In time

When was the last time you saw a movie? I watch movies once in a while. They help my imagination. Ok, would you allow me to quickly tell you about this very interesting old movie?  I’m not sure if you’ve seen it. But before then, let me quickly ask – do you know the difference between versatility and lack of focus? Before your eyebrows shift your hairline in shock, let me show you someone whose life epitomizes this distinction – Justin Timberlake; the musician… or actor (or which one is he?). So gifted at both crafts, I am almost not sure which he does better.

The difference between versatility and lack of focus can better be explained by this very popular statement: “Jack of all trades, master of none.” This statement clearly reveals the lack of focus. “Jack of some trades, Master of all.” – Versatility. But that’s not where I’m going to. We’ll shine more light on that some other time.

So, back to the interesting movie which featured Justin Timberlake; a Sci-Fi thriller with a dystopian setting. What’s the name again now?… Err… Yea!… IN TIME!

It’s a 2011 movie that tells the story of people in the year 2169 (movie makers and their futuristic agendas). Everyone was genetically engineered to literally have time on their hands. I mean everyone moved about with a digital clock on their forearms. Once you clock 25 years, the clock starts counting down as you have only one more year to live.

When it reaches zero, the person ‘times out’ and that’s the end. Well, except you can buy some more time, or you can have someone give you out of theirs. Now, let me tell you why I like this movie.

The movie was a genuine illustration of the popular saying “Time is Money” and “Time is Life”. People traded with time, guarded their time with their lives. In fact, social strata was determined by how wealthy you were ‘in time’; people were segregated according to how rich (in time) they were and people even killed for time – you remember the “minutemen” gang right?

So think about this – What if you hit the bed tonight and as you wake up to the new month tomorrow morning, you open your eyes to a digital clock ‘in’ your hand, and the reality that you have to live like that? (Don’t get scared now). Would you still do some things the same way? Would your priorities change? Would you attach more importance to the things you value?

Guess what? You don’t have to wait till you wake up with a countdown watch in your skin before you do that. Whether you like it or not, today is a “minus one” in the number everyone’s got. So, find your purpose, commit your totality to it, and make sure you fulfil that purpose – only then can you know the true difference between ‘living’ and ‘creating history’.

Dedicate a bit more time to those things that are (truly) important to you and stop with those excuses. Quit the habit of procrastination, since we both know it’s a time (life) killer. Have it at the back of your mind that time, once lost can never be regained.

We all have equal opportunities to become unequal – Popularly rephrased as “We all have 24 hours”. The difference in everyone’s results simply comes down to what we do with our time. What we spend the lion share of our time with and what we have just little chink of time for.

Don’t be deceived, you may say (with your mouth) that you value something or that something is really important to you, but your time allocation would ultimately tell whether that which you say with your mouth aligns with what your actions portray. Time can produce money, but money cannot produce time. Simply put, time is money but that statement, the other way round, makes no sense.

Remember, the currency of the poor is money but the currency of the rich is time!

If everything was measured in time, how poor/rich would you be?

 

Bankole Williams