Inspire Me Today June 13 2013

Troy is a former bank robber who managed to earn two college degrees while in prison and is now a professional speaker and author.

Time is our most valuable commodity bar none. It is, hands down, the most precious thing we have, yet it is the one thing with which we are most often wasteful. You can’t recycle it, regain it, rejuvenate it, rediscover it, or reuse it. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have relaxation time, hobby time, lay on the couch and read a book time, or sit in the sun and do absolutely nothing time. It’s all about balance in our lives. But we all need to have some type of time management tool that assures us that we are using out time as effectively as we can.

And to help drive home this importance of time I want to share some different perspectives with you… some perspectives that you may never have stopped to consider:

• To realize the value of one year, ask the student who has failed his final exam.
• To realize the value of one month, ask the mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
• To realize the value of one week, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
• To realize the value of one day, ask the daily wage laborer with ten kids to feed.
• To realize the value of one hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
• To realize the value of one minute, ask the person who has missed the plane.
• To realize the value of one second, ask the person who has survived an accident.
• To realize the value of a millisecond, ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Family and loved ones—there is absolutely nothing more important. This bears repeating. There is absolutely nothing more important than the loved ones in our lives.

I am in particular talking about the people in our everyday life, the people we oftentimes take for granted, the ones that we assume will always be there, the ones who we peck on the cheek as we walk in the door after a long day, only to then plop our butts on the couch. The people who get that same gesture as we leave the next morning. The people who we assume are always going to be a part of our life.

I’m here to tell you, they are not always going to be a part of our lives and they are not always going to be there. I didn’t realize how important these people were in my life until they were taken away from me.

Let these people know you love them and let them know often. Don’t have regrets later, regrets later are mistakes made today. It is not what we have in our lives but who, and we all need to ask ourselves if we are spending the least time with the people who are the most important. Don’t give the best hour or your day to your job, give the best hour of the day to the loved ones in your life.