Time is our world’s most precious commodity; the one thing we cannot get back and the one thing we wish we could get more of. It is indifferent, praised and cursed, boundless and intangible. Its ambiguity can make it the beloved messiah or the unforgiving mistress. Time is the ultimate authority in our three-dimensional world, eclipsing all life and safeguarding inescapable death. We are confined to time’s cruel constraints, subject to the same same eventual outcome—predictable in theory, random in nature.
There are stretches when I feel as if time is running out, and the gap widens. I feel a sensation of acute awareness, where it seems I witness each second evolving into a collection of roads not traveled. I am filled with fear that I have forsaken its gift for hasty fulfillment, in a nightmare where my chance for achievement is stillborn.
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It goes against basic human behavior to think this way, to view time as the reaper around the corner hindering our potential from becoming realized. We are biologically programmed to ignore our fate, to lessen its anxiety. But disregarding the circumstances does not make it disappear, because it is still out there, waiting for all of us. So do we greet the word side by side with our impending doom and try and escape the grim game we are a part of? What is the trick to overcoming this predicament? Well, the trick is to ignore that it's there.
In my formative years, I had a broken record of a coach who used to say that “Attitude is everything.” I never fully grasped that concept until I stumbled upon its association with time. Conquering our apprehension of our imminent conclusion is accomplished through altering our outlook. Our perception of and perspective on the stimuli around us affects the world that encompasses us. Acceptance empowers us.
Armed with an adaptable, yet logical, perception and perspective, time simply becomes the rudimentary basis for every decision we make—this ever-elusive, unnoticeable nudge leads us to cherish each moment. It begins to trick us, unconsciously, to take risks, roll the dice, and act against our baser instincts. Time should be the inspiration, not the deterrent. It should push us to truly take advantage of each day, push us to heights we never imagined were possible.
I’ve heard it said that our mortality is not a curse, but a gift. It makes everything more beautiful, because we are doomed. Any moment could be our last. If all you have is right now, would you waste another minute of it?
