The Turning-Point Event That Aged Me Several Years in 60 Seconds.
Life-changing events are rare. If they weren't, we would not remember them.
In high school, I had two. One was attending the Boys State program, sponsored by the American Legion. There, I gained my self-confidence.
The other took place in a period of less than one minute's duration. I think it was in early February, 1959. I was about to turn 17 or just had.
This event gave me a head start on my peers.
I was in a classroom, eating lunch. I was running for president of the student body. I voted in that room.
I recalled that I had been in that room exactly a year before. Then, I was running for president of the CSF, the California Scholarship Federation, which is California's equivalent of the National Honor Society. I had won.
Then it hit me: That event seemed to have taken place almost yesterday. As far as I know, that was the first time -- and surely the most memorable time -- that I had perceived that "almost yesterday" feeling.
I realized at that moment that the click was ticking, that I was running out of time.
I matured more in that 60-second period than I ever did before or since.
In Poor Richard's Almanack, Ben franklin wrote: "A child thinks that 20 pounds and 20 years can never be spent." On that day, I ceased to be a child.
As we grow older, each unit of time is a smaller fraction of our lives. Since we measure time in terms of one-year anniversaries and holidays, the common unit of time is one year. For a child, a year is a significant percentage of his life. Because he cannot remember anything prior to age three, a year is an even larger fraction of what he can remember.
The older we get, the denominator grows larger, while the numerator -- one year -- remains constant. The shrunken years fly past like scenes in a speeded-up movie.
Because I perceived that time was running short, my trade-off between time and money tilted toward saving time. I became less concerned with money than time.
I won the election. But the flash of insight in that classroom was a far more important event in my life.
That insight moved me from short-term, money-generating projects to long-term, significance-generating ones. I became conscious of the potential for the power of compound time. Most people never understood compounding, but if they do perceive it, they apply it to money. This is a fundamental error of perception. Jesus warned against the error:
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:16-20).
It is easier to accumulate goods bought with money than goods bought with time. Time goes through our fingers as money goes through our bank accounts. But bank accounts leave precise records. Time doesn't.
This is why time management is more difficult than money management. It is easier for us to follow the money than to follow the minutes.
Pay attention to where your time goes. Monitor it. Budget it. For the day will come when you will think, "Where did all the time go?" Do that with your time today which will allow you to answer that question from the records at hand.
Then start keeping records of what you did and when. My records are my newsletters: dated. A date is on my books.
My father-in-law kept a daily entry book: books read (usually one a day), articles written (one a week), sermons delivered (two a week). He published a summary for his donors to read each year. He did not ask where the time went. He knew.
So should we all.
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