Who do you give your time to?

How we spend it may be very different. As a child playing in a sandbox, the thought of time didn’t cross our minds. We just went through our days carefree and living life. As we age, we talk about how time flies. With every year it seems to pass faster. We allocate time to every commitment, appointment, job assignment and responsibility we have. As our calendars, planners, and schedules fill up, our time decreases. But wait … it can’t decrease. We are all given the same amount. The amount of time never changes.

Time can be shared, spent, wasted, tracked, suffered through and enjoyed. It is our choice. It all depends on who we give our time to. No, we don’t keep time. We give it away.

We are the ones who “give” time to commitments, appointments, job assignments and responsibilities. Our life can become so busy that inside we feel like Swiss cheese. We give our time away bite by bite until we feel out of control and less than a whole person. We suffer through time.

And then there are the nibblers. They eat away at what little unscheduled time is left. These are the ugly places we give our time to that we don’t write in our calendars, planners or schedules. We do it unconsciously and don’t realize how much time we give to worry, procrastination, gossip, anger and other unhealthy habits. These are the places we give our time to that create feelings of pressure, pain and suffering. Time is wasted.

Now, remember the sandbox and that carefree feeling? We were “giving” our time to fun and enjoying life. That fun time can become lost in our busy adult world because we don’t pay attention to who and what we give our time to. We can be so overwhelmed with responsibilities we forget how to weave fun and joy into the minutes of our days.

As you rush to take your children to school, can you use the driving time to have an enjoyable conversation with them? As you cook dinner, can you make a game out of who chooses the menu, who sets the table or who creates dessert? Can you incorporate enthusiasm and fun into work projects and job assignments? Time can become enjoyable.

Don’t forget to add fun time to your planners and schedules. This is not free time. This is memory-making time. Time for coffee with friends, a fishing trip with buddies, a grandchild’s sporting event or a movie with the family. This is the time when we invest in our self-care and personal growth. This is the time we feel carefree and happily living life. This is the time that energizes us. This is sandbox time.

Time is given to all of us in the same quantity. Time is free and yet priceless simultaneously. The value of every moment we are given is in who we share it with and the memory it makes.

We are all given the same amount of time. It is in our control who we share it with. Who will you give your time to today?

Will you give it to people and things you love such as family, friends, pets and hobbies?

Will you give to work, interests and goals?

Will you give it to worry, procrastination, gossip, anger and unhealthy habits?

Think about it …

We all give our time away, but are we giving it to the best areas of our lives?

Who do you give your time to?

Pennie’s Life Lesson: Time is free and yet priceless. The value of every moment we are given is in the memory it makes.