All we own is time

It is my belief that all we own in this world is time. And we can chose how to spend it and with whom to spend it. All of us to varyiing degree have control over some portion of our time. I am sure this is not an original thought. Different people have said the same thing in different ways. I remember vaguely Steve Jobs saying that death makes decisions really simple, would you spend your remaining time doing what you are doing today.

My other realization perhaps a bit late is that time can’t be averaged. Take kids for example, you can’t say that instead of spending 1 hr everyday with them you will take 20 days off and spend every waking hour with them. It’s not the same. You can’t average it out with kids or with yourself also. 20s is the time to do some things, 30s to do other things, 60s something else. The slice of time over which you average has to be really small for it to have meaning … a week is the maximum I would say.

One is lucky if one can spend time with people they want to, and not get bogged down in providing for essentials or chasing one’s own tail.

Children are not a “Porfolio”

My dad once told me that “Children are not a portfolio”. It is not if one does well and one doesn’t you feel good. I now have 3 daughters and am begining to understand the meaning of the words.

How to attain happiness … thanks Rahul for the link

Google Tech Talks March 15, 2007 ABSTRACT If happiness is an inner state, influenced by external conditions but not dependent on them, how can we achieve it? Ricard will examine the inner and outer factors that increase or diminish our sense of well-being, dissect the underlying mechanisms of happiness, and lead us to a way of looking at the mind itself based on his book, Happiness: A Guide to Life’s Most Important Skill and from the research in neuroscience on the effect of mind-training on the brain. Speaker Bio: Matthieu Ricard, a gifted scientist turned Buddhist monk, is a best selling author, translator, and photographer. He has lived and studied in the Himalayas for the last 35 years where he currently works on humanitarian projects. He is an active participant in the current scientific research on meditation and the brain.«

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1424079446171087119