“Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.”—Ruth Ann Schabaker

How do you start your day? Do you wake up, expecting the worst, complaining about the hour, grousing about your aches and pains or anticipating all the problems you have to face?

Or do you open your eyes and spend even just a minute or two being grateful for where you are and who you are, appreciating the fact that you exist and that options (limited or endless) are available to you?

Not to sound too Pollyanna (although in these difficult times, a little of the “bright-side” thinking can help a lot!), but how you start your day will influence what kind of day you will have.

Focus on what is (or could be) wrong with your life and that is all you will see. But look at each day as an opportunity to make a change in your own life or someone else’s or a chance to find something new and wonderful and meaningful in your day and you will find an endless array of “gifts” just waiting to be opened.

It’s not that you are denying the reality of your situation. Rather you are expanding your view of it, looking beyond what is wrong or painful or frightening to find what is still right and hopeful and full of wonder.

“‘Lead on. The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know.’” Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

In the past several years, greater emphasis has been placed on protecting our natural resources. Conservation principles help save water and energy, while environmental guidelines reduce pollution. We have finally recognized that the planet is full of precious commodities that we can ill afford to waste.

Now we need to extend that same level of concern and commitment to time itself. It too is a precious resource, all the more so because we have no way of knowing just how much is available.

But all too often we act as though time is limitless and that we will have all we need to accomplish all we want. And we base decisions on that flawed belief.

Need some proof? Ask yourself how you plan to spend the next 30 days: where will you focus your energy, your commitment, your time?

Now suppose those are to be the last 30 days of your life. Will your plans change? Will your attention shift?

Value time and use it wisely. Spend it with those you love, give it to those who need it most, take some for yourself to focus on what matters.

“So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.” Willy Wonka (from the movie, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”)

There is “clock time” and then there is “perception time.”

“Clock time” is calculated by predefined methods: seconds and minutes, hours and day, months and years. We check our watches, cross days off the calendar and, for the most part, function in a reality where our To-Do list requires more time than the 24 hours we are given each day.

“Perception time,” however, is more fluid and shrinks or stretches according to the frame of mind we are in or the activity that we are involved with. If we are waiting for a pathology report, time slows to a crawl. But if we are enjoying a wonderful vacation, it speeds up until the hours are but a blur.

And then there are those golden experiences when time itself seems limitless—when what we are doing is so vital to our well-being, so fulfilling and self-actualizing, that we exist outside of time. Those are the best moments of all because they energize, refresh and rejuvenate us.

How can we have more of those moments? By figuring out what activity generates them and then spend more of our life engaged in those pastimes. The time is there—we just need to use it wisely.

“[Cinderella] heard the clock strike eleven and three-quarters … and hurried away…” “Cinderella” by Charles Perrault

There are certain specific events when we are most conscious of time passing: New Year’s Eve, our birthdays, our children’s first day of school, the deaths of our parents. In the background, we hear the clock chiming, and the sound fills us with awareness. Like Cinderella, we know we must hurry.

While it is important to recognize these major life events, we should not focus on them as what we’ve lost never to regain. This turns time into our enemy, stealing into our lives and taking away what is most precious.

Instead, we must view them as part of life’s continuum, a band of hours, days and years that stretches both ways—forward as well as back.

And while we need to make the most of what time we have been granted, sometimes the way to do that is to stop and enjoy the moment. Otherwise, we will lose our “glass slipper”—the joy of what is—because we are too afraid of losing what might be.

“’I did not come here to …while away the time…’” Vassilissa in “Staver and his wife Vassilissa”

We complain that there is no time to do what we want and yet…and yet we fill our days and nights with activities that aren’t important or necessary or are clearly time-wasters.

Why do we do that? Perhaps we are unable to prioritize, identifying what needs to be completed and eliminating those tasks that aren’t as critical. Or perhaps we are not truly committed to our goal, so we deliberately sidetrack ourselves with unnecessary activities and obligations, creating a ready-made excuse for our failure to attain our objective.

In either case, the result is stress, frustration, disappointment in our lives (and ourselves!)—a host of negative emotions that do nothing for us but deplete us of positive energy.

As part of celebrating “Zero-Tasking Day,” review your schedule and “zero out” the time and energy that you devote to what is unimportant or non-essential. Then use that free time wisely to move you toward your goal.

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I shall be too late!” The White Rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland"

As the year draws close to a close, we start to wonder where the time went. We had great plans for 2009, but for many of us, those plans took a backseat to just surviving, either financially, physically or perhaps even both.

Now, like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, we are worried about being too late: too late to achieve what matters, too late to fix what was broken—in short, too late to make the changes we need to make. And the fear of being too late keeps us from trying because, after all, if we are too late, what’s the point?

What we need to remember is that it is never too late. As long as we have breath left in us, it’s not too late. As long as what we wanted still matters, it’s not too late. As long as we have something of value to offer the world, it’s not too late.

On “Zero-Tasking Day,” you are granted 60 extra minutes—proof positive that, not only is it not “too late,” but that time can be found for what matters. Recognizing this will help reduce your stress level and place you in a better frame of mind to move forward toward your goal.

“We are not retreating—we are advancing in another direction.” —General Douglas MacArthur

No one could accuse Gen. MacArthur of stupidity or cowardice. One of the best-known American military leaders of World War II, his successes during the war undoubtedly played a major role in the Allied victory.

But as the above quote illustrates, he also knew when it was time to reconsider the path he had chosen and revise his battle plan to ensure success.

Sometimes, the right choice is to go forward, plowing through an obstacle until we get to the other side. But other times, the wiser move is to reverse course or change direction.

It’s the difference between stubbornness and courage, or obstinance and wisdom. The former is ego-driven, the latter is motivated by objective reasoning.