Time is a Rare Commodity by Jerald Simon

I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, "Music, Motivation, and More - The Positivity Podcast."

My name is Jerald Simon, and I am the host of "Music, Motivation, and More - The Positivity Podcast.

I am the founder of Music Motivation® (http://www.musicmotivation.com) and the creator of the Cool Songs Club (https://www.coolsongsclub.com).

In this episode, 013 - "'Time is a Rare Commodity", I talk about the following:

1. Intro/Opening: How do you spend your time?

2. Positive Perceptions: "Time is a rare commodity..." pg. 26 from Perceptions, Parables, and Pointers by Jerald Simon

3. Motivation in a Minute (a motivational/inspirational topic): "I have only just a minute..." pg. 177 and "A man who dares to waste..." from Perceptions, Parables, and Pointers by Jerald Simon

4. The Music Within: From the Heart by Jerald Simon (from the Album: "Sweet Serenity" by Jerald Simon

5. Poetry that Motivates - "Tomorrow" pg. 40 from my first poetry book, "The 'As If' Principle" (motivational poetry) featuring 222 motivational. inspirational poems I have written.

As a music educator, I have written 25 music books featuring original music I have composed and teaching piano students worldwide about music theory, improvisation, and composition. I refer to them as Theory Therapy, Innovative Improvisation, and Creative Composition. You can learn more about the various music books I have written on my website, http://www.musicmotivation.com. -

I began composing what have become known as Cool Songs to help motivate teens to want to play the piano - the FUN way. You can learn more about the fun, COOL SONGS I composed each month that have accompaniment minus tracks so students can play along with drums, guitars, keyboard synths, and other instruments and sound effects on my COOL SONGS website at https://www.coolsongsclub.com -

Here is a link where you can download a FREE PDF book on motivating teen piano students ("20 Ways to Motivate Teen Piano Students to Want to Play the Piano - the FUN way): http://www.coolsongsclub.com/freebook. After entering your email where you'd like the FREE PDF sent, the page will then refresh and you can learn more about the COOL SONGS Club.

You can join the COOL SONGS Club FaceBook group on my COOL SONGS FaceBook group page at this link: http://facebook.com/groups/coolsongsclub/ - If you know anyone who would be interested in joining this new group, please invite them. I'm excited to share ideas, suggestions, and hear your thoughts, ideas, and tips on motivating and inspiring piano students - the FUN way!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

We must do everything we can to find out as much about ourselves as possible, who we are, who we were, who we would like to be. And then we have this amazing gift called time to help us out. We need to be more careful and cautious with our time. We need to guard our time. It is sacred. We must spend our time wisely and we must decide how we want to spend our time, where we want to spend our time with whom we want to spend our time and what we hope our time will do for us. Welcome to music, motivation and more the positivity podcast. I am your host, Gerald Simon. I am the founder of music motivation and the creator of the cool songs club Today's podcast is titled. Time is a rare commodity. So I'd like to ask you a question, how do spend your time? It's a simple question. And yet that one question is different for everyone. We all have different likes. We all have different interests. Some may choose to spend their time playing sports. Others may spend their time learning instrument or learning languages. Many prefer to draw, to act, to sing, to study. See everyone has their own individual likes and dislikes. Those interests transfer over to how we spend our time.<affirmative> there are good ways to spend our time. There are better ways to spend our time, and there are probably the best ways we could be spending our time as well. Unfortunately, there are ways to misuse the time we have been given or to waste time doing something that we should not do because it is not of value to us. And it all depends on what we value, what our core beliefs and values happen to be for the positive perception portion of this podcast. I would like to read a paragraph from my book, perceptions, parables, and pointers. This is what it says. Time is rare commodity. It is priceless and invaluable. Each of us has been given 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That equals 8765.81277 hours or 525948.766 minutes each year, which equals 31556925.9747 seconds. For those of you who enjoy exact figures, you know who you are. We alone determine what we will accomplish with the time we have been given our allotted time is a gift. Make the most of your time, do not waste it. What you do with each minute cannot be undone or taken back. Once minute is used. It is gone forever. The time has come and gone and nothing you or I do can turn back the sands of time. Be careful with your time. It is very precious. It is priceless. Treasure, your time, guard it with your life. Be protective of how your time is used. Use it wisely, use it carefully. Don't misuse it. Now, if you think about that, each of us has 24 hours a day. We all have the same time. The time itself does not change. It remains constant. It is the same for everyone. It does not matter how tall you are, how small you are, how young you are, how old you are. It does not discriminate. Again, race, gender, nationality. Everyone has the exact same amount of time. It is universal. Now time, as we know it, and as we understand is a very specific designated pro portion or period of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. That is just what we have attached to the terminology of time. It's, it's a way for us to measure or quantify the lapse of one experience to another. We call it time and as days come and go more time ticks on the time has come for us to actually guard our time with our lives. For the motivation. In a minute portion of this podcast, I would like to read a quote from Dr. Benjamin E maze. And it's about 60 seconds is what it is. It says this, I have only just a minute, only 60 seconds in it forced upon me. Can't refuse it. Didn't seek it. Didn't choose it. But it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it, give account. If I abuse it just one tiny little minute, but eternity is in it. Now that short little paragraph is so profound that I think we need to take a few minutes and just talk about the lines of that paragraph. He begins by saying, I have only just a minute. Now we know that every day we have a lot more minutes than just one minute, but what happens is people begin to who focus either on the past or on the future. Or we've mentioned this before in previous podcasts and people get so consumed, remembering past events or worrying about future experiences that they actually don't run mean in the present. They either are daydreaming about the future, or they are so captivated compelled and almost imprisoned by their past either because of their successes or their failures that they remain in the past. And they can't move forward. See the present is a gift for us because we need to experience and we need to live in this moment. But if we waste our time, if we go about our day and we miss the special moments that our memory that make up our lives, we can miss out on opportunities and experiences that can be life changing because they're meaningful and memorable. Now he says, I have only just a minute. So we are breaking down decades. We are breaking down years, months into one minute. Now, when we are focusing on a goal, when we are focusing on any activity, be it large or small, only focus on the minute. Yes, we need to set goals and yes, we need to plan and prepare for the future. But that should not take us away from our present in engagement and involvement, where we are presently active and participating in what we should be doing right now to enable us to be productive in the future. He says, I have only just a minute, only 60 seconds in it forced upon me. Can't refuse it. Everyone has the same time. We all have only just a minute. Yes. Some may feel as if it's forced upon them. Some feel as if they cannot refuse it, but he says, didn't seek it. Didn't choose it. But it's up to me to use it that minute is your minute. Everyone has their own minute. You cannot compare your minute with the minute of those is around you. Because what we do every minute is a reflection of what we think, what we believe, what we fear, what we hope, what we attempt to do with every single minute. It all boils down to our thoughts. What do you think about what do you aspire to be or become? What do you believe about yourself, about others? See, he says, it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it. Well, guess what? If we misuse the minute that we have, if we lose it and it slips away from us, we can never get it back. And he says, I must suffer if I lose it, give account. If I abuse it just one tiny little minute, but eternity is in it. And honestly, eternity is made up of little minutes. Those minutes are packed full of choices, choices for which we are held accountable. We cannot, as they often say, pass the buck and try to negate or excuse away our behavior, the choices we choose are our, no one made them for us. We cannot pretend that we had no part in our choice to choose what we personally chose to choose. He says, give account. If I abuse it, we are then held accountable. We are responsible for the choices we make. Just one tiny little minute, buddy. Eternity is in it. It gives you something to think about. All of the decisions we make today will have repercussions. If you think of it like an action and a what we choose right now this very minute to think about, to speak about, to do the choices that we choose, that we make on a daily basis. Minute by minute, hour by hour, those choices come back to us either to benefit us because of the good choices we have made, or in many ways to hinder us sometimes hurt us because of the bad decision we have chosen to make. The choice is ours. Here is another quote in my book, perceptions, parables, and pointers. This is by Charles Darwin. And he said, a man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. He, if you think about it, we are talking about how time is a rare commodity. It is not that we don't have enough time. Everyone has the same amount of time, but the reason why time is a rare commodity is because often with the hustle and bustle of our daily activities, and<affirmative> the lifestyle we are leading, we are choosing to cram so much into such a little space of time. That often we cannot truly experience life to the fullest because either we are trying to do too much, which then causes us to feel overwhelmed, stressed, worried, because we fear that we may not accomplish everything we set out to accomplish because we are overscheduling ourselves. We are doing too much. We need to slow down. We need to say, no, we need to step back. And we need to prioritize what truly is the most important decision for us to make and what are the most important activities that we could be doing? Sometimes we come up and I am guilty of this as well. I, I like to come up with so many goals and set so many goals, what I want to accomplish, what I hope to accomplish. And then all of a sudden, what began as a small list, turns into paragraphs and then pages. And then it's as if I have created an entire or workbook, which I actually have for myself of what I want to accomplish. And then you feel overwhelmed. You look at what you have decided you'd like to do. And then you feel stressed or you feel guilty because you are not accomplishing all that you set out to accomplish. Now, often what happens then is our health begins to deteriorate. See, we need to slow down in life and we need to decide what is the best use of our time right now for the music within portion of this podcast, I would like to have us listen to from the heart. This is from my album, sweet serenity. And this is a piano instrumental album where I am performing some of the piano solos I have composed. Let's listen for a second to, from the heart,

Speaker 2: 15:46

The, and oh, the the, oh,

Speaker 1: 18:01

For the poetry that motivates portion of this podcast. I would like to read one of my poems. I have written from my book, the, as if principle motivational poetry, and this book features 222 motivational poems. I've written each one. I wanted it to be about various topics. Some of those topics include things like honor, courage, success, strength, willpower, leadership, possibilities, confidence, goal, setting, optimism, rising above mediocrity, character, never doubting ourselves, being productive, a lot of different topics and areas to work on. These are areas I personally feel I need to work on, but I think they're applicable to everyone because we all can improve. We all can be better. So I'd like to read a poem. I wrote several years ago, titled tomorrow, I left yesterday, searching for tomorrow, along the way I encountered today. And she said, I could borrow an hour or two to help me get through this journey. I'd begun the son above begin to sag. I saw tomorrow, begin to drag. I quickened my peace and lengthened my stride, my joy and Ze. I could not hide. I knew tomorrow. I'd one day. Find yet as I crept to capture my time tomorrow fled yet once again and left me far behind the rising sun, crawled up the sky, scaling the heavens whilst I did cry for, I had almost within my reach. Tomorrow's treasures, unknown to teach so many, a traveler traveling his trail have journeyed in search without much avail for a dream of tomorrow comes only tomorrow just after the rising sun have scaled of the heavens with earth as its Haven proclaiming. The new days begun yesterday is missing. Tomorrow is unknown today with its trials and fortunes alone is enough to assure me the knowledge I seek to capture my treasures. And so what I'll reap now, I wrote this many years ago in effect. I think if I remember correctly and it's difficult for me to remember when I wrote certain poems, so I, I can remember. And now when I write poetry, I actually include under the title, the date I began writing the poem. So I will remember, but I believe that I wrote this back when I was in high school. I think if I remember correctly, I wrote this as an assignment with a picture that I drew for a humanities class. When I was in 10th grade. Now I'm almost 40. So I've already had my 20 year reunion, high school reunion. I wrote this poem almost 24 years ago, speaking of time and how time gets away from us. But I'd like to talk about this poem for a second. It's titled tomorrow. And the reason I, I wanted to title it tomorrow is because tomorrow is always elusive. It's always getting away from us. And I said, I left yesterday, searching for tomorrow, along the way I encountered today. And she said, I could borrow an hour or two to help me get through this journey. I'd begun. Then it goes on this little poetic picture telling story where I wanted to talk about the sun was beginning to sag. And then tomorrow was actually beginning to drag. It's almost as if I wanted to portray someone and anyone chasing tomorrow, hoping that tomorrow they could capture tomorrow and they could actually gain control over their time in the middle of the poem. I said, I, I knew tomorrow. I'd one day. Find yet as I crept to capture my time tomorrow, fled once again and left me for are behind. And of course, tomorrow always becomes today. It's a never ending cycle where tomorrow always becomes today. And then today always winds up becoming yesterday. And so we're always looking forward trying to capture the promises of tomorrow, the hope of tomorrow, the blessings of tomorrow. And yet today is here. It's in the present. It is the here and now. And yesterday appears almost as hindsight for us, where we look behind us. And we, we have gained so much knowledge or wisdom, not in part because we have knowledge or wisdom, but because we have had experiences that have taught us, they've humbled us. They've helped us. These experiences that we have gone through have been our teachers. They have tested us. And at times we have failed at times we exceeded, but we cannot rest because of our success or we cannot quit because of our fear of the failure we have experienced in the past. And remember, and I've shared this before, but failure is one of the best teachers we can have. We must do everything we can to find out as much about ourselves as possible, who we are, who we were, who we would like to be. And then we have this amazing gift called time to help us out. We need to be more careful and cautious with our time. We need to go art our time. It is sacred. We must spend our time wisely and we must decide how we want to spend our time, where we want to spend our time with whom we want to spend our time and what we hope our time will do for us. When you think about investing and you think about what can happen when you invest and you have compound interest over time, then your wealth begins to multiply because of that compound factor. Well, it's the same with what we do with our time. If we are devoting ourselves. And if we are managing our time being cautious and careful about what we do each day, each hour, each minute, each second, then our time table can actually turn to a compound table for us because we begin to multiply based on the experiences we have had the experiences we hope to have. And we begin to see how, if we manage our time correctly, we can learn more. We can accomplish more. We can grow. And sometimes times, many times it's important for us to relax, to rest, to recover, to recuperate. It's imperative for us to play, to have fun. We need that just as much as we need the work, but it's all about scheduling. We need schedule work. We need to schedule time for others. Time for ourselves. We need to schedule vacations. We need to schedule time to learn, time, to grow, time, to improve, to work out. It's all about a calendar of choices. We can choose how we spend our time. And I hope that we can all spend our time more wisely. It doesn't take much time to come up with a game plan to actually look at your calendar and to schedule activities or to block out time each day, to work out, to run, to read, to play with your children. See it's about scheduling time for yourself. So take time today to have fun, to do your best and to continually strive to be better. Thanks for listening. I hope you have enjoyed this. If you have purchased my book, the, as if principle motivational poetry, I would love to have a review from you that you can share on Amazon. If you go to amazon.com and type in my name, Gerald Simon, J E R a L D S I M O N. I would love to have you leave a review about the motivational poems I've written from my book. The, as if principle motivational poetry, thanks much for listening until next time, keep up the great work, do your best and continually strive to be better. Hope you guys have a wonderful see you. Bye. Subscribe to music, motivation and more the positivity podcast with Gerald Simon to receive updates about each new weekly podcast. Every Monday, a new podcast is released to help motivate and inspire individuals to learn, to grow, to do, to be and become the very best they can become. These are all motivational messages that inspire men and women of all ages to do, and be their best to set goals, to work on improving who they are and who they would like to become. Thank you again for listening, connect with us on social media to become part of the conversation as we all work together to motivate each other, to do and be our best. Thanks for listening to music, motivation and more the positivity podcast. I am your host, Gerald Simon, and I'm grateful to have you listen to this podcast. Every Monday, we come out with a brand new podcast and you can listen to it on any of the podcast streaming sites available, just search for music, motivation and more the positivity podcast with Gerald Simon. Any of the music that I've shared in these podcasts, you can listen to. All of my music is available on Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, Amazon, and any streaming site available. You can also check out my music books at music, motivation.com, and you can find my poetry self-help and motivational books available from amazon.com from Barnes and noble and from all different online shops and stores. If you have any questions about the music that I create through my company, music motivation, you can learn more at music, motivation.com and you can visit my website. Cool songs, club.com to learn more about how I create fun, cool piano music that helps motivate piano students to watch play the piano the fun way, especially during their teenage years. I'd love to have you check that out, but thank you again for listening. Please feel free to connect with me on any of the social media sites out. You can watch my YouTube videos on youtube.com/ Gerald Simon. You can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and all social media sites at Gerald Simon. Thanks again for listening until next time. Keep up the great work and have fun. See you guys. Bye.