Waiting for no one
It’s been quite a journey. I’d flown threw four time zones in a span of 12 hours. I started in Dallas heading to London at 10 PM CST on the last Friday of 2018. I experienced the last Saturday of 2018 with most of it sleeping sparingly over the Atlantic Ocean. Within eight hours, I was in London and it was 12:38 p.m. on Saturday. I spent five hours in London then headed to Delhi, India. I arrived on the same day, Saturday at 6:50 p.m. From Delhi, I travelled to my final destination of Punjab, India and arrived at 2:35 p.m. on Sunday.
In many ways I asked myself, where did the time go?
I left on a Friday night ready to take on a new day and ended up experiencing so little of my Saturday before magically jumping into my Sunday hours ahead of the loved ones I left in Dallas. Of course much of that was caused by the time I spent going from one continent to the next. While many were experiencing life’s ups and downs, I was literally flying over them and pondering time and its power.
In this journey, the constant thing I felt was the time I felt I lost in not creating memories. With all of those weekends I’ve spent with family and looking back on all my experiences, I can truly say I experienced something. I stored away events, memories, and experiences that time had allowed me to cherish. Being a true “doer” in life means literally doing something and attacking the day, not wasting a minute unless your body simply tells you to stop, drop, and rest. Some say not wasting time is taking care of your business. I agree 100%. Regardless of the vernacular you use, it truly means that you are engaging in some meaningful action that attacks your life’s purpose as often as possible.
With this experience of traveling across continents to visit people I’m engaged in a project with, developing my own gaming app, I can truly say I value time and it’s powerful meaning.
Once I arrived in India, I spent 2 1/2 days working with the company developing my game, The Quarterback Equalizer. Having understood the value of time, I traveled 29 hours to spend 2 1/2 days to manage better relations as well as solve problems. When you spend the time that I spent pondering times power, you gain an appreciation of the actions taken when you are doing something.
When I think about this world tour to India, I’ll remember the time I spent with some great people in Punjab. Spending time in fellowship with them helped me to see one thing that was as powerful as anything – we are all very much the same. Regardless of our spiritual beliefs, physical make-up, or age, we were very much kindred spirits.
We were in alignment because our hearts were so much the same. We aligned because of our common care for our fellow man, our brother, and our character. We all possessed a similar character in that we wanted to improve our lives and our families but not by destroying someone else to do it rather by seeing those around us do better and be better. That was evident in the time we spent together and how little of that time was wasted on anything outside of productive work together for a common thing. I kept thinking of a few specific lyrics in the song, “Family Reunion” by The OJays.
It don’t, it don’t just stop there with the family or
Of-of yours or mine
It’s a universal family
Under one divine purpose
And one divine father
That is if we all come together no matter what color, race, creed
Because that’s all in the head whether you wanna believe it or not
‘Cause you’ll bleed
Indeed we all bleed and it’s the same color once you peel back the skin. Meeting with these men helped bring that message back to me.
When I’m in the “wasting no time mode” everything around me is almost secondary in thought because my purpose is being fed until it’s full. While in India, I worked 12-14 hours not seeking sleep nor feeling as though I needed it. When I returned to my hotel and showered and prepared for bed, that’s when my body told me it was time for rest. As I’ve come to learn, when it’s time to engage in your meaningful action that breathes your life’s purpose, you can thrive off less sleep because when you’re in this cycle or phase it’s only for a season. That season is different for us all.
I’ve experienced 23-week seasons of meaningful action as a football coach in the NFL, which was marked by two weeks of summer practice, four weeks of pre-season, then 17 weeks of the regular season. In that time span, there was a window weekly for reflection and rest. During this most recent trip to India, I was 12 hours out of my time zone but I adapted quickly because of my purpose. As I flew back to the United States, my time for reflection and rest was my reset during my 16-hour flight.
I encourage you to remember one thing above all, when you discover what your why is, also known as your purpose, work until the work is complete for that season. Don’t over analyze, don’t listen to those who don’t understand, weigh down, or don’t support your purpose. Waste no time for all the fuel you need lies within you.
