UNITED STATES—Time, it is the one thing that we can never get back or replace. Once that time is gone it is gone people. You might be thinking this column is in reference to spending time with loved ones, but you would be wrong. The focus of this column is putting into perspective how we spend the time we have and if we’re maximizing that time to its fullest potential.

There are 24 hours in a day. Think about how much time you spend working and how much time you spend sleeping. That is about more than half of the day already gone, which means you only have about 8 hours or less for most Americans that is to yourself. What do you do with that free time? I know for people like myself that spend about 12 hours working, I like to sleep if possible, but at the same time, you cannot sleep all the time. Sleep is the one thing like time, when you lose it you cannot make it up people. So you have free time, what are you doing with it? Are you watching TV, are you cooking, are you cleaning, writing, reading, a personal project/goal, running errands, what are you doing with that free time that you have at your fingertips people.

There are some days you just have no energy at all. You just don’t want to do anything or get up off the couch or out of your bed. You need that time to just breathe and there is nothing wrong with that, but at the same time it does hit you being productive matters. If you’re working 5 to 6 days a week, you have to have a day of just pure rest or a mass majority of the day you do nothing, but chill as so many people call it.

That other day you’re likely taking care of errands or utilizing that free time to pamper or treat yourself. Maybe hitting the gym, perhaps going to the movie theater, bowling, golf, shopping, a party, a night on the town or just time with family and friends at a fancy restaurant. There is a reason you have to utilize that time to treat yourself because if you’re not, then what is the purpose of working so hard people. You don’t benefit from just working without enjoying the time you don’t have to work to take in life.

You can spend all the time in the world working, but once work ceases to exist then what? You cannot make that time up, it has past you by and it is not coming back. That vacation you should have taken, you can still take it, you may no longer be in the prime of your life, but it’s over people. You cannot rewind time because I think if we could so many Americans would be asking for do overs that it would not be funny to say the least at all people.

While you have the time, make the most of it now, because once it is gone, it is gone people, you cannot get it back or try to make up for it. No matter how hard you try, but it seems it goes in one ear and out the other for most of us and that’s a shame people!

Written By Jason Jones