Stealing Time for Your Dream
December 8th, 2009[first in a 5-part series]
Stealing Time for Your Dream
By Kenneth Atchity, Executive Director, The Thrillionaires
1
Jack Smith: “God created time so that everything wouldn’t happen at once.”
Atchity: Then how come everything keeps happening at once?
Thrillionaires know that if you follow your dream, by definition, you can’t fail. Success lies in the pursuit. If you have a dream, you have the responsibility to yourself and to the source of dreams to make it come true. That’s why Nik invented Thrillionaires, to help you make it happen.
But that means finding time to do what you have to do–the very opposite of “marking time.” Our minds experience life on a timeline of their own invention, a continuum that stretches from our first moment of consciousness to our last. “The end of the world,” said Bernard Malamud, “will occur when I die. After that, it’s everyone for himself.”
And finding time for dreams in our accelerated world where we hear of “flextime,” “time-elasticity,” “the sweet spot in time,” “virtual time,” “time shifting,” and “time slowing down” is more confusing than ever before. A little over a century ago, if you missed a stagecoach you thought nothing of waiting a day or two for the next one to come along. Today you feel frustrated if you miss one section of a revolving door! So many of today’s “time-saving devices” prove to be frauds—requiring more time to select, install, maintain, and update than it used to take without them. It’s hard to believe that a few short years ago we had not yet become addicted to email, voicemail, FAX machines, microwaves, VCRs, earphones, IPods, IPhones, blackberries. All these inventions, as helpful as they can be to your onboard Accountant’s output level, suck up our time in ways that, unless they are examined and acknowledged, become quite destructive to the realization of the dream. More and more demands are being made on our time. Faith Popcorn (The Popcorn Report) puts it this way:
We’re pleading to the big time clock in the sky: “Give me fewer choices, far fewer choices. Make my life easier. Help me make the most of my most valued commodity–the very minutes of my life.”
Things have gotten so bad that we can¹t really manage time any more. We’re now forced to steal it, invoking the assistance of Mercury, messenger, salesman, trickster, and thief of the gods. Like any professional thief, Mercury insists on knowing as much as possible about the object of his theft and its natural habitat and characteristics before he goes into action. This series combines observations about the nature of time and work with practical suggestions about employing Mercury’s caduceus–that magic wand with the snakes entwined around it–to steal the time you need.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Bokonon: “Busy, busy, busy.”
Ecclesiastes: “Consider the ants. Yes, you are busy. What are you busy about?”
Our Puritanical upbringing has led the Accountant to want us to keep busy. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” One day I was consulting with an attorney who, by everyone’s standards but his own, is quite successful. We were talking about forming a new marketing company. “Why do you want to do this?” I asked him.
“Because I want to get rich.” He added: “I have to stop selling my time.”
I nodded. “That’s interesting.” I was thinking of the reversible equation I’d written about in A Writer’s Time: “Time is money, money is time.”
“What brought you to this conclusion?” I asked him.
He told me that a self-made, wealthy, genius friend of his kept coming to California for a visit. Each time, he’d say, “You’re so smart–why aren’t you rich?” The attorney had no answer for him, but the question continued to gnaw away at him.
Finally, on one visit, the friend had to sit in the attorney’s law office for an hour waiting for him to complete some phone calls. He observed what was happening in the office.
On their way to lunch, his friend said: “You know that question I’ve been asking you all these years?”
“Yeah, of course I remember it–it drives me crazy. If I’m so smart, why aren’t I rich?”
“I know the answer now.”
“Tell me.”
“You’re too busy to be rich.”
Doing the wrong things, no matter how fast, or how well, you do them, or how many of them you do, will not advance your dream. One of my partners put it this way: “Don’t confuse efforts with results.”
Those who break out of busy work and into the success they’ve dreamed of have learned to redefine time. If you recognize that time is merely a concept, a social or intellectual construct, you can make the clock of life your clock; then determine what you do with it. More than the quantity of activities or completed projects I’ve experienced in my various career transits, what I value most is the quality of time I’ve managed to steal from all those committees and examination-grading sessions. When someone asked me years ago to make a list of “things I do that I don’t enjoy” I was happy to realize that it was difficult to think of anything other than my two or three hours per week of desk work that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. Then I found a way of enjoying desk work, too! By hook or crook, you need to steal the right kind of time for your dreams.
Next: “What is time?”
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:14 pm |
I’ve been looking all over for this!
Thanks.
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 pm |
If you have not seen Jude Stringfellow’s dog, Faith, please make the time to do so. You will simply be amazed at this beautiful friend of Jude’s. Faith walks on two hind legs! See Faith for yourself, and be inspired along with millions of others who already know and love her…
http://www.faiththedog.info
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:59 am |
Not all videos are created equal…
I have to share that Daphne Murray just posted a video on her site:
Mind Inspiration (1st one). It is quite incredible, inspiring, soul-nurturing,
etc… Put on your headphones, sit back, listen and watch over and over again.
This is a fine example of what this community is about–daring to step-out, caring
enough to notice the needs of others, and sharing (mentoring) what most inspires us to spark inspiration in others.
Thank you, Daphne, for the hand up! (And thank you, Brandon and Peter Baylis for helping Daphne with the upload process.) What a capital bunch!
Best,
Freda
December 21st, 2009 at 10:25 am |
OK Ken, make me rich. Show me what I need to do in order to do the right things — I can write, but you’re the man I need to follow to the publisher!
December 16th, 2009 at 8:59 am |
Interesting! I look forward more.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:55 pm |
How incredible is the Thrillionaire of the Week–one arm surfing after
a shark attack?! What a woman! The amputation has not clouded
her spirit in the least way. I’m in awe…
Freda
December 11th, 2009 at 8:39 pm |
P.S. Thanks, also, to Nik and Ridgely for a wonderful, complementary presentation on Time & Planning in today’s Odyssey session! DREAM BIG!!
pda
Couple of more goodies from our friend in time:
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
“Time has no independent existence apart from the order of events by which we measure it.”
—Albert Einstein
The appropriate question is, “*When* the hell are they?” You see, Einstein has just become the world’s first time-traveler! I sent him into the future. One minute into the future to be exact. And at precisely 1:21am and zero seconds, we shall catch up with him and the time machine. ~Dr. Emmett Brown, Back to the Future
December 11th, 2009 at 8:26 pm |
Terrific observations, Ken ~ Thank You!!! No need to steal time; the Universe will make an honest man out of you and give it freely in unlimited abundance
“…for us [meta]physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future [time] is only an illusion, although a convincing one.” ~Albert Einstein*
Einstein studied metaphysics through Christian Science (calling it “the ‘pure’ science”) as taught by Mary Baker Eddy, and you’ll find many instances of Mrs. Eddy and her students transcending time and space within official and independent CS publications.
Celebrate the Thrill of Life & learning ~ I AM!
Penne & the CanDo! Crew :o)
iLearn in Freedom Network
*See “Albert Einstein and the Fabric of Time”
http://www.everythingforever.com/einstein.htm
December 11th, 2009 at 9:24 am |
Thanks Ken
Just returned from completing two of my bucket list items that I thought were some time away before CHOOSING that the time to enjoy and complete them was NOW…
There is no time like the PRESENT…….. to reward yourself.
Big Al
Hot Dog Master
Perth Western Australia
December 10th, 2009 at 12:45 pm |
That was a great read! Thank you.
December 9th, 2009 at 10:57 pm |
Ah, yes, Ken, I cheated the time clock years ago, when I decided to become
self-employed. I now make time to dream and to live those dreams. Shutting
off the tv helped me gain hours for creative work. Saying no to various social
events that frittered away time and proved fruitless, was another way that I
gained time to create. Declutter, reorganize, prioritize–life is like a closet–
best kept in order for your own use, not everyone else’s.
Best,
Freda
December 9th, 2009 at 5:36 pm |
Hi Ken. Great story about the attorney who was too busy to be rich. How true. I believe that it’s so very important what we do with the time God gave us. I often enjoy spending my leisure time reading positive books, listening to inspirational tapes or CD’s and beautiful music, watching uplifting movies and educational documentaries, meditating, journaling, and being out in nature. Even at my day job, which can sometimes be very stressful, I take time out to relax by deep breathing, reading a chapter or two of a good book or finding something positive on the Internet to keep my spirits high. Time is so very precious and it is very important how time is used to encourage our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual development. Busy work is not so important. It’s productive work that feeds the soul that is the most important.
I am looking forward to reading more of your blogs about time. Thanks for sharing.
Blessings,
Phyllis