of time and health. forget new year's, today is the day!

Time is the scarcest of all resources, followed closely by health. Ironically, these are often our most squandered.

You can't buy more time. You can't produce more time.

Besides two days of your entire life 86,400 seconds is all you get. There are many reasons why we constantly ignore this fact. It's kind of scary for one. While I'm sure mental health professionals would not recommend obsessing on the scarcity of time, it is important to keep in mind as we manage our life.

We often live as if we have nothing but time. Too much time but too little money. Too much time but too few television sets. Too much time but not enough work. So much time we're bored!

More money, more problems? I don't know about that. More problems than what? Poverty offers plenty. However, time is infinitely more important than money. Do you protect your time? Protect it from both yourself and others? Probably not as much as we should. Do you rush out of necessity or habit? Undoubtedly both, but are you sure you're always aware of which? Working late? Feels good to get things done, I'm on a roll, other people have schedules to keep, they need me to get this done, the client needs me. Every good manager realizes that usually the most important schedule is your own. These executives have also realized that references to "they" or "them" are often used to generally explain that which is specific yet has never been considered or is not understood. You're working late for a very specific reason. Is that reason internal or external? This question is much more difficult to answer than it seems. In modern economies like the United States, the answer is usually internal. "But..." but nothing, this is YOUR life. This is not the time to keep your head down and wait. Wait for what? Life only happens right now.  Don't skip out on the responsibility.

After time, comes health. In most circumstances we can buy more health - clearly illustrated by the average life expectancy in the rich vs poor countries of the world. The doctor tells us to stop smoking or to loose some weight or take some pills and we'll live longer. We can usually produce health through lifestyle. Anyone close to chronic pain, injury or disease understands the scarcity of health - and that there are circumstances when we cannot buy more health. Health is the single most important factor in determining the quality of our time. Of all things, health is often the last factor considered when managing our time. It's amazing, and sad, to think the #1 health problem and expense in the United States is obesity. Good thing we stayed late to finish that TPS report. "The kids/wife/husband keeps me too busy." Being busy doesn't cause obesity. It is caused by being sedentary and making poor food choices. We can't blame others because we fail to manage our time. "I'm too tired to exercise." A rampant misconception in life is that feeling precedes action - actions come first. An unaccomplished task is always more draining than the task itself. A healthy lifestyle generates energy. Don't worry about yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow - just take a walk today.

Don't make a New Year's resolution this year. Make an every day for the rest of life resolution. Protect your time and health as if they're all you have - they are. Ultimately we run out of both at exactly the same time and we'll find that other day with fewer than 86,400 seconds.