There is Time for Everything…

In my ‘play’ journal, I utilized remnants from gel printing and the paper scraps to create this piece on tan toned paper. The red ink splatters took a long time to dry, which made gave me time to search for the right quote. These words from Thomas Edison seemed to fit the piece:

There is time for everything.

– Thomas Edison 1931

In the midst of the Great Depression, Edison reminds us that there is time for everything, no matter how our to do list makes us feel. It took him 10,000 failed attempts to find the right material for the filament in his first light bulb. Talk about someone who understood time, patience, and getting back up after things don’t work out. I’m not sure I would have gotten past one hundred failures, let alone one hundred times that many attempts to reach the goal.

Edison is telling us that there is time enough to do the things we want and need to do. My guess is he didn’t waste his time doing things to please other people, he didn’t get involved in frivolous activities, and he probably had very little patience for people who wasted his time. Edison was focused, structured, and most likely very organized. He had a goal and made a plan to reach that goal…slowly, methodically, and intentionally. He didn’t give up. He had a determined attitude and stuck to his goal. When asked about how he felt after failing thousands of times, he said, “I didn’t fail 10,000 times. I discovered 10,000 things that did not work.” It all boils down to attitude.

Times have changed since the 1930s, and the internet has transformed the way we live. We have so many choices that it can feel impossible to focus on any one thing or to find the important things. If you look at the successful people around you – however YOU define success – they most likely have made choices to focus their time, energy and resources to get done what they want to get done. They are not all things to all people. They are focused, intentional and protective of the valuable resources in their lives…time, energy and money. The best people I know have made choices as to what is important to them, and they stick to those things. There will always be new ideas, better ways of doing things, great stuff to buy to make life easier. And of course there will always be a bazillion distractions to get in our way, things other people think we should be or do, or even successes and failures that make provide a turn in the road we can choose to follow. The point is we have to choose what we want to do with our resources and leave the rest alone.

So, let me encourage you to sit still for five minutes in complete silence and think very carefully about what you want to get done today. What do you want to be able to work to completion such that when you go to bed, you too can find focus and peace? None of us are victims, we are simply living with the choices we have made. Want a different life? Choose differently. There is time for everything you want to do when you focus and choose wisely.