Do you ever have those days when you realize around two p.m. that you have accomplished, basically, nothing? The day just started and swept you along with it. You put out some fires here and there, but overall you have made no progress at all, maybe even spent a little time going backwards. I know the feeling and I don't like it a bit.

 

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Time is a perplexing thing, and I just can't seem to get enough of it. If you think about it, you can't really save time. There is no depository to store minutes here and there. You have one shot, and one shot only to use this precious thing we call time. Indeed, you can't save it. You can only spend it. But the trick lies in how we spend it. When you begin each morning with the thought that you have only one chance to live this day as fully as possible, you become much wiser about your time investments. You begin doing strange and unusual things, like laying out your clothes the night before, preparing meals ahead of time, reading "how-to" manuals instead of "chick lit," organizing your grocery list by category. And television? Puh-leeze! You suddenly find you can go weeks without it.

Sure, sure, there will be those days when we feel like we're spinning our wheels. It's inevitable. But time flows in our life and time flows out. By and large, what we do with it is completely up to us. Begin each day with the vision of an empty canvas. You have this time, this one shot, to create a work of art. Don't let this canvas just get stacked up in the corner to gather dust. Use every minute that you have to reach your dreams and build the castles of your imagination.