Riddle me this.
I am something you can give, but you can never keep.
I am something you can waste, but you can never buy.
No one knows how much of me they have left.
The answer, of course, is time.
And yes — I could use more of it. We all could. There never seems to be enough time to do the things we want to do, to go where we want to go, or to say what we want to say. That’s not a new insight. If you search for quotes about time, you’ll find that people far more accomplished than I am have wrestled with the same truth:
“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made of.” – Bruce Lee
“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.” – Stephen R. Covey
“It’s not enough to be busy. The question is, what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King
“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
“The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a time.” – Mozart
“If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.” – Lee Iacocca
So yes, I could use more time — but even if I were magically given a 30-hour day, I’d probably still ask for more. The problem isn’t the amount of time. The problem is how I’ve used it. I’d probably be horrified if I took a true inventory of the hours I’ve wasted just this past month, let alone over a lifetime. I’ve long fantasized about being a best-selling novelist, yet I’ve written only one book — and it still needs editing. If I reclaimed just a fraction of the time I’ve squandered over the last 30 years, I might already have a whole shelf of books with my name on the spine.
Instead of wishing for more time, I hope I can spend the next 30 years wasting less of it — and see what I can do in my life’s second act.
Copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt.
