On Taming the Use of Your Time

Palma Sola Bay, Gulf of Mexico - Florida

How Living With Tranquility and Equanimity Improves Your Quality of Life

To contemplate the passage of time and how each of us perceives it is a subject of wonder since the beginning of…well, time.

Early humans pondered the coming and going of the sun and moon while keeping warm by a campfire near their cave. In the twenty-first century we ponder in wonder about the same rhythms of life as we mark time on a digital clock.

The rotation of the earth on its axis that creates day and night is the same now as it was in antiquity.

The rotational march of the earth around the sun that creates the seasons and marks the years, is the same now as it was then.

So it is that the march of time was and is the same for all of us.

But there are three things that differentiates us as individuals:

• How we choose to use the precious time of our lives.
• How those choices affect our value of how we chose to use our time.
• How we perceive the speed at which time passes.

These three factors are very much related.

 I believe you have the ability to change that perception for your personal benefit.

I believe it is reasonable to conclude that if your perceptions are unique, then perhaps you can change that perception.

Consider that as you can change your unique perception, you can do so to improve the quality of your life.

Equanimity Is a Personal Choice

Here is the story of a lesson I learned about my perception of time, about existing vs. living and loving the moment.

Five blinks of my eyes and almost 5 decades ago a classmate of mine and I were walking along each of two sidewalks of a beautiful boulevard. He walked somewhat briskly and ahead of me as we headed to class. 

I enjoyed the streaming sunlight that adorned my longish hair that fluttered as the breeze flung itself up on my head and face. The leaves on grand trees swayed as in a dance of their own and birds sang their joyful songs.

I remember well rejoicing in the joy I felt then and to this day, I hold that memory dearly. And yet, something in those moments seemed strange, as if something was out of place and felt it disturbing to my peace.

I looked and listened as I tried to figure out the source of this feeling as I calmly walked toward my purpose. It was then that I noticed that my classmate seemed smaller because he was more distant. We started at about the same time, in parallel and with the same direction. The difference is that for whatever reason he was walking considerably faster. I wondered if he had a reason to do so. Or did he?

A short while later when I arrived at class early, he was already seated and waiting. We both smiled and greeted each other. Moments later the learning began as our professor entered the auditorium and began his lecture. I felt tranquil, serene and had a presence of mind that was receptive to what I was learning. It was the feeling of equanimity.

Later we spoke of the things young students speak of, but not the apparent difference in the speed at which we moved to "get somewhere." Neither did we speak of our respective experiences along the way. He seemed comfortable with himself. Or was he? I really did not know and believed in the exercise of discretion.

I still remember this vividly… almost 50 years later. It was striking to witness a friend rushing to get somewhere, apparently for no reason other than it was just a habit.

Throughout the many years I have remembered and nurtured how I felt during those moments. In an effort to describe it, I think of the words equanimity and tranquility.

The practice of a disposition to equanimity and tranquility has served me well in my personal and professional life. It is called “practice” for a good reason.

It is essential to have an awareness that to have it and maintain it, you have to nurture it. You have to protect it from the demands of others, life’s unexpected events and circumstances in general. You have to be alert that these as well as your own choices, can erode that great quality.

I am confident that such a practice will also serve you well.

Your Disposition Modulates Your Thoughts and Actions

It is of great value for you to exercise a personal discipline of deliberately practicing your sense of equanimity and tranquility. That is, to have a disposition to foster those qualities. It is even more valuable when such deliberate practice is directed toward a particular purpose. At a very fundamental level, that purpose is to live peacefully in harmony within yourself. Beyond that, it is to accomplish specific goals with excellence.

In order to accomplish this, you must make disciplined decisions as to how to use your time. The ways and means to do so are legion. Here, I focus on how your choices can provide you with the means to use your time as your tool. As such, it serves to promote a life of balance and well-being as well as achieving your goals.

I often find that it is common for individuals to underestimate the power they have to simply say “yes” or politely, “no.” This often applies to requests from the people around them and  choices they must make that life presents.

I note that what people overlook even more, is the significant influence that their own impulses have on the best use of their time. As an impulse, it is not deliberate decision making.

It is often a reaction to external as well as self-generated distractions that are devoid of thoughtful direction and purpose.

So, focus and favor your allocation of time on that which you know is essential to accomplish.

Consider that creating time that is essential for you to live a balanced life everyday is critical.

You will be better prepared to react and overcome the unexpected challenges life will present you.

Living With Your Comfortable Heartbeat

I suspect that living a life of tranquility and equanimity that sets the rate of your heartbeat at rest is important to you. If that is the case, good for you! That is all the motivation you need to stop existing and start living.

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”

- Professor Albert Einstein

Habits are formed as a result of deliberate practice directed to a particular purpose. Motivation will fuel your efforts to develop those habits. Once you develop them, their execution will more readily occur.

Deliberate choices made with a disposition of equanimity directed to your purpose creates a fuller life experience. The reality then, is that you will live a more effective quality of life. This is vastly different from judging your life by how many things you did in a given period of time.

For many of you, the likely result is the perception that the speed of passage of time is slowed down. And that perception can become your reality.

What is even more important is to have the conviction that you used that time deliberately for a clear purpose. In so doing, you will experience the feeling of fulfillment of great achievements. These will have been made possible by a disposition to equanimity and tranquility that manifest lasting value.

Renewal With Purpose - Colorado

© Enrique Fernandez, M. D.