Wasted Time

When we were in one of the shops on Jekyll Island, I found this great little sign and instantly knew I had a new motto. 

And I think it is...But today as I was working, I was listening to a program on the Mormon Channel app called Conversations. The speakers I listened to were Elder L. Whitney Clayton and his wife, Kathy. One of the questions they were asked was about how they raised their children and juggled time and commitments. Elder Clayton started talking about how, early in their marriage they couldn't afford a TV. Then, after several years, they were able to purchase a TV but learned that they had fallen out of the habit of watching as much television. He said that, even to this day, they watch TV, but they only turn it on when they are going to watch a specific program - it isn't just on for the fun of it. He related it to how we organize our time. Sometimes we are just going and doing all sorts of things, just because we can when, in reality, we could be more choosy with how we spend our time and take care of the "essential" things.

He said (I tried to write it down exactly, but it's not perfect, so let's just move on...) "Choose the things you want to do and make sure they're essential". Then he said, "There isn't time to do everything. There's certainly not enough time to waste".

You know those moments where you hear something and you know you've heard truth, or wisdom, or just felt enlightened. Today, this was that moment for me. It's so easy to get caught up in doing the things we should do (or think we should do) and sometimes neglect the essential things.

So, while I think this still may be my new favorite motto, I'm going to make sure that the things I enjoy are the essential things.