Time Well Spent by Leslie Fieger

It is common knowledge that creating and living according to a financial budget is a requisite for fiscal health and well-being. Budgets enable allocation of resources according to priorities. $x for shelter, $x for food, $x for clothing, $x for education, $x for savings, $x for transportation, $x for entertainment, etc.

What is not commonly applied, despite the preponderance of daily planners and time management software, is a temporal budget. Time is our most precious asset. It is also our only non-renewable asset. Each heartbeat, each second ticking on the clock denotes one moment less of our diminishing asset of time.

Each day presents us with 24 hours = 1,440 minutes = 81,400 seconds.

How are you spending these ever diminishing seconds? How have you budgeted your time? To what purpose do you pass the time of your life away?

I presume, since you have enough interest in your own well-being to subscribe to this eZine, that you have an interest in personal fulfillment.

There are aspects to your being; each aspect having its own needs. In order to be fulfilled and happy, these needs will need to be met. Time must therefore be allocated or budgeted to fulfill those needs if you wish to achieve any measure of fulfillment.

For the sake of simplicity, I will identify the main aspects of self as physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

How much time in each do you have budgeted to meet your physical needs, your emotional needs, your mental needs and your spiritual needs?

Of course, just as there is no clear delineation between these various aspects of self, there is also the possibility of getting several needs met from the same activity; say for example…sex.

So, now that I have your attention, please seriously consider taking the time to manage your time. Examine your spending habits and create a time budget to help you manage your most valuable asset.

What amount of time do you have allocated for the fulfillment of your various needs? Do you have time set aside to exercise? Time budgeted for ongoing education? Time allocated for honoring the sacred?

Does it really make sense to squander all those hours in front of the idiot box? Are those daily commutes underutilized times? Could you be learning something from tape or CD to increase your IQ instead of "dumbing down" to withstand the boredom of another lap in the rat race by listening to talk radio?

1,440. Divvie it up. Prioritize it. Spend it well. Invest it in your own enhancement.

Every moment lost or wasted is gone forever. Each moment spent without purpose or intent is like money tossed in the fire.