Are you counting?

This was originally just meant just for a FaceBook rambling (posted August 22) to get some thoughts out of my head. However, it is apparent that it is more than that. So, I decided to share it here as well. 

I purchased a new watch that uses mechanical movement, instead of the typical quartz movement. Of course, this requires me to wind the watch each morning. Two days ago, the second day of having to do this as part of my daily routine, I became painfully aware of the limited time I have in a day. It was as if, each morning, I place a deposit in the time bank as I wind my watch. The same as when we start counting money, or anything else of value, I realized how quickly this deposit runs out.

So, every morning, I turn the crown of my watch and deposit my time for the day. The first day I was allowed 12 turns before my account was full. Yesterday, I had 15 turns. Today, I only have 13. Every day, I deposit turns, or opportunities, into my time account. These opportunities are incredibly limited. Now, my days consist of 12-15 small twists on the crown of my watch. That’s all I get each day! Once I realized this, it made me think of how I use these opportunities. I have a finite amount of turns to do something different in an effort to improve myself or my surroundings. How I will use those turns is unclear to me now. But, what I finally recognize is, just like all things that are taken for granted; I have been wasting my turns for far too long.

Yesterday was my first day of tracking these turns. 15 opportunities to do something differently than I usually do. I made sure not to count simple things that are normal or usual, such as holding a door for someone. Although this is exceedingly rare in this environment, I don’t count this. To me, this common courtesy should be part of my everyday life, regardless of the environment I live in. If I cannot live up to a simple moral code, which includes treating other living things with love and respect, I have no hope in using my daily turns to improve my existence.

Maximizing my time deposits is not changing the world. I take an extra five seconds to give Danielle a proper hug and kiss good-bye, instead of rushing out the door yelling, “Bye, love you”. I took the stairs to my fifth floor office, instead of using the lift. I chose fruit instead of ice cream at lunch. I’m not moving mountains here. However, now that I am conscious of my limited opportunities, I find that I am increasingly aware of my actions. If I get angry about something, this new awareness forces me to think about how my actions affect my daily deposit. Does this reaction maximize my opportunities? Even though some of my efforts don’t “count”, as I expect they should be a normal part of my life, the mere consciousness of my actions has changed my experience so far.

I bought a watch. I never knew that a simple purchase rooted in fashion, vanity, pride and nostalgia would have caused such a paradigm shift in my daily thinking. Each day I have limited turns. Just as before, I won’t cure cancer, house the homeless or feed the hungry. I probably won’t even succeed at making each turn “count”. However, the simple fact that I am cognizant of my actions and of the time quickly slipping away has changed me. Time even ticks away faster with a mechanical watch versus a quartz watch. In a mechanical watch the second hand ticks away in a sweeping motion; similar to the watch on the opening segment of the TV show 60 Minutes. Tick tick tick tick tick tick. A quarts movement watch’s second hand moves in small increments, with a slight pause in between, as it counts the seconds. Tick…..tick….tick….tick….tick. The seconds are the same. But, now, time dissolves faster. Sometimes, I can even hear the second hand ticking away, reminding me that I still have turns in the day to improve myself and that my daily deposit is quickly melting away.

Today, I have 13 turns and two new eyes to view the world with. Hopefully, for at least one person who has taken the time to read this, sharing my experience has “counted”. I won’t be perfect and I will most certainly not maximize every daily turn I am given. None the less, I will work to make every turn count.

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