The Value of Time

Condense value at every turn. The present is always and builds upon the past.

—Barry Farber

Condense value at every turn means at every moment, in every situation, get the most out of it. Focus on it. Get the most benefit out of it. Soak up information.

The present is always. There's only now, right now, this second, then the time is gone. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to force yourself to pay attention to the minute details, to your present actions. We say, "This isn't important," or, "I'll do this later." We start to put things off because we think we'll always have time later. But that is not necessarily true. We never know how much time we may have.

The present always builds upon the past. The way you do things, the way you understand things, the way you communicate to others, the actions you take—they're all built on what you know, and what you've seen, read, learned, and experienced throughout your life. Every moment you live, your value and the value you bring to others increases. But you have to understand and appreciate that value in order to reap its benefits. Author M. Scott Peck said it best, "Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it."

The present moment is a powerful goddess.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
German author

One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson,
philosopher

Technology was supposed to make life easier for us. For most of us, however, it has just made life more complicated. That's why time management is so important. Being able to do things faster is a means to end, not an end itself. The goal is to be able to take the time to appreciate those around us, to savor the moments in life that are moving and meaningful. We cannot control time, but we can use the time we have to give ourselves the best in life and to get the best out of it.

Time by itself means nothing, no matter how fast it moves, unless we give it something to carry for us; something we value. Because it is such a precious vehicle, is time.

—Ama Ata Aidoo,
writer

The best way to make every moment count is to be true to yourself—to do the things that are meaningful to you without worrying that it is not "what everybody else is doing." There's nobody else like you on the planet. Take the time to think about what makes you unique. It's not always easy to be different—but if you want to succeed in life and market yourself, you have to stand out from the crowd and connect with people in a unique way. You're not going to do that if you try to be like everybody else, if you try to conform to the group. The key to marketing yourself is to stick to your convictions, to be innovative, to take a chance. You'll be amazed at what you get in return, as you'll find out in Chapter 18.