TIME: THE DAILY MIRACLE
Image: René Lalique, Dans la nuit (In the Night), 1924
In the early 20th century, Arnold Bennett wrote about reframing our mindset when it comes to the confines of time and how to make the most of it. Most notably, he waxes poetic about time as this mystical force, that the hours of the day are “the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life”... essentially to maximize every hour for the gift it is. Meaning, that every hour is unmanufactured tissue of potential…what will you use it for?
It’s exciting to think about time as possibility, especially in the midst of craving BIG change. The impatience of it all can weigh us down, or make us feel paralyzed to start. Instead, Bennett writes about embracing this resource in the present moment, and relishing in the inherent wealth we each have at the start of each day. And that all sounds great…but what are we going to DO with these precious hours, is the big question. This is why crafting a vision is so important so we can create a roadmap to get from where we are now to where we want to be as well as a plan of how we will make it happen.
So many of us waste time but as Bennett shares, this is the power of creation - knowing that all of us have the same amount of time in the day, not a minute more, not a minute less. What wi
In this newsletter, we’ll share resources to wield these 24 hours and make what we want out of them, because the hours can easily slip past us if we don’t take radical responsibility for their power. As Seth Godin says, “we don’t need more time in the day, we just need to decide.”
Image: Ennio Finzi, Untitled, 1976
'IN THE REALM OF TIME,
NO ONE IS RICHER THAN YOU'
From How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett, 1908
“Philosophers have explained the concept of space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, a genuinely astonishing affair when one examines it. You wake up in the morning and lo! Your purse is magically filled with 24 hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions, a highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself!
And observe—no one can take it from you. It is not stealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time then there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment for misuse. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious power will say: ‘This is a fool, if not a knave, who does not deserve time, and shall be cut off at the meter.’ It is more certain than anything, and payment of income is not affected by the length of your working week. Moreover, you cannot draw from your future stores of time. It’s impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you. I said the affair is a miracle. Is it not?”
Image: A metal heart covered with hand-written prayers in Italian, via Artemis Gallery
EXERCISE:
THE PERFECT DAY ITINERARY
From Lewis Howes
One of our favorite practices, the Perfect Day Itinerary is a way to craft out of time the space we need to get things done. This practice also provides us with an honest inventory of the way we spend our time—by giving us a chance to look at the day through an expansive, inspirational lens. How many of us think back to a day, a week, a month, or even entire years and can’t account for how the time passed? While every minute doesn’t need to be budgeted (and we're certainly not saying don't enjoy time set aside for lounging and pleasure), Howes asks us to map out with specificity what our perfect day would look like. If it was up to us in every sense, what would the perfect day be? We have to create the structures for prosperity to come through.
Image: Rinat Voligamsi, 2020
“Five years from now, you will either arrive at a well-designed or undesigned destination,” says motivational speaker Jim Rohn. In this Motiv8 podcast excerpt, Rohn discusses how even though we may feel impatient to upend so many things in life and blame time as the barrier, we have the opportunity to alter our lives in huge, impactful ways if we just take one small step in a new direction every day. “If you start early, the fortune belongs to you,” he says.
“Every person gets exactly the same amount of time.
You get all there is.
It's what we do with our time that makes the difference.”
Bob Proctor, 1934 - 2022
In Great Memory, we honor Bob Proctor, a constant Benshen.co inspiration, who left a wealth of teachings and wisdom behind for all of us to apply to our lives.