Time – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

A perspective on life

What does quality time mean? Is there one kind of quality time, or several? It shows up in our personal and professional lives alike, and it is the most important investment any person, company or organization can make. One of the great frustrations of daily life, and of whole lives, may be realizing too late how to use our time in the best possible way, and yes, I mean the best. In times as turbulent as these, we need to sharpen our ability to focus to a degree so precise it can feel almost impossible. In the rush we live in, we forget that focusing on one particular point (more on that later) is what brings the deepest satisfaction, that sense of living each moment and each circumstance as if it were the last and the best of all.

There is no life without purpose, just as there is no purpose without meaningful results. I admire, and am fascinated by, the people I see living with tremendous joy and dedication to what they do. They are exceptional human beings with a very clear view of what they want from life and from everything around them, and what sets them apart is a clear life purpose. Lately I have also had the privilege of working more and more with teams as they build high-performance capability. In both cases I can confirm that they treat time as their main ally. They know that what they say and do must line up with their purpose and, above all, that they must make the most of the time they have been given in this life.

Quality time doesn’t only happen during leisure, with friends or family, on vacation or at a good play. It is lived in every moment and every circumstance of life. Here I think of the life and words of Saint Josemaría Escrivá, who taught that in every circumstance we can learn to be saints by offering up our effort, whether we are enjoying ourselves or going through hardship. Anyone with a clear life purpose who lives in tune with it gains two great benefits. First, a full life, lived with confidence in what they do and will do. Second, a life with purpose makes the most of time. A team with clear objectives and purpose uses the resources it is given with great skill to build a product or serve in a unique way, something it could never do while aiming everywhere at once.

Focus is what we need today: focus on time and on what really matters. And what really matters? Doing things right, with ethics, with values and with a long-term view. The short term should serve the tasks that build the long-term vision. Too often today we treat the short term as a way to get by and stumble along, with no vision of making the most of our time to deliver the best possible result. I like to look at time through the Stoics and their Latin phrase "memento mori," remember that you will die, because of the readiness with which it asks us to live, grim as it may sound. Anyone who lives with a clear purpose knows that every second counts and belongs to a time that will never come back, a time we don’t own and know little or nothing about. The only way to give time substance and life is to know our purpose and act in tune with it.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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