Paul Chong                                                        Friday, 13 October 2017

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When friends tell me that they have no time, I tell them to make time. We should all learn to be master of our time & not a slave to it. After all time is but an illusion & should expand & contract to suit our purpose & convenience.

As a personal example, I had run a delicatessen from morn to night, working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year for over 7 years . . . and still found time to write! Any other person in a similar situation would certainly find that he has no time for any other activities. Over & above that, I managed to organise a group tour to China in the year 1989. The group of people was drawn largely from among our deli customers. I was kind of planning for my next business in travel. Incidentally, the China Tour happened to be our holiday dream.

To do my writing, I made time by waking up at an early hour when most people are still sound asleep. Writing also happened in between rendering customers’ service. My time was thus properly & fruitfully utilised.

The well known children’s poem by Julia Fletcher Carney reads:

“Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make a mighty ocean
Make a mighty land.”

It further continues:
“So the little minutes
Humble though they be
Make the mighty ages of eternity.”

What do you do with your time? Are you a slave or a master of your time? Time is not what you have, but what you do with it that counts. Thus if you do the little things, you can have time both quantitatively & qualitatively.