Are you spending your time wisely?

(This is a speech that I gave in my public speaking class)


This was a difficult day to have to come to class and do this assignment. I came here after attending the funeral of a friend today. As John Lennon said “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” I have been very wrapped up in my life, in work, and in school. I haven’t had much time for anything else. This past week something happened to change all of that. Time happened.

(I actually had a clock that I took out at this point - part of the assignment)

How many of you are watching the clock right now, wondering how much longer until we are finished here? Last week on Wednesday night I was doing the same thing. I came to class here on campus; the instructor to my class gave us an exam that was over 2 hours long. I must have checked the clock 5 times during those two hours. All of my fellow classmates were exhausted after this exam and just wanted to go home, myself included. I begin work at 7 am on Wednesdays and then head straight to class after work; it makes for a very long day. The prior week I left class at 8:30 and planned on doing the same this night. As it happened, we did not resume class after the examination until 8:30, which is when I wanted to leave. I contemplated leaving and then decided to stay. But continued to watch the clock, still frustrated that the instructor would not let us leave, insisting that we proceed with the next chapter.

I left campus about 45 minutes later than usual. It was not until I almost reached Frankfort that I found out the significance of how being late may have just saved my life. The road was closed due to an accident and as I tried to find my way out of the neighborhood that I had been detoured into, I ended up on a street overlooking the accident scene. It was dark, but I could make out that someone had gone down into the ravine and it didn’t look good. I stopped to speak to the woman driving past me, who I found out was the first person to come upon the accident and she called it in. She told me that it wasn’t good, and I knew at that moment that whoever was involved probably wouldn’t make it. You may have heard about this tragic accident on the news, a woman was killed by a truck driver who was driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The accident happened at 9:05, this is the time that I would have been approaching that same stretch of highway had I left class at 8:30 that evening. Unfortunately, my feeling of thankfulness subsided quickly when I learned Thursday morning that the woman who was killed was a friend of mine and the mother of my son’s classmate. This news was heartbreaking.

I was reminded of an e-mail that I received recently about some of the people who were running late for various reasons the morning of 9/11. The e-mail read:

As you might know, the head of the company got in late that day because his son started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.

One of them missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.

One's car wouldn't start.

One went back to answer the telephone.

One had a child that dawdled and didn't get ready as soon as he should have.

One couldn't get a taxi.

The one that struck me was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.

How many of us rush through life? We get upset that traffic is moving too slowly or that we’ve been delayed for some reason. That was me. But I was brought back to reality this week. My youngest son is just 13 and less than two years ago his best friend lost his mother to breast cancer. Now his friend Hannah has lost her mother in this terrible accident. Two funerals in less than two years has made me realize that life is precious and all the other things that I thought were so important can sometimes wait.

As a good friend said to me this week in reference to my school work: “Alison, if it’s not due tonight, don’t do it tonight.” She suggested I go home and just spend the evening with my family, and that is exactly what I did! I stopped watching the clock, stopped worrying about getting all the class work done and had a nice night with my husband and son.

I never realized how much I watch the clock. Do you find yourself doing this too? We wish for more hours in the day, we wish we could turn time back. How can this clock have such a profound affect on our lives? I will not be able to look at a clock the same way anymore. As the poet Carl Sandburg said “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.”

I wondered this week that if I had been the one in that accident, what all my hard work would have accomplished? I have overloaded my schedule to the point that free time is hard to come by. Have I spent my time wisely to those who matter the most in my life? Are you spending your time wisely?

Choose your attitude

Choose your attitude

Your attitude can be based on the weather, the amount of traffic congestion, the way
people treat you, or a whole lot of other things. Or, your attitude can be exactly what you choose for it to be.

When you turn your attitude over to other people or to random circumstances, it's going to be volatile, undependable and not very productive. By contrast, when you choose your own attitude, independent of what's happening around you, then you set yourself up to make swift and positive progress.

Your attitude serves as a lens through which you see life, and it's best when that lens is focused on the positive possibilities. Your attitude can enable you to make the most of difficult situations, to find and to create enormous value in your world.

There is absolutely nothing that forces you to adopt one particular attitude over another. When you get in the habit of consciously choosing to have a positive, empowering attitude, you become gloriously free to achieve the things that are most meaningful to you.

Your attitude is always yours to select. Doesn't it make sense to select an attitude that will foster peak performance and effectiveness no matter what may be going on around you?

Don't let anyone or anything else control something as critically important as your attitude. Now, and always, choose an attitude that will enable you to soar high.

-- Ralph Marston
The Daily Motivator
http://greatday.com/motivate/071129.html