Your time, your life.

We grew up to hear mum always tell us words like “your time is your life”, ”Don’t waste time”, “Hurry up” because as a 9-year-old then, I believed I was too young to master the art of good time management. I was a kid, so I deserved to live life carefreely. Thanks to my mum who never got weary of shaping and reshaping my life to the best form I have become and still becoming.

Naturally, I was smart and brilliant but I was so missing out on time that things that shouldn’t take me an hour to complete could end up taking me donkey hours to complete.

After school, once I and my brother gets home, the first thing we would do is eat and after that, play and after the play, we play again. Then in the early hours of the morning, we rush our school homework so we don’t get punished at school. That was what our routine looked like as kids until mum, one day, suddenly took it on us. She mandated us that after school, our homework comes first, then lunch, then we get back to read what we were taught that day and after that, we read from our textbooks what we would be taught the following day. She perfectly drew the timetable so much that by the time we’ll be through with the whole thing, the next thing that happens is sleep. Everywhere would be dark, hence no more play!

I’m sure you will concur that no kid loves his playtime distorted but here, we didn’t have a choice and the fact that we didn’t, I would say was the best thing that’s ever happened to my siblings and I. It was not easy at the start but it was learnable and then it has been paying off.

You see, Life is full of mysteries, humans are living with chunks of questions they can’t find answers to, puzzles that don’t seem solvable, and even a life that doesn’t look livable. Yet in a world of struggle and unending curiosity, you can thrive, you can cope, you can succeed, you can shine, you can be okay. Yes! If you realize and accept the fact that “your time is your life”.

Your time is your life. Whether or not you agree. I used to be of the opinion that time is money, as many people often quote. But recently, I have come to understand that time is never money. If you don’t get to make money today, you can always make money tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then the day after.

Here, time is a different matter. I liken time to life. Once life is lost, it is gone! It is a sorry case! Goodbyes are what follows a lost life.

You don’t make up for a lost life, you can make up for a lost money. This is how critical and delicate time is.

For every time wasted, a portion of life is wasted too. There are 24 hours in a day; these 24 hours accrue to every human on this surface, meaning there’s a universal equity as far as time is concerned, as far as life itself is concerned. I have 24 hours in a day; you do, too. As teenagers that we are, what do I do with mine and what do you do with yours?

How much of your time do you dedicate to playing video games? How much of your time do you dash Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? How much of your time do you spend shopping and storming malls? How much of your time do you spend discussing random topics? Gossiping? Side talks and all?. Hmmn? Well!

So let’s talk, how many hours do you spend reading books? How many hours do you spend making painstaking researches about relevant and eminent topics? How many hours do you spend improving on your skill(s)? How many hours do you spend tarrying in the place of prayer?

These are questions we all need to answer.

Most of us have negative answers to them and really, we all want to be the next big thing. We want to blow, like my generation says. We want to trend, make a name and become excessively rich. Good! But, our time! How do we manage it?

The same 24 hours we have is what bill gate had when he was a teenager too, and even now. The same 7 days we have in a week is what other successful folks have too. “What makes the difference is what we do!”

What I do with my time is different from what you do with your time. This is what makes the difference. This is what distinguishes us. This is what sets the platform. This is what dictates our results.

Tolu spends 5 hours doing social media and barely have time to read for exams. Tope spends 4 hours reading his chemistry and physics outlines, uses 30 minutes to revise and the other 30 minutes to browse. Corruption exclusive, the latter would naturally outshine the former. It is very normal and conventional. What we do with our time dictates what our results will look like.

Success is a function of time management! Every principle of success boils down to time management. If you can’t manage your time well, you can’t manage your life well.

Time management is an art, and a mastery of it is an essential tool you can’t afford to lack on your way to destiny fulfillment.

There are time wasters and hope you know every time waster is a life waster. Anyone or anything that wastes your time wastes your life.

Two things that can waste your time:

1. People

Ranging from schoolmates to neighbors to friends to families and even anybody. Your greatest enemy, if you don’t know, is someone who wastes your time! You need to show them the way out of your life if a baseless life isn’t your wish.

2. Habits

Now, not just people can waste your time and life, habits can, too! For example: When you spend a quality part of your time masturbating, draining and dissipating the entirety of your emotional and physical strength, you’re gradually wasting your life by and by. If this is you though, Jesus loves you and he can make you free if you’re willing. It is just a fact that the constancy of bad habits in anyone’s life creates a rivalry of time and it doesn’t help!

Lots of habits can claim your time and life. Porn, for example, is a prevalent habit among Teenagers and it’s a life waster. You spend hours surfing the net to download while you could be busy inveigling ideas and innovations that can shake the world.

Diligence, discipline, commitment, perseverance, dedication, amidst others are crucial ingredients in making the meal of greatness and success. But I still take it on myself to make it a point that these principles are nothing but grammar without a mastery of time. Because time is life.

I am a teenager, you are a teenager. We are teenagers. The world cannot get any better if we ourselves fail to get better. Whatever change we want starts from us.

We can’t aspire for greatness when our time isn’t utilized sensibly. People who matter in the world are people who take a good care of their time.

Until you see every bit of your time as a function of your life, You’re many miles away from the ladder to greatness!

See you at the top!

Feranmi Oyedele (Lamide)

2018.