How much time do you need?

"I didn't have time to..."

We say it all the time.  I do myself, so I don't exclude myself from this.  My students say it whenever they haven't done their homework this week.

It's not really true though.  The fact of the matter is, platitude notwithstanding, we each get 24 hours in a day.

So it's not that we don't have time, it's that we choose to spend it on something else.

Some of our choices aren't exactly voluntary - I do realise your boss won't be happy if you "choose" not to go to work tomorrow in order to pursue your musical interests.  Ditto for your school teacher.

Still, how much time do you waste?  

I waste time a lot, but not as much as I used to.  I had a health scare last year, and it forced me to really look at where I put my time.  Along the lines of, "if this is all I have left, is this how I want to spend it???"

I spent a lot of my time being tired.  Tired, and too tired to do anything about it.  So I forced myself to slow down, and do one thing at a time.  More often than I used to, anyway.  I also learned to order take-away.

I spent a lot of time watching TV or DVDs, because I was too tired to amuse myself.  I still enjoy watching movies, but I don't just zombie out in front of the box.

I used that time to teach myself some new music.  I used that time to go for more walks.  I used that time to write, so I really notice what's going on around me.

When I try to "blob out" to relax with TV (or surfing the net ;0) I actually feel more tired, and less relaxed when I'm done.

When I practice my music, I feel less tired,  and more relaxed when I'm done.

So maybe you could choose to spend 5 minutes making some music today.

After all, how much time do you need to be happy?