I saw a sign the other day that made me laugh and then made me a little sad. The sign was asking people to come in and donate blood, an important request for sure. The sign said, "Please make time to come in and donate". Now, you can make a lot of things, you can make a cake, you can make a sign, you can make a rug, you can make a mess. Lots of things can be made, except time.
You can't sneak into the kitchen late at night and cook up some time like a late night snack. You can't buy special equipment that will manufacture time. It is one of the few things in our life that is absolutely finite. Fixed. Complete. It is what it is. Time: 24 hours available each day, use it or lose it. The same amount is available today as was available on the wagon trail or the roaring twenties, the colorful 80's or last week.
I think it's a pretty safe bet to say no matter how far advanced we become in technology or neuroscience, we will not create the ability to make more time.
So, now what?
If we can't make more time, now we have to figure out how to use what we have. Ugh. That's harder. That requires the awareness that we aren't getting more and even more important and difficult, is becoming aware of how we spend the 24 that we have.
And, I don't know how many more of those sets of 24 we're each going to get. So maybe you really just have one, or two, or ten. Or hopefully thousands.
If I was the sign maker, I might have created this:
Please choose one of your 24 hours today to come and donate blood.
Your one hour might allow someone else to get lots more hours.
And if you have, in fact, created a means to make more time, call me, this is big news. I'd like to report it first.
