The Clock Is Running

Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do?

Draw out every cent, of course!

Well, everyone has such a bank. It’s name is time.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you.

Each night it burns the records of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the tomorrow.

You must live in the present on today’s deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR,  ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH,  ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK,  ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR,  ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE,  ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND,  ask a person who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND,  ask the person who won a Silver Medal in the Olympics.

Time awaits no one, if yesterday was a gift, if tomorrow is a mystery? What will you do today? Because today is called the present.

Treasure every moment that you have!  And remember that time waits for no one.

Lead From Within: The clock  is running. Make the most of today, every minute of every hour of every second.

 


Lolly Daskal is one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world. Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies. As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership program is engineered to be a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance performance and make a meaningful difference in their companies, their lives, and the world.

Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.

  1. Dorothy Dalton

    14. Aug, 2010

    Hi Lolly – love this concept – so simple, so resonant. If time was money – we would probably be more mindful about not frittering it away. Fabulous metaphor!

    Reply to this comment
    • Lolly Daskal

      14. Aug, 2010

      A single day is enough to make a difference! Thank you Dorothy for visiting and commenting.

      Reply to this comment
  2. Cege

    14. Aug, 2010

    I love the simplicity of this message. I think we’ve become desensitized to the concept of time and how we interact with it. We’ve all just kind of accepted that we are busy busy bees, and that time doesn’t stand still for us. Translating time into actual $$ terms is a big wake-up call. What would people think if asked how much “money” they’d spent watching bad reality TV? Pretty scary for some I’d wager!

    Reply to this comment
  3. Theresa Bradley-Banta

    16. Aug, 2010

    Hi Lolly,

    Oh, I really love this! To think… had you not taken a minute to follow on twitter, and I had not taken another minute to see who was connecting with me… well then.

    Thanks for that. I’m really glad to have come to your blog – and I look forward to reading more!

    Thank you,
    Theresa

    Reply to this comment
  4. pedro

    15. Sep, 2010

    I never saw time by that angle, great. Congratulations.

    Reply to this comment

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