LAST week I was asked to speak at a function, “How will you do it?” asked my wife, “you don’t have the time!” Zoom engagements may be conducted from home or office, but take an equal amount of time in preparing, but I thought about it for a day and decided that since my talk was for the youth I would try and make the time and used my spare time in thinking out the talk and I gave the speech, but it also got me thinking about what we do with our spare time:
Author and lecturer John Erskine declared that he learned the most valuable lesson of his life when he was fourteen years old.
His piano teacher asked him how much he practised. He replied that he usually sat at the instrument for an hour or more at a time.
“Don’t do that,” said the piano teacher. “When you grow up you will find that time does not come to you in long stretches like that.
Practice in minutes wherever you can find them- five or ten before school, a few minutes after lunch. Sandwich them between chores. Spread the practice throughout the day and music will become part of your life.”
Erskine stated later that by following this advice he wrote nearly all of Helen of Troy, his most famous work on streetcars while commuting between his house and university.
How can you make good use of your spare moments? Use spare time to work, It’s the price of success.
Spare time to think, it is the source of power. Time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth. Time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom.
Spare time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness. Time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Spare time off to be loved, it is the privilege of the Gods. Time to look around, the day is too short to be selfish.
Spare yourself time to laugh, it’s the music of the soul. These are seconds and moments that add up to minutes and hours that add up to days and weeks and total up to a lifetime.
Start handling those moments and start putting them to good use, or one fine day you will find that life crashed because time was not used well.
Just as Erskine learnt to play the piano well with his spare time and wrote Helen of Troy during his spare bits and moments, so should we all make a habit of using our spare time well, remembering that wasting the gift of time insults the Giver of time..!
