Do you ever think about how much time we spend devoted to things that don’t matter? I do…a lot. I think about how much time I spend watching television, thinking about or discussing other people, getting upset over shit that won’t matter in 10 minutes let alone 10 years, and how much time I spend thinking about the stuff I want to do but never get off my arse to GO do.
Why do we do that? Heck, I’m more worried about me right now…why do I do that? I was born with a television on and for some reason the thought of not having it on in the morning or evening is slightly frightening…this thought disrupts my comfort zone.
What if I couldn’t just sit and think about the things I want to do and I actually had to go do them, this too disrupts my comfort zone. I get nervous and filled with anxiety when I think of having to take these leaps of faith.
Why do I waste time worried about what other people are doing…it doesn’t matter. I need to put all of my focus and energy into my life and making it the most it can be. The idea of wasting time on something that has absolutely zero positive impact frustrates me but some things become such a ritual that it’s hard to break.
It’s funny just how much we complain about how busy we are and how we don’t have time to do this or that, yet we have tons of time. If we had to do a “time audit” of our daily life we would probably be amazed at just how much non-productive time we spend on unimportant things. I’m not saying every second of every day needs to be productive but in all seriousness we live in a time of laziness and lack of drive. The sad thing is that we THINK we’re being productive and we THINK we’re pushing ourselves…but there’s a false bottom, it’s not real…in most cases.
I think I’m one of the busiest people I know but when I sit and look at how I could be more productive, impact the world, and work on my legacy I realize that the 24 hours per day that I am given are being misused. I’m a work in progress as we all are but it’s being able to step outside yourself and call yourself on your own bullshit that is important in constantly improving.
I think I’ve just hit another ceiling and it’s time to build a new one. I sincerely do want to do good things…big things…to make people think, to improve things, and to help people. After all the garbage in my life and the self imposed exile from living life, I feel I have something to say and I’m still learning how to say it and finding confidence in myself to say it. We each have something…an amazing story, an interesting insight, a skill, a craft…something, that we need to work on and perfect in order to leave it behind. Wasting our lives away on things that won’t matter in 10 minutes is not how we will get there.
Today is a good day to RE-evaluate, RE-prioritize, and RE-group…cheers!
Great post Matt! I couldn’t agree more or said it better myself.
Thanks Duncan. I’m in this perpetual process of questioning things and learning from it. This is a big one.
I can so relate to this. I’ve been thinking the same thing lately. I mean I’ve got projects going, but have let others slide, just because. I let myself get sucked into distractions until they’ve almost become obsessions. Thanks for posting this, and cheers to both of us for waking up. 🙂
Alyse, I appreciate the comment and I completely understand what you’re talking about. Life is all about prioritizing and reprioritizing…as long as we’re aware and able to see the patterns we get into we stand a chance to fix and adapt. Cheers to ya!!