Every person has only 24 hours to spend in a day. But, how well do you spend your time? Are you wasting away your time without realising it or perhaps you are not allocating adequate time for the truly important things in life?
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| Photo by Prophsee Journals on Unsplash |
If something is important to you, then give it the priority and allocate the time for it. For example, you could have a Power Hour where you could do one thing for an hour, two things of 30 minutes each, four things of 15 minutes each, and in other combinations.
As in management principle of 'What gets measured gets managed', what you watch over will come under your influence and control. Watch your time and you will make the time for what is important to you as you stay vigilant with intentionality.
Start now, if not already done so, as you would not want to reach your twilight years and look back with regrets on all the things you should have, could have and ought to have done.
Get ready now for a deep dive with ChatGPT to take charge of your time and work things out notwithstanding whatever constraints and challenges you may face.
"Living with Purpose Before the Twilight Years
There is an old parable often told in leadership seminars and whispered over cups of coffee between friends contemplating life: A professor stands before his class with an empty jar. He begins by placing large rocks into it until no more can fit. “Is it full?” he asks. The students nod. Then he pours in pebbles, shaking the jar so they settle between the rocks. “Now?” Still, he pours in sand, which sifts into every crevice. Finally, he adds water—and only then is the jar truly full.
The lesson? If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never fit them in later.
But these big rocks—they’re not things. They’re moments. They’re people. They’re purpose.
And yet, how often do we find our days filled with sand—emails, errands, obligations we never meant to say yes to? Life becomes reactive instead of intentional, and suddenly the years blur like rain on glass. It’s only in the stillness of a sleepless night or the hush of twilight years that the echo rises: Where did all the time go?
The Gentle Rebellion Against Regret
To live without regret is not to live without mistake. It is to live with attention—to prioritize the eternal over the urgent. The truth is: we’re all given the same 24 hours. But how we spend them—that’s where the magic lies.
So, how do we make space for the big rocks?
It begins with clarity.
1. Name Your Big Rocks
Before anything else, you must know what matters most. Not what society says should matter. Not what the algorithm flashes before your weary eyes. What matters to you.
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Is it your children, growing fast as dreams on a summer morning?
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A lifelong passion lying dormant beneath busyness?
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Your health, your friendships, your faith, your quiet mornings?
Write them down. Say them aloud. Let them be your compass.
2. Guard Your Time Like a Garden
Time is a sacred garden, and like any garden, it needs tending. Weed out the “shoulds” and the “maybes” that choke your days. Let no one else’s emergency become your constant state. Say no—not out of rebellion, but out of reverence for your yeses.
This doesn’t mean shirking responsibility. It means showing up fully where it counts.
When you guard your mornings for stillness, you’re not being selfish—you’re anchoring your mind. When you carve out one hour to play with your child, you're not losing productivity—you’re building legacy.
3. Let the Pebbles Find Their Place
Not everything is a big rock, but that doesn’t mean it’s unworthy. Work projects, grocery runs, emails—they have their place. But when they start dictating your day, the order is upside down.
Approach your to-do list like a sculptor. Shape it. Trim it. See what can be simplified, delegated, or even—yes—left undone.
Efficiency is not the end goal; effectiveness with joy is.
4. Embrace the Sacred Pause
Stillness is where clarity is born.
In a world obsessed with hustle, choosing to pause is a quiet act of rebellion. A morning walk. A journal open to an empty page. A deep breath before the next task. These are not indulgences—they’re lifelines. They return you to yourself.
When you create room for stillness, time doesn’t just stretch—it deepens.
5. Live Life Forward, But with Reflection
As Kierkegaard once wrote, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” Learn from your yesterdays, but don’t get stuck there. Each sunrise offers renewal. Each hour is a fresh thread in the tapestry.
Your past may shape you, but your choices now define you.
Ask yourself, often: Am I becoming the person I want to be remembered as?
The Poetry of a Purposeful Life
A life of no regret is not one where everything went perfectly—it’s a life where priorities were honored, love was expressed, risks were taken, and presence was chosen again and again.
It’s knowing that when you reached the edge of your days, your jar was full of the things that mattered—not just the things that filled time.
So let this be your quiet affirmation:
I will not wait for permission to live fully.I will place my big rocks in first—my dreams, my loves, my soul’s callings.I will let the pebbles and sand settle around what truly matters.I will not be so busy making a living that I forget to make a life.I will live forward—with clarity, courage, and care.
Because time, that most elusive of gifts, is yours—and it begins again now."
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