Given the brevity that the clock’s ticking; it is crucial that we maximize our time on Earth. There’s no denying the finitude, the temporality of this life; no matter whether someone is an atheist, or a devout believer; whether they’re Alaskan natives like Sarah Palin, or they’re from Mozambique . Even those that believe in an afterlife, accept the concurrent hurdle towards that future, as but a momentary passage and recognize the briefness of a lifetime.
Now this maximization may mean extremely different things, to very different individuals, so it is not my place to tell you how to best spend this limited time. That being said, I’d like to focus instead on an overarching concept; time maximization.
Although this may seem to be intrinsically, self-explanatory, namely; the goal is, to make the most of each and every single one of the precious moments we have in this world, I’d like to draw your attention to a single Japanese word. I am always fascinated, when inborn cultural concepts and constructs can be taken out of their specific contexts, to be applied more widely. This word “mottainai”, (pronounced moht-tai-nai) is no exception, and can be defined as:
“a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized.”
For my purposes, this resource is time; the most ineffable yet ubiquitous, resource in existence. Although I am certainly not a philosopher, according to the Wikipedia definition; “the rational study of general subjects concerning which certainty cannot easily be established…” I do find myself capable of rational thinking, (from time to time).
If life is fleeting and timed, it is in our best interest to make sure that at the end of each and every day, we take stock of the ways in which we’ve spent our time and experience not even one flutter of “a sense of regret”. This is something I’ve personally started recently and its benefits are truly immeasurable.
If we make such a simple task part of our daily ritual, I assure you that this habit; these valuable seconds, will certainly be found to be; time well spent.
Jesse Braunstein is a Junior at NYU double majoring in Economics and Psychology. Jesse joined Madison Technology and SheBytes.com in May 2011 as a summer intern. Jesse has been instrumental in utilizing his expanding background to come up with creative perspectives on the Marketing, Advertising and Business Development initiatives at both Madison Technology and SheBytes.com. Jesse’s outlook stems from an Economics and Psychology education and a deep understanding of the individual and how the individual acts within and interacts with the market. Follow Jesse on Twitter and Facebook. Check out his About.me.
