own choice that allocates how we spend our time, it is the choice of circumstance and often of others.  I disagree.  We have a choice with every minute of every day.

This has been a very long, but very good week for me.  It started on Sunday with a flight to Austin in preparation for a very intense meeting on Monday.  On Tuesday I flew to Nashville for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) annual meeting and convention.  It is now Saturday evening and I fly out in the morning.

From the intensity of the meetings on Monday, through the continuing intensity of the Trade Show/Convention environment, I have invested myself in time spent with business partners, vendors, customers, friends and what I hope are future customers.  The days were long, the work intense and the potential rewards large, but there were constantly choices to be made.  How do I spend my time?

We must choose each day how to spend the time allotted to us.  Work is an important consumer of that time.  Family receives a share.  Friends, church, recreation and many, many other activities get pieces of that time we are allowed.  Yet, it is our individual choice as to how we prioritize.

Cherish each moment spent.  Use your time wisely.  Invest in others -- in their success and their happiness.  Spend time doing the things you enjoy and spend time creating -- building -- through the work of your hands.  Enjoy each moment because it is only given to you once.  Most of all, spend time with the ones you love.  Hold them close and let them know that they are special to you.  You never know when your time with them will be at an end. 

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I know I am behind a few days.  I ran out of hours and minutes for blogging this week.  There were other things that were more important.  But, hopefully we are back on track to finish the alphabet in a few days.  In fact, I will probably post more than once a day for a couple of days until I get back in the routine.  The next post will begin with the letter "U."  I like the word ubiquitous, but that's probably not what I will use.

Chris