Why I don’t waste time
Sometimes it can be hard to find the motivation to keep going — to start new projects, to go to that class, or to finish that book. But life is too short to miss out, so don’t miss opportunities to learn more and enrich your life path. Plan for the future and don’t let regret get in the way.
One of the benefits of living a life of learning is that you tend to encounter like-minded individuals who enrich your life. Simply by virtue of them also pursuing a path of education, you come into contact with new ideas. These aren’t necessarily ideas that are worldview-changing, but they include small insights and pieces of wisdom. Such is the case when I interact with my foreign language teachers. Almost every day I meet with at least one teacher online. Yesterday I was speaking with one such teacher, and she reminded me of a mindset to have when learning. If ever there’s a point in the lesson where I get frustrated with my inability to remember something, she is right there to remind me I’m learning — and to persevere. This reminded me of what my high school wrestling coach would say to the team. If ever he gave us extra laps, or another physically exerting punishment, his response to our groans would be to make us repeat: “Thank you, coach, for making me a better wrestler.” He reminded us that the pain was always worth it in the end.
Partway through my language lesson, I was able to share my experiences recording this podcast that I base my articles from. I explained my initial struggles to actually put aside my excuses and begin, and new mindset of ambition. In response, she asked me who in my life had inspired me to think this way, or whether this had always been a way that I’ve thought — the dedication to not waste time, to work hard, to push myself. In fact, why was I doing this at all?
The answer is that I do everything in my power to not waste a moment of my life because I look into the future. I consider how my life today will affect my life years from now. I’m able to look years back and consider how seemingly insignificant choices at the time have made profound impacts in my life today. When I look back at my younger self and consider how things could have turned out differently, there’s a moment of remorse. But instead of letting this stop me from functioning, I take that pinprick of a memory and I use it as fuel for how I live today. Living a life where I’m not wasting time is partly making up for lost opportunity and making sure I don’t repeat my mistakes. I don’t want there to be a point in the future where I look back and wish I had made different decisions.
In particular, looking back, I think about things I wish I had known. If only I had understood this thing about life, perhaps I would have gone a different way. It emboldens me to seek after truth, to think more clearly and critically, and to cultivate a worldview. It’s my understanding that what you believe to be true ultimately manifests in how you live. I don’t waste time because I seek after what is true, knowing it will shape the decisions I make going forward.
Leveraging literature
I’m currently reading a book called Sacred Language, Sacred World by Dr. Joshua Broggi. In it, he discusses the ideas of Heidegger, a German philosopher. There’s enough preface for the casual reader to get an idea of the terms that Heidegger uses and a foundation for being able to make sense of his arguments. The principle work that is drawn from is Heidegger’s Being and Time, and Broggi continues by going through Heidegger’s work section-by-section and breaking down the flow of the argumentation. As I turned the pages, I began to realize exactly how much there was to the book that I didn’t have the knowledge to fully understand — from the reference to elements of Greek philosophy to the introductory discussion of the nuances of translation of the book from German to English. How could I even begin to comprehend the significance of what was being described? The expertise of the authors and translators was overwhelming when laid out in front of me, and for a moment I wondered what the point of continuing to read was.
Well — because it’s about truth. It’s about epistemology, the theory of knowledge. And I’m reading it because I want to understand how to understand what is true — and acquiring knowledge is part of doing that. I don’t want another 15 years to go by with regret. I will never be able to learn even a tiny fraction of all the knowledge in the world, but that’s not going to stop me learning as much as I can. That’s why I don’t waste time. I want to know what’s true.
