Friday, December 30, 2011
Bank of Time

One day, a professor told his students “What would you do if there’s a bank that would grant you 86,400 dollars each day? But be reminded that you’re required to spend the amount of money on that particular day. The amount left in the account will not be transferable to the next day.”

“I think it’s the best way to withdraw the entire amount immediately!” a student answered.

Then the professor said “That’s true!”. He further commented that “Yes, everyone would have done that. But I guess you don’t know that we really do own a bank like that. It’s a bank called ‘time’. The bank of ‘time’ would automatically transfer 86,400 seconds into our everyday life. But as the night comes, our ‘time’ would be used up and what left over would not be transferred to the next day. In addition, you may not be able to withdraw all the time at once. If you did not use your ‘time’ well, wasting of it will bring consequences that you have to face. We could never turn back time or withdraw the ‘time’ in advance. According to your current ‘saving’, you’ll have to live for now.”



Postscript:

When we were told that we’ll be granted 86,400 dollars each day, we’d be delighted. I had the same opinion with the student, to withdraw everything! It’s like a reward without the need of effort. However, when I came to think of it, how come we’ve never treated ‘time’ as the same? Have you ever wanted to use all the time you’ve got?

When the next day arrives, we’d not be able to repeat the time we’ve wasted. The amount of time we ‘withdraw’ is a balance with the value we hold. When we learnt to cherish the time we’ve had, we could create more and more value with it.

When we’re suffering in hardship and were about to give up, please say this to yourself “Hang on there for another 5 minutes!” Never underestimate what power 5 minutes could give. We could obtain a great amount as we accumulate these 5 minutes in our life. Take our study as an example. When we’re bored of studying and revising, let’s remind ourselves to spend 5 more minutes. This is a victory over ourselves too!

Q&A for the children:

Have you ever feel that time pass really fast?

• Everyone has 3 days in life: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

• Everyone has 24 hours each day

• Time passes real fast when we’re happy; Time passes real slow when we’re bored or when we’re suffering


Do you think that time is important?

• Time is gold. In contrary, we may never buy time with gold.

Example: Do you know who’s Bill Gates? According to the rumour, he’d never pick up money from the floor even if there’s a thousand USD. It’s not that he doesn’t value money, but to him, time is more valuable. According to calculation, Bill Gates is earning 10,000 USD each second. To compare, he had to use 6 seconds to bend down and collect that 1,000 USD from the floor. Don’t you think it’s a waste to waste 60,000 USD just to pick up 1,000 USD?



Have you ever feel like running out of time to accomplish so many tasks?

• If you could choose, how many hours would you like to have in one day?

• Take 7 hours (for sleep), 3 hours (for 3 meals and clean up), and 6 hours (from schooling) from 24 hours, you’re left with just 8 hours.

• Are you short of time to study for exam? Don’t study in the eleventh hour then.

Example: Long ago, there was a group of students who told their teacher “Teacher, you’re overloading the homework for us. We don’t have the time to finish them.” Then the teacher replied “Then let’s try and do a test.” The teacher brought a big pile filled with stones. He then asked the students to put in marbles. In just a short while, the pile was filled up. The teacher then took a bowl of sand and poured it in until it seemed full. He asked the students “Can you think of anything else that we could add in?” The students shook their heads as their teacher added on “We could put in water, isn’t it? If you are willing to give your time to accomplish your tasks, you’d live with an enriched life.” (Everyone has 24 hours, but how come some of the people could excel and we couldn’t?)




Time is irreversible

• We do not own a time machine that allows us to turn back time. What’s done had been done. So we should always think before we act to prevent mistakes.

• We couldn’t change our answers as we handed in the papers; we couldn’t recover a broken vase.

• Time is valuable like gold. But we could never purchase time with gold as time never returns.

Example: I’ve wasted time in my life either. There was one time when I lost my attention while doing my homework. I went playing around the room. In the end, I spent 50 minutes to finish a work that was supposed to be done in just 30 minutes. (never waste time)


Life is short. But how do we live a life full of meaning and value?

• We can’t foresee future, so we may never know when will be the end of our life.

(If one day the doctor told you that you have a week’s time left, would you finally realize that you’ve waste a lot of your time in your past?)

• When a major Earthquake happened in Japan, danger lies in every corner of life. We must be more appreciative towards life.

• Try to cut down the time for entertainment and help out your mother on housework, or focus more on your studies. You’ll live without regrets this way as you’re using time to the fullest doing things with more values.

• Set up a timetable for yourself. When there’s a guide, we tend to spend time wisely.

• Time is fair towards everyone. But time would represent different values according to people. To extract the greatest value out of time, we must first learn to use it well.

• Time never wait for anyone. We must do and say what we must before it’s too late. Don’t wait till you’ve lost the chance and be regret later.


“Time is made up of every single minute and second. You could be successful with greater achievement when you’ve learnt to spend your free time wisely.

• Those who are hard-working are the master of time; those who are lazy will be the slave of time. The greedier we are towards time, the more generous time will be.

• No one could control life and death, but everyone could use the time they have wisely.


Where could we look for free time in life?

• Commercial breaks in between television programmes

• When we’re on the car, bus, or transit

• While waiting for the computer to start up

• When we’re lining up to buy something

• While we’re waiting for a bus

• When we’re in an elevator

• While we’re in a restaurant waiting to be served


Shared by,
Ying Ying.

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Written at 3:55 PM by Paper Pilot.