Time is eternal, but your time is not.
— Abiola Okun
Do you remember the song we sang on assembly grounds in the 2000s? A song that was mostly used to march into our classrooms after the dreadful morning assembly exercises that many of us just wanted to skip? Could you allow me to joggle your memory? Perhaps if you remember it, you'll even sing along.
Take your time and work very hard 🎶
For the days are rolling by 🎶
Once opportunity is lost 🎶
It can never be regained 🎶
Do not waste your golden time 🎶
For the days are rolling by. 🎶
Back then, it didn't make so much sense as I am sure it does now. It wasn't that deep. We all just wanted to get into our classrooms.
Even if we were smart enough to think deeply about it, it still wouldn't have made sense because as kids, we all just wanted to grow up fast. We wanted the days to roll by. In fact, if we had the power, we would roll the days by faster than it was rolling at that point, so what did the song even mean by “take your time for the days are rolling by?” Huh? It didn't sound like the warning it was meant to sound like.
But right now, as the years go by, the song begins to make so much sense, because tell me how one minute, you were 18 and the next minute, you are 31? Right now, we want so badly for time to slow down because there are so many things we thought we would have achieved by the age we are at now that we haven't even scratched the surface of, and the time isn't stopping to care about our plans!
The song is now more than a warning. It's a blazing buzzing alarm that keeps going off in our heads every time something reminds us of the uncomfortable truth — time is running out!
I don't mean for this to scare you or paralyze you. It's not supposed to make you apprehensive or panic because the truth is, there's nothing that can be done about the days rolling by. We don't have control of the movement of time, so we cannot dwell on the fact that time is running out and the days are rolling by.
Isn't it ironic? That the only true asset we have on earth, that nobody can take away from us as long as we are alive is our time, and at the same time, the one thing we have no control over is the universal time.
We don't have control of the movement of time, so we cannot dwell on the fact that time is running out and the days are rolling by.
Hold on, hold on, it's not all doom and gloom. There's good news. And it's the fact that we might not control the movement of time; we might not control the rolling by of days, but we sure as hell control how our time is spent.
We must recognize our time for what it is and be jealous, harshly guarding it with everything in us. What you spend your time on is a pointer to what is important to you and what your life will look like in another few years.
A lot of people spend time doing things that have zero consequence on who they want to be, some spend time fighting little battles they didn't pick; battles they'd rather not be fighting in. They spend time doing things that have been proven to result in a terrible, defeated life in the long run, and they are comfortable doing all of that because they believe there's enough time to change and transform their lives whenever they want to.
Yes, you can make the decision to transform your life whenever you want to, but if you think that time stops for you to be frivolous and then resumes again when decide to get serious and transform your life, then you are of most men, miserable. Some even spend their time doing nothing!
Please, let that not be you!
What you spend your time on is a pointer to what is important to you and what your life will look like in another few years.
Recognize time for what it is — life, and make a decision to use your time impeccably, because whether you use it wrongly, rightly, or not at all, time will pass, and you will never have the time you had some minutes ago.
Time is such a strange concept, isn't it? The fact that you can never have a time called the 12th day of September 2024 ever again. Each day has its uniqueness and individuality, as with each hour, each minute, and even each second. Time is eternal, but your time is not. There's also another mortifying fact; you will never again be as young as you are in this moment.
I am one for the abundant mentality. I believe there's more than enough in the world. More than enough opportunity to go around, more than enough ideas to develop, more than enough success to achieve, and more than enough people to love, but there is never more than enough time, because time is constantly running out. Your time is running out.
I clock 26 today, and I can't help but see my life as an hourglass whose grains are endlessly running, and every year I clock reminds me that a significant chunk of the grains have run between the previous year and now. It's always alarming because there's still so much to do, so many lives to transform, so many lives to live, so many books to read, so many libraries to build, and so little time!
I am one of the very few people who knows exactly what the end of life looks like and trust me, if you saw my hourglass, you'd think I've got nothing to worry about because I have so much time to do so much, but the truth is, compared to the things that need to be done for the earth to significantly transform, I've got so little time!
Which is why I should waste my time on things that do not profit. I should not be wasting time shelving responsibilities. I should not be wasting time on things that have zero bearing on my cause on earth. I should not be keeping offenses, hurting people I should be loving, doing work half-heartedly, spending time in ingratitude, getting depressed, blaming others, hating people, complaining about the situation of things, falling into cyclical bad habits, and you shouldn't too.
But the truth is, sometimes we do the things we shouldn't do, even when we know that the time we have spent doing those things won't be recovered, so what's the next best thing? To make sure we don't spend the next minute beating ourselves up for doing something we shouldn't have done. That would be a double loss.
When you spend time doing that which shouldn't be done, catch yourself and spend the next moment doing that which should be done; that which will have an impact on the life you want for yourself.
The days are rolling by. We can't do anything about it. But we can choose what we do with our lives as the time continues on.
This is what I have decided to do. To not spend time thinking about what hasn't been done, to not spend time thinking about what I shouldn't have done, and to not even spend time thinking about what I need to do. Instead, as the days roll by, I will spend my time doing what I should be doing to impact my world.
I hope you make that decision too. Don't wait until it is your next birthday. I did not.
To your growth,
Your Coach,
Abiola Okunsanya,
Handzinspired. ✨
Thank you, sir. 👏🏾