“You are more than halfway to 90.”
One of the kids said that the other day. For some reason, it doesn’t bother me. Gramma is 93 and still going. I do think about how I use my time. Feels like a fight to do everything that needs doing.
Maybe it’s a better calendar system. Maybe it’s the 18th to-do app, integrated with a meeting transcription tool, connected with another that surfaces everything each morning.
There’s no shortage of 20-somethings on YouTube who have it figured out. A tomato timer. A color-coded calendar. An index card. Or fifty.
What they haven’t realized is that we won’t get to everything. There is peace in coming to grips with that. If you understand that, you stop trying to make it all work. You let go a little. And just do.
If our life lasts as long as the average person, we have about 30,000 sunrises. As someone said to me recently, “the truth gets lost in averages.” Maybe we should care less about how we manage our time, and more about what we fill it with. Not efficiency. Not output. Use. Because if we fill it with the right things, it will fill us up.
The most efficient me will never beat the most energized me.
My phone has never run out of time. It runs out of charge. Plug it in and it works. Simple. I’m not so different.
What gives me energy?
* A long run on a hot day. T-shirt feels like you jumped in a pool kind of run.
* A real conversation. Talk about real things.
* A sunrise. A cup of coffee. Maybe together. Maybe with someone. Maybe not.
* A problem that matters. Doesn’t have to be big. Just important.
* An adventure with people I love. Exploring. Learning.
* A person who gives more than they take.
* Work that helps. When someone feels it.
Do you remember the movie Cocoon? If you’re over forty, probably.
Aliens come. Their cocoons are at the bottom of a pool. A group old timers start swimming in it. They don’t know why, but they feel young again. More alive. More themselves. The pool gives them something they didn’t know they were missing. I keep thinking I’d love to take Gramma for a swim in it. Maybe we could kick the walker.
What they didn’t realize was that their swimming was draining the aliens inside those cocoons. Giving energy costs something. People don’t burn out because they run out of time. They burn out because they run out of energy. And usually, hope.
These days I’m less worried about how efficient I am with my time. I’m more worried about where I spend it. Will it charge me or drain it? Will the people I do it with give energy or take it? If you’re not in the right place with the right people, it doesn’t matter how long you plug your phone in. It won’t charge.
Hard work will make you tired. Like a good run. The right work, with the right people, will make you want to do it again tomorrow.
And sometimes our job is to be the pool, to give people the charge they need at that moment. Like one of those little battery backups for your phone you drag through the airport.
Time matters. Energy matters. Only so many sunrises. If you can get both working together, maybe that’s the key.Take care. Be good.
-Kelly
