The Short Timer Perspective

Life just seems to be so precious and short. Any day could be your last, is such a trite phrase, but so true. You never know when you will find yourself with little to no time left. I often think about that as I go about my commitments. One of the first readers of my 365 commitment blog passed a way a few days ago. He would often reply to my blogs with words of encouragement and thoughts. This has got me to really ponder the short timer perspective. If you think about it, you have two conclusions to draw from the perspective of a short timer. First, what you are focusing on better be really important! In fact, it better be the most important! When you have the short timer perspective, you just do not have time for the frivolous and the unnecessary.

I met a man once that embodied this perspective. His name was Dennis. He was 94 years old, and when we would talk about planning something, he would waive his hand impatiently and say, I do not have time for all of that. I only have time for now, lets go! His energy and enthusiasm for putting the most important first was contagious. He was indeed a short timer, he actually died a few years later, but I remember very much how passionate he was about getting his good deeds in before he died. He would tell me that I was was young and had all the time in the world for nonsense, but he had only precious days left. What he chose do to with them was very important because he was going to meet his maker soon!

The second conclusion is that once you decide what to do with your precious time, the short timer perspective demands that you do absolutely all that you can, with all your effort on that activity. There is no sense leaving anything on the table, when this could very well be your last effort! That was certainly the attitude that Dennis had, and I can certainly understand that. As I contemplate how short and precious life is, I am thinking about how I can cultivate more the of the short timer view in my daily activities.

When I do a commitment, am I confidence that this is the best commitment that I could be spending my time on? When I am doing that commitment, am I pouring my whole soul into it? Anyway, we cannot obviously treat everyday like it was our last. I certainly would not be making a mortgage payment if that was the case! However, perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from viewing our lives as precious and making sure we carefully consider what we focus on and how we do it.

Guy Reams