isn't it about ... time?

Time is a curious phenomenon. When I have too much of it, I'm not sure what to do with it, and I waste it. When I don't have enough of it, I'd give anything to have more. Time can't be bought, made, or stretched. Time never hesitates to move forward; it is unsympathetically punctual. I can't save it when I have extra in order to use it later. I can't tell time to wait because I'm currently busy. And I've never been able to convince time to just take a day off and let me catch up. No, time plays by its own rules--and it's very pedantic.

The knowledge that time is such an invaluable and elusive commodity should cause all of us to treat time with great care. Yet so many of us are guilty of abusing the time we are given. Why is this the case? Shouldn't we all be using every minute of our lives to the fullest? What keeps us from utilizing the short time that we have? The answers to these questions, I suppose, are unique to each individual. But for me, I think I have come closer to a personal conclusion.

Knowing that I should put my time to good use has motivated me to set goals and make plans that will help develop me into a well-rounded individual. Yet as I reflect on my own life, I find that I repeatedly fail to reach my goals, despite my best intentions. What's my excuse? I have none. But if I could place blame on any particular thing, it would be on my maternally inherited attribute of perfectionism. (No offense, Mom.) While in my adolescence, I adopted the maxim, "If something is worth doing, then it's worth doing right." So couple my perfectionism with my overly analytic mind, and what do I get? No time. Why? Because completing a simple task takes me approximately twelve times longer than the average bear.

At the end of each day, I find myself grumbling about my failure to complete this or make time for that. But a boy can only take so much! At times, the recurrent feeling of failing to reach my potential feels too heavy. While speaking on this very subject today, my bishop shared a piece of infinite wisdom. He said, "Sometimes we think the things that are most pressing are also the most important; they're not necessarily the same." He also shared a modified version of my hackneyed maxim, "Some of the things that are worth doing, are only worth doing adequately." Hear, hear, Bishop! Therein lies my personal handicap -- the ability to distinguish the "important and necessary" from the "good, but not worth the stress." School is without question the most sagacious time thief of all. I know that school is important for my future. However, I often let deadlines bind my hands from taking care of the other things (people) that need my attention the most. Nevertheless, with a better grasp on life's priorities, I am committed to make new plans and goals that focus more on the activities and people that are truly worthy of every minute of my precious time.

c. johnson