Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Time, where does it go?

Time.

Have you ever stopped to consider where it all goes? Working Mom's would tell you that their time is divide up as such: Five hours for semi-sleep, however, not to ever be confused with REM (rapid eye movement)because they haven't seen that since college. Two hours for Taxi driving, One and one half hour to prepare meals (yes, Wendy's and Donutland are considered prepared meals even if Mom's didn't prepare them personally), one hour forty-five minutes for bath and bedtime (presuming there are clean towels, corporative toddlers, no phone calls and no floaties in the bath water to which the three year old exclaims, "look Mommy, raisins"). Eight minutes of Honey time, nine to ten hours at the office and the list goes on and on.

We are each blessed daily with 24 hours of it. Some of us have more time to give in some areas than others do. Recently, I spent lunch with someone living with breast cancer. Her time allocation is completely different than mine. She spends a significant amount of her time with family, friends etc. Her priority is relationship building and maintaining. I don't expect many escape a conversation with her with out hearing how special they are to her. Another friend has spent several years in a corporate position with a Fortune 500 organization. She would spend about twelve to fourteen hours with office related business including networking, entertaining clients, reviewing spreadsheets etc. Her relationships tended to be more along the line of how the client and she could develop a win/win. There was typically little time for "deep" conversations as the "intention" didn't warrant it. More time was usually spent building trust and reviewing financials.

Do we applaud the "intention" of the cancer survivors time and shake our heads in disappointment at the business tycoon? If we parallel them we do. What if I told you they were the same person? Would that change our judgment? Are we empathetic with the working Mom who essentially has two full time positions or do we insist she spend more time "working the numbers"?

Time. Working Mom's wish they had more, business tycoon's wish it would go faster and cancer survivors are simply blessed to have one more day.

No comments: