Here’s a “Throwback Thursday” question from the archives:

Calendar: Timer Or Planner?

How do you use a calendar? It makes all the difference in your quality of life.

The calendar is a metaphor for how you use the concept of time in your life. If you are on death row, you may be counting the days until your final breath. If you’re planning a wedding, you may be scheduling the events that have to take place between now and then to make it a memorable day.

Reminds me of a story . . . when I was in the military, I had about 2 ½ years left on my tour of duty when I made a short timer’s calendar. It was a series of days and weeks left until my discharge. Each day, I would scratch off another day. Most service personnel only make these types of calendars when they have a much shorter time until discharge – like 90 to 120 days. Not me.

My calendar served as a reminder of how many days I had until my deeply desired discharge date. It got me focused on time more so than planning, and had me constantly miss the moment I was in. Do you know the expression, “time flies when you’re having fun”? Well, time wasn’t flying.

The pattern continued even after discharge where I would start counting the days until vacation or the holidays. That should have signaled to me that I wasn’t very happy in the moment, but was looking to future moments to be happy.

Waiting for a moment negates the moment you are in. The moment you are in is the building block for your next moment. If you are ignoring it, you are not building a future, only recreating a past.

If you are living for the day when you can finally (fill in the blank), you are not living, only existing. And when the waited for moment actually does arrive, it’s anticlimactic because your “look to the future for solace” mindset is still in place, preventing you from enjoying even your desired moment.

Here’s a suggestion: If you’re a “waiter,” start using the moments you are waiting to plan and execute something in the future, now. This will give you something to do in the moments between now and then, rather than waiting for the “magic” day. Your moments will become more purposeful and more enjoyable.

Rather than counting the moments between now and then, build towards something that will fill your in-between moments with life, rather than waiting for life to happen.

Put away your stopwatch and you’ll stop watching time pass you by. Immerse yourself in the moment and you’ll be too busy to notice the passage of time, which makes waiting a thing of the past.

All the best,

John