"Timely" Madness

Time can be simply put as a phenomenon that exists in order to keep everything from happening at once.  But how do we view time.  Is it a set speed that we can use to help us define when events happen?  Or is it how we, as humans, perceive the world around us taking place.  Is it possible for time to change.  Does time exist as a general constant or is it something we carry around with us and if so, exactly how much of it do we have?

This is an interesting topic because I try to think about how much time changes.  From an early age, time was taught as a constant.  The hands went around on the clock the same way every second, every minute, every hour, every day.  Then why, today, does time seem to slow down or speed up solely because of what I'm doing. 

I'm sitting at work, watching the clock.  Twelve hours I tell myself, that's not that bad.  After "seemingly" 4 hours have gone by, I look up at the clock and it's only been an hour.  Yesterday was payday.  Only two more weeks until another paycheck!  Why does that two weeks always feel longer than the two weeks I spend on a vacation?  How about Christmas?  When we were kids, it seemed like it would NEVER get here.  Today, with all of the shopping madness, it feels like Christmas comes in the blink of an eye.  And also, why when I wake up, do I feel like I just went to sleep 10 minutes ago?  It's all in our perception.

Scientists have been looking for a way to bend time every since Albert Einstein's law of Relativity.  The truth is, we've kind have already had the ability all along.  All one would have to do is learn to control their ability to perceive time how they want and boom! Time travel.  You're, welcome Harvard. Unfortunately, this blog isn't about time traveling, it's about how we can affect our daily lives.

I'm one of the worst offenders of wasting time.  I don't always make the most of the time I have, but I'm trying to change that.  I wouldn't throw away a brick of gold, would you?  Then why do I throw away my time.  Why do you?  Why aren't we constantly trying to better ourselves, constantly trying to see the world, trying to love more.  Why are we sitting on the couch or the computer, eating food that's bad for us, or treating other people poorly.  Why aren't we out there pushing ourselves and trying to live life as much as we can with the little amount of time we have been given?

Well, now, I am.  With this race I am going to run, I am taking the first step to living.  I'm so excited to cross that finish line.  Every day leading up to it is exciting to me because I'll be training for a goal.  I'll be out on morning runs feeling the sun rise and warm the Earth.  I'll be doing a couple open water swims when I train and will feel the rush of water in the evening.  I'll be able to see things on my bike on the hidden trails that I could never see driving.  I'll be able to say I accomplished something by myself.

Originally, I started this blog as a way to keep me motivated to train and document my successes and failures.  It will still be that way but I have another goal.  I hope that just one person reading this is inspired.  I hope that just one person wants to do something to better themselves, or challenge themselves, or live life a little more than they have been.

I have an activity that I recently did that I felt really helped me get a grasp on my life.  In fact it led to me being here writing today.  I took a piece of paper and I drew a line down the middle.  In the left column I wrote, ways I'm wasting my time.  In the right column I wrote, things I'd rather do with my time.  I wrote down all of the things that I did that wasted time on the left.  After that, I thought of things I'd always wanted to do and wrote them on the right.  I recommend doing this multiple times, and do it on broader and broader scales.  For instance, I started with my daily activities, then monthly, yearly, and at the broadest, a 5 year sheet.  Each of these sheets is now my "bucket list" for the time period they represent. 

My time is now, your time is now, our time is now.  Time is not going to wait for you, it doesn't make friends.  Whether you choose to make the least of it or the most of it, it always keep going.  Only we can decide what we do with the little piece we're given.  An article I read from "Exposing the Truth" talks about the top 5 regrets of the dying.  Number 1 is, "I wish I had the courage to live life true to myself, not the life others expected of me,"  and number 2 is, "I wish I didn't work so hard."  By living life to its fullest potential, we can avoid having these two regrets at our end and in turn avoid wishing we had just a little more time to experience all of this madness.

Tomorrow's Madness

 I've been getting prepared to start training for the April 28th triathlon and it's starting to look like a daunting task.  I sat down over the past couple of days and hammered out a three month training schedule that has also been posted for everyone to see.  If everyone has any feedback it would be much appreciated.  All I've got this far is my shoes, my gym membership, and my schedule.  I've got drive, desire, and I like to think some physical ability.  What else do I have? The "H" word... Holidays.

It's hard to stay motivated with an unlimited amount of ham and turkey, potatoes and gravy, pie, cookies, beer, and egg nog for the taking.  There's football to watch and a basketball season finally about to start.  I don't have my bike yet and can't get it because of Christmas presents to buy.  There's cold weather and cuddling up to watch light shows.  I have Christmas specials to watch, pop corn to pop, and oh so many reasons NOT to go to the gym.  I can go next month right?

I almost said yes to that question.  I always say yes to that question.  My favorite riddle has always been, "what comes but never gets here?"  The answer is tomorrow.  I know I do it all the time.  I follow the trap of tomorrow like a moth to a flame and it's pretty safe to say most other people do as well.  Well, there's only one way to see tomorrow and that's to do it today.  My last cheesy line I'll use... Today is the tomorrow that you dreamed about yesterday.  Whoever said that originally hit the nail square on the head.

This triathlon isn't about just doing something I've always wanted to do.  It's about breaking old habits and starting new ones.  The accomplishment of doing something I said I'm going to do and starting to rebuild my character; that's the real reason for what I'm doing.  As of today I have 4 months and 15 days until I have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.  HOLY HELL that's close!!

Have any of you played the game of tomorrow?  Ever said you'd clean the house on Saturday and come the following Friday it's still the same as it was, if not worse?  Ever say you're going to start walking the dog every night when you get off work and find him still sitting there waiting by his leash?  How about saying you'll call your loved ones more often but never really find the time to "get around" to it?  Me too.

What if we lost the chance of tomorrow?  I'm not trying to be negative or even hint that it's going to happen, but what if?  What if we lost the chance run some race because we got hurt?  What if, whatever we said we "could put off until tomorrow" was taken away from us?  We'd have to spend the rest of our lives wondering what might have been had we done them today.  Odds are, none of this will happen.  I'm just trying to make a point.

There are people who don't understand the connection between my goal and real life.  I still don't think I even truly do.  I am finding however, that as each day passes on my journey, it brings me one step closer to understanding.  The time we get is short, and it's not how much money we make or how much stuff we have.  Money doesn't buy life. You can only live life.  We need to make the most of the time we have and the people we share it with.  We need to not take "tomorrow" for granted and make the most of the time we do have.  Most importantly, we need to relish and make the most of the fact that we are given the opportunity to have a seat on this ride into the improbable madness.