Holiday preparations

I first gave my talk, “Time – A New Dimension,” in 1972. I have given this talk to hundreds of audiences and it became the framework for my book Making Moments Matter – 89 Tools For Taking Charge of Your Time. [You can watch it at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eACPfmq3ZGI]

Several years ago, to wrap up what was a full, fun Thanksgiving weekend, our middle son, Barry, and I went to the theater to see the movie “In Time.” I wanted to see the movie with Barry because he had written a provocative monologue and song about time. The movie provides a provocative way to help viewers think differently about time. It has always been Turbo’s objective to help our readers place a higher value on their time, to pay more attention to how we use our most scarce resource.

There’s a scene where at the end of the day, our hero, Will Salas (played by Justin Timberlake), has been doing factory piece-work all day (in this world you are paid at the end of every day), he says, “Wait. That’s only half of what I earned.” The paymaster responds, “You didn’t make quota.” Will insists, “Yes, I did.” The paymaster responds, “We raised the quota.” They live in an arbitrary, inflationary world where prices, quotas and interest rates go up every day. [In Time trailer link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw]

All of our vocabularies are naturally filled with many references to time – “got a minute,” “his time was up,” “we are running out of time,” “don’t have enough time.” One of my favorite lines (this will mean much more to you after you have seen the movie) is “you can do a lot in a day.”

I came away from this film, having seen it twice now, with the renewed realization that true living is more than just “putting in our time,” and how long we live has little to do with how long we have been alive.

“If our true nature is permitted to guide our life,
we grow healthy, fruitful and happy.  
Yet ninety-eight percent of us die 
before we taste the nectar of our magnificence.”
– Abraham Maslow

The action I call you to take as we move through into this highly charged Christmas season with all its’ rushing and deadlines is to see the adornments of the season with fresh eyes.

Stop for a moment of time before you launch into the season to ask what you want this season to mean to you. After you get a sense of your true values, then insist that the activities you engage in support your values. All of the special music, decorations, gift giving, carol singing, food, and parties will have an added special dimension. Doing this can help ensure that this holiday season is the most joyous of your life, and you will move into 2019 with greater confidence and a renewed sense of hope for a brighter future.