You Can't Recycle Wasted Time

A couple of months ago we were speaking to the students at First Choice Martial Arts about the value of time. When we positioned the message, we told them a little story about the number 86,400 and the significance of that number.

The story went something like this. “Students imagine you have a bank account that starts at $0 each morning but throughout the day we add $86,400 to it. The only caveat is at the end of the day it must go back to $0. How much money will you have at the beginning of each day and how much do you have at the end of each day?”

“What if we do that again the next day by adding $86,400 only to take it to $0 at the end of that day. Then we do it again and again and again. How much would we have at the end of every single day?” They answered emphatically “Zero Sir!”

Then it got a bit more interesting because we told the students that instead of watching your bank account go up and down each day, we would allow them to spend all the money in it every single day. You could see the students eyes light up imagining all the fun stuff they could do with the daily deposit day after day.

Then we discussed the differences between scenario one and scenario two. Instead of just watching it go up and down each day we had an opportunity to use it in a productive and fun way. The possibilities were endless as the kids thought about all the useful and helpful ways, they could use the money in their bank accounts.

Once everyone really understood the magnitude of the opportunity, I broke the news to them that there are exactly 86,400 seconds each day. We explained that this was the one commodity that all us humans share that is equal and nobody has no more or no less. So, then we went back to the bank account question and asked, “What happens if you didn’t use the money in the bank account?” The students answered, “It would be wasted!”

At this point, you could see they were connecting the dots between the value of money and the value of time and its precious nature. The one thing that many of us do have on our hands these days is a little extra time. It is up to us to decide what to do with it and how to use it to the best of our abilities. Perhaps extra time on Netflix or Fortnite might not be the answer but I am sure there is something that you as a student are looking to accomplish. Seek to organize your schedule and see if there is new goal you would like to tackle before your account goes back to zero.

At the end of the day the time account is not retroactive and the last thing we as students want to do is look back and wished we did things differently!

Sensei Chris