What we can still do with the time we have left

I learnt to read time back in elementary school, as I’m sure most of us did. If I remember correctly, it took me less than an hour to master the big hand, the small hand and the seconds hand, and how they worked together to tell the hours, minutes and seconds.

 

It was only when I grew up that I realised there was more to glancing at the clock and telling the time in a split second. I soon found out that time is one of the most deceptive things in life. One moment, the seconds hand is ticking slowly, taking forever to circle the dial and become a minute. The next, we’ve lost not just minutes and hours, but days. And before long, entire months and years have slipped away. And just like that, we’re left wondering where all that time went.

 

How time flies! is perhaps one of the biggest understatements of the human experience.

 

Japanese author Haruki Murakami wrote in his novel Dance, Dance, Dance: “Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.”

 

I haven’t read the book yet, but here’s what I make of his words.

 

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by

 

Time is cruel and relentless—indifferent, too. It treats us all the same, no matter who we are or where we come from. Whether we like it or not, time moves on. It doesn’t wait for us to make up our minds or get started on the things we hoped or planned to do.

 

We can’t slow time down or turn it back—like Superman does to save Lois Lane in Richard Donner’s 1978 classic. But we can stop time from slipping through our fingers by being mindful of just how precious it is. We can choose to act when it matters, rather than overthink or procrastinate. If something needs to be done, it has to be done now—not later, not someday.

 

As Charles Darwin wrote to his elder sister, Susan Darwin, in The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: “I shall act as I now think—as a man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”

 

Regardless of context, the renowned British naturalist and biologist understood that to waste time is to waste life. We often believe we have plenty of time—that there’s always tomorrow—but the truth is, we don’t. There’s no such thing as a perfect moment. There’s only now and it can vanish in the blink of an eye.

 

By squandering time, we miss out on opportunities to grow, build something new and exciting, create memories, and appreciate what life has to offer.

 

Bottom line: We have two choices before us—either we use our time or we lose it forever. The clock doesn’t wait for us. There’s no reason why we should. Instead, we can try and stay ahead of it.

 

The past increases, the future recedes

 

Every hour that passes, every moment we live, becomes part of our past. If we don’t act when we should—don’t do the things we had planned, take the decisions we were meant to, or make the choices we were supposed to—then all of it ends up amounting to nothing.

 

The time we have left keeps shrinking, and our future grows shorter, and we often don’t realise it until much later.

 

Let’s look at this another way.

 

Research suggests that most of us don’t like being idle and will do almost anything just to stay occupied. Doing something, however inconsequential, often feels better than doing nothing. Yet, when our activity lacks focus or purpose, we risk wasting time and neglecting stuff that actually need our attention.

 

So why not focus on using the time we have really well? After all, every day is a chance to engage in meaningful action. It doesn’t matter if it’s big, small or even microscopic, as long as that one act makes the day feel well lived.

 

Perhaps one way to put the brakes on our past and prevent the future from rushing at us is to accomplish something tangible every day or week, and check it off our to-do list. Of course, this requires tremendous perseverance and patience, but it can be done.

 

Bottom line: Every achievement is a big morale booster. We have to constantly remind ourselves just how happy and proud it will make us in the end.

 

Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting

 

As we move through life and grow older, possibilities begin to fade. Either because we did nothing about them, even when they knocked on our door; or because we hesitated due to a lack of confidence, an aversion to risk and fear of failure; or simply because we made the wrong decisions.

 

When we move from what we had to what we missed, we are all too often left with regrets—regrets that, as we know, tend to mount with time; regrets that keep us from living in the present and make us brood over the future. And that only prolongs the cycle of losing time we’ll never get back.

 

But no matter how old we get, missed opportunities don’t necessarily mean lost moments. We can, if we will it, break the pattern of wasting time by pushing ourselves to do what we set out to, at the very minute we thought about it (or soon after).

 

It could be anything: writing a chapter or two of the book we’ve been working on, finishing a work assignment before the weekend even if the deadline is the following Tuesday, making that long-pending call to a parent or friend, reviving an old hobby we've been putting off, clearing out that messy drawer we've been ignoring for months, or inviting people over for a party and having fun.

 

Bottom line: The key, we’re often told, is to overcome whatever’s holding us back—including ourselves—and simply go ahead and do it. We don’t have to be our own biggest obstacle every time.

 

So how long are we going to wait?

 

Or as Epictetus is believed to have said, “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?”

 

It’s a simple yet powerful call to action where the Stoic philosopher seems to be urging us to stop procrastinating and start living up to our full potential and work towards fulfilling our goals. Basically, he’s telling us that there is never an ideal time to begin something, and that the more we waste time, the less we have of it—and by the time we wake up to that reality, it’s often too late to do all the things we want to.

 

But we don’t have to wait, if we do these four things.

 

• If we stop dragging our feet and act when we’re supposed to, we won’t waste time waiting for—well—the “right” time.

  
  

• The present moment is always the best time to begin, regardless of our circumstances (as long as they’re manageable).

   

• Taking action is never really about waiting for the perfect time, but about aligning our thoughts, emotions and ideas with our intention, and seeing them through.

   

• We own our time. Which means we’re solely responsible for how we use it, how it impacts our lives. Time is never passive. It’s always active, always moving, faster than we know.

 

The good news? It’s never too late to start

 

Finally, and this is important: when we waste time, we unknowingly invite stress and anxiety, because we suddenly realise that the clock—like a ticking time bomb—has wiped off a good chunk of time, and with it, opportunity too.

 

It’s a universal fact that people in their middle ages, typically from 40 to 60, often have regrets for not doing enough when they had the time. And now that they’re past their prime, as they might believe, they feel there just isn’t enough time anymore to catch up with the things they once dreamed of doing.

 

The good news is that, it’s never too late to start. As long as we’re here, we still have the time and the capacity to do what truly matters. The future may be shorter than we’d like, but it’s far from bleak. It’s up to us to light it up.

 

© Prashant C. Trikannad