EDUPEACE | Your time, your life

In our today’s world, time travels at a dizzying speed. The mantra on many lips is that “there is no time”. Hardly does a day begin before we realize it has ended. In fact, the year 2020 started just like yesterday but now it is receding fast, with less than one and a half months left. Wonderful!

Everyone has to contend with the reality that time is never enough. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot,” Michael Altshuler once said. Usually, you are in charge of your time as you are in charge of your life.

The most common metaphor of time in English is the one that equates it with money. The saying suggests that wasting time is akin to wasting money. But this is not correct. Money lost can be regained but a life lost is lost forever. Therefore, time is life and to “kill time” has to be rightly construed as “killing life” or committing murder.

If we may pose the well-known riddle: What is the longest, yet the shortest; the swiftest, yet the slowest; all of us neglect it, and then we regret it? Nothing can be done without it, and it swallows up all that is small and it builds up all that is great, what is it?” The answer is time.

As the year continues its march to December, it is important to appreciate that every new day we have offers a new opportunity. A good starting point, even before another year begins and resolutions are made, is to acknowledge the value of time and know that how we spend our days is ultimately how we spend our lives.

Half of the year is lost to the Coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdowns. Yet, some people still made “SMILE” out of the bitter “LIMES” of the situation by doing something memorable, including writing books and offering online courses. Some other people were only lamenting and complaining, wishing that the year be deleted from their age because they didn’t spend it, or that they wasted it.

People generally do three things with time: they invest it, they spend it and they waste it. Those who invest their time use it now for the huge benefits of the future. Those who spend their time use it for immediate goals or relatively instant rewards. Those who waste their time don’t even know how the whole time is spent. If such people are asked how they have spent 2020 so far, the response is likely to be nothing; the pandemic did not allow them to do anything.

It is time you resolved to invest your time, not just spend it, not to talk of wasting it. Life is short and everything moves fast. Yet, it is not the number of breaths we draw that matters but the moments that take our breaths away. To be at peace with yourself and the world, you must know where your time goes because time is expensive.

Someone allude to the value of time in the following light: To appreciate the value of four years, ask a politician who has lost an election. To appreciate the value of a year, ask a candidate who has failed an annual public examination or a failed student who has an extra year to spend in school. To appreciate the value of one month, ask a woman who gave birth to a premature baby. To appreciate the value of one week, ask the editor of a weekly publication. To appreciate the value of one day, ask a widow who has seven children to feed. To appreciate the value of one hour, ask two lovers waiting to meet. To appreciate the value of one minute, ask the person who has missed a flight. To appreciate the value of one second, ask the person that has just avoided a collision with a lorry. And, to appreciate the value of a millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal at an Olympic race.

Every bit of time is important. So, rather than waste your time, think of how best to spend it. Indeed, instead of spending your time, think of the ways of investing so that your present will enrich your future. Your past is gone; it is history. Your present is now and it is all yours to fully utilize. Your future depends on your present. The present is your gift.

Time builds and time destroys. Time makes and time mars. Time is the greatest resource you have to change your life. The difference between a successful student and a failed one lies in the use of time. Each day, everyone is credited 24 hours, which is 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. While many do not really know how they spend their time, others maximize theirs and achieve fantastic results in their studies and careers.

As the year of the Coronavirus inches to its end, and having realized that your time is your life, which does not have a duplicate, you may find the “10 simple ways to make the most of your time” by Jay Lickus instructive to be more productive and successful as a student or as a worker:

Make time to plan.
Remember there are always 1,440 minutes in each day.
Include “energy management” with your “time management”.
Tackle top priorities first.
Stay focused.
Try to touch things only once.
Learn to say “No”.
Slow down and think.
Visualise your outcome.
Delegate and outsource.

These points are worth ruminating over to reinvent your attitude to time.

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

Between September and October, 2020 there was a bloody conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the contentious territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The two countries spent time to violently undermine the sovereignty of each other and both sides recorded casualties though Armenia lost more.

There was a truce brokered by Russia earlier in the month which allows Azerbaijan to keep the territories she captured during the war. This was not pleasant to the Armenians, who considered the truce a bad deal. In reaction, people protested in Yerevan, the capital Armenia, and even labeled their leaders traitors.

But the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinya, based on expert reports from the field, reasoned that since the second largest city of the region had fallen to Azerbaijan, it was just a matter of when the largest city and additional swathes of land would be lost. Rather than endanger more lives, after 1,300 Armenian soldiers had died, it was better to end the war. If he were to dance to the tunes of the mob, there should be continuous fighting with Azerbaijan with its attendant mutually assured destruction.

But the embattled Prime Minister is actually the adroit one in avoiding more bloodshed and destruction, not the crowd of nay-sayers. It is always good to give peace a chance and go an extra mile to avoid conflict. In war, everyone loses and prolonging it makes losses and suffering more extensive.

When it is obvious that we are not winning a contest, it is honorable to eat the humble pie and move forward rather than engage in some empty bravado which only increases our humiliation. This is one lesson for the American President, President Trump, who should honorably concede defeat and join hands with the popularly elected Joe Biden to “make American great again”.

Meanwhile, beyond the developments in Nagorno-Karabakh and the United States politics, the message is crucial to everyone that in all situations, we should always give peace a chance because peace is priceless and invaluable. Is there any pleasant alternative to peace?