3 Spiritual Steps to Making the Most of Your Lifetime

“Don’t die with your music still in you.” ~Wayne Dyer

Are you having the time of your life?

When it’s my time to leave this world, I don’t want to spend my last days thinking I wasted precious time on things that did not truly matter. I don’t want to be asking myself questions like…Was that job really worth 15 years of my life? Did I miss out on quality time with my family? Have I made a positive difference in other lives? Or will my legacy be that I didn’t have time to leave one? This future tripping made me take a hard look at the reality of my choices. It left me wondering if I was really making the most of this gift of life. The one think I am sure of is that my life is in session and my time on this planet is finite.

I got this point loud and clear at the beginning of this year. A friend of mine announced that her new year’s resolution was to live this year as if it was her last. At first, I thought that was a depressing way to start out the year. But her resolution stayed with me, and the more I thought about it I began to appreciate the value in her plan. There is no guarantee how much time any of us have left. But if I had only a year, I would make some immediate shifts.

I then got a real life example of my friend’s point when I came across some shocking stats in the American Time Use Survey on how Americans spend their time. Individuals spend an average of three hours a day watching television. If we add that up over the average lifespan of 77 years, that’s over 84,000 hours! Then I compared these numbers to how much time was spent daily on religious and spiritual activities……about 15 minutes. So I got out my calculator again and spiritual activity adds up to just over 7,000 hours in a lifetime. Now don’t misunderstand me, I enjoy zoning out in front of the tube as much as the next person. But if I truly want to spend my time consciously, shouldn’t these numbers be inverted?

With this new perspective, I began taking a much deeper evaluation of how I have been spending this precious commodity. I thought about what might happen if I just made one change and inverted these two activities in my own life. If I allowed fifteen minutes for mind numbing sitcoms and took the three hours that I used to devote to the television and devoted it to expanding my spiritual well-being, what would my life look like at the end of this calendar year? I will be turning forty in 2012 and I pray that I have forty more ahead of me. But if God has other plans I can at least say that I spent my time this year on purpose.

Here are three key steps to making the most of the rest of your time.

Step 1: Evaluate how you are spending the hours of your day. Make a note of the activities that really take up your time. Are these meaningful experiences that bring you joy?

Step 2: After your honest review, now imagine that this year was your last. From this new perspective, decide what is important to you and think about how you would you spend your time. Would you prioritize your time differently to make the year more rewarding for yourself and those around you?

Step 3: Keep it conscious and commit to living your life from this new perspective. Practice this by continuing to go to the places within yourself that inspire and fulfill you, while making the exte
al changes that serve your best and highest purpose for this lifetime.

Your messenger, Eva Rose

Statistics for this article retrieved from The American Time Use Survey at www.bls.gov January, 2012.