Time

I'm sure that you have heard the saying at least as often as I have heard it, "I don't have time." It got me thinking. What exactly does that mean, "I don't have time!" To double-check my initial gut feeling, I did a little research on Google and confirmed it. There are twenty-four hours in a day and there are seven days in a week. I swear, I am not bullshitting you. I found it on Google and I discovered the following statement to prove my research;

"This public service is provided by the Time and Frequency Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It uses the national time scale UTC (NIST) as its time reference".

So there you have it, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The NIST has spoken and you will listen damn it. Based on the NIST's conclusions, that means that Farris Al Sultan has twenty-four hours in his day and seven days in his week. Lisa Bentley, she has twenty-four hours in her day and seven days in her week. Natascha Badmann, she's all the way over in Switzerland (that's an entirely different time zone if you were wondering) and according to the NIST.still twenty-four hours in her day and seven days in her week.

Everybody has one thousand four hundred and forty minutes in each day and one hundred and sixty eight hours in each week. No more, no less. That's what we all get (even in Switzerland ). The problem with coming to this realization is that it is not that we don't have time for something (because we just established the fact that we all have the same amount of time). Rather, we choose to spend our one thousand four hundred and forty minutes each day different than the next person. Some people spend more time sleeping. Some people spend more working. Some people spend more training. Some people spend more fighting. Some people spend more watching television or surfing the internet. (If you are surfing the internet and are reading this, then that is a very good use of your time - just my opinion).

I am quite convinced that people do not realize how precious time is. If they did, I don't think they would waste so much of it. Time is our greatest gift. What we do with that gift is up to us. Again, most people take it for granted and waste it.

I have a weird thing that I do with people that are older than me (generally much older, but the gap seems to be diminishing lately) and also with people that I meet that are very sick. I often ask them for words of wisdom. I think they are often stumped at my question at first but then they seem anxious to share their wisdom, which is what I wanted out of them in the first place. My question is always, "If you had a "do-over" at life, what would you do differently?" I get a lot of great advice and wisdom back and generally the comments are along the lines of some of the following;

1. I would have taken a chance to.(and they say things like start my own company, follow a dream, asked that person to marry me, etc)
   
   
2. I would have traveled more
   
   
3. I would have spent more time doing things I love
   
   
4. I would have spend more time with my family and friends

They never once have said, "I wish I would have spent more time at the office," or, "I wish I would have made more money," or "I wish I would have ignored my family and friends more," and finally, "I wish I would have bought a bigger house and nicer car twenty years ago". They just don't say things like this to me.

I think it is not until we truly realize that our time is up or getting closer to being up, that we start to question how we spent a finite and precious resource. The essence of time is recognizing what truly makes us happy and then allocating as much time to pursue the things that really make us happy.

What truly makes "us" happy is pursuing our potential in Ironman. For others it's playing the piano, researching cures for diseases, climbing mountains, reading poetry or dancing the night away. When we look at time in this new perspective, we might end up working harder to maximize the utility of the finite resource. For an elite athlete, the choices include how much time should be allocated towards swimming, towards biking, towards running, towards eating, sleeping, resting, stretching, working, family, friends, etc. The most successful are those that have no regrets with the way they used their previous time.

As an investment guy, I have realized that time and money are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Money can be saved, accumulated, invested and as a result; a dollar saved, accumulated, and invested can come back to me ten-fold at a point in the future. Deferring one unit of consumption today will allow me to have ten units of consumption at some point in the future. Mathematically, money invested wisely grows exponentially.

Time doesn't work that way. An hour of time today is gone forever. There is no way of truly saving and accumulating time. Further, although we know our time in the bigger scope of things is limited (i.e. we're all goners), we often don't have any idea when that point will be (For we know not the day nor the hour).

Being a successful athlete requires taking responsibility for our precious time. It is making wise decisions on the best use of our time. We need to carefully analyze and allocate our time to the best of our ability. Thinking of time in this capacity really does level the playing field if we own up to our new found responsibility. The person who achieved success above and beyond our success most likely made better decisions on the use of his or her time. Unfortunately owning up to the responsibility of managing our own time strips us of the use of the saying, "I don't have time." What we really are saying is, "I chose to spend my time doing other things that may not have helped me reach the goals that I thought were important." A wise man is he who has no regrets on the past use of his time.

Oh gosh, it is past ten o'clock and I just realized that I didn't do my laundry for tomorrow. I guess I don't have time?