Imagine you have the ability to start the day with 86 400 units.
Whatever you do, whatever risks you take, regardless the number of decisions you make or people you help, these units will be entirely consumed at the end of the day.
86 400, you can’t control this number. However you are free to decide how to use them.
Every morning, they are fully reloaded. You can either keep on building on what you have started before, erase everything because you have new goals or keep on waiting for an additional 86 400 units of limitless opportunities to fade away.
To be honest, we want to be in any category but the one waiting these 86400 gifts. Because while you seat quietly, people around use them efficiently: they try, rise, fall, learn, plan, improve and create. They make radical changes and pave their way to happiness and the day you finally stand up, you have lost an infinite amount of these precious units and it’s hard to catch up.
The problem is that whatever this number is, some people won’t start to chase their dreams. They’ll complain that 86 400 is not enough as an excuse for their incapacity to start acting. Yes, it is always easier to blame exogenous factors rather than endogenous ones that depend solely on your will. Putting the responsibility on independent events is a way to free yourself from the self-incurred regrets inside you and thus push away guilt. This fake comfort zone is so weak compared to the real pleasure of using these 86 400 units efficiently. Having the sensation that you spend them proactively rather than watching them vanish as the day ends.
These units are called seconds. We have 86 400 seconds in a day and each single one of us is free to make the best out of it. It only takes your will to rhythm your day in such a way that each second becomes relevant.
Some people say that time is money.
However, 86 400 seconds is far more valuable than any currency.
The accumulation of time well spent can lead you to happiness but the accumulation of money with no precise end won’t make you richer.
Originally published at medium.com