Lest you forgot, today (November 8) is National Ample Time Day. It is your day; established to encourage you to take a break. Instead of trudging on in your treadmill-work-a-day, pause to reassess your priorities. You will benefit greatly as you examine your schedule(s) and put your mental health and well-being into a reasonable balance.
Balance is an excellent term for a happy and fulfilling life. I can already hear protests from the peanut gallery—“I cannot get balance in my hectic life!” Balance is complex; think about it—watch excellent skaters; they seldom seem to be in balance—they lean, swoop, twirl, dance, leap, and drift in and out on the floor (or ice, as it were). The better they skate, the less in balance they seem to be. Decades ago, I was a fair-to-middling roller skater. I remember my earliest attempts at skating; I tried hard to be in balance, but fell constantly. I began to learn that controlled imbalance was the secret to good skating.
Ample time? Everyone has the same amount of time; how we choose to use time is yet another matter. It is also true no one can choose 100% how to use one’s time. And yet. The one thing you can control—time included—is your attitude. Prisoners have little or no control over their time, days, or activities—however, they too, have control over their attitude; many have found ample time to thrive and live meaningful lives, though imprisoned.
I think of Viktor Frankl; Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. Frankl refused to let prison dictate his attitude. I would say that he found ample time to do what he loved. While in prison in a Nazi concentration camp, Frankl began noticing that some prisoners died of disease, while some with the same disease, lived—even thrived. He studied carefully, and from his observations, after his release, he wrote the ground-breaking book Man’s Search for Meaning.
I confess, there are times when I let my mental myopia manipulate my attitude—thinking I just don’t have enough time. Our culture can do that to us. In fewer days than you realize our culture will cast us into a time-is-short frenzy—-the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years Day. My daughter calls it “ThanksChrishukkah Day. Tuck a timely reminder into your very active brain—that you have Ample Time.
While working on my doctorate, and struggling with time management issues , I visited an elderly friend, Mrs. Proudfoot. I was amazed at her calm approach to her many projects. I asked how she managed difficult projects so well. She said “When I am working on a project that is difficult, or discouraging, I give myself twenty minutes to work on it. Sometimes I finish before the twenty minutes are up. But I know that after twenty minutes I need to make a change. But stopping before I get discouraged gives me a better attitude for going back to the project later.” She chose an important “Self-care” option and put it in place. You also have the choice to enjoy “Ample Time.” It is a choice. Jesus said that when you pray, go into your private room; That way you are incharge of you own thoughts; It is your time.
©Copyright Willis H. Moore 2024