You Need To Stop Wasting Your Time

If you’re someone who has a vision of the future.

And if you’re someone who has even a semblance of a purpose.

Absolutely nothing in this world should agitate you.

Not a single thing in existence should have the power to get under your skin.

And no one, and I mean NO ONE, should be able to waste your time.

You have to understand that you live in an ocean of people who are indifferent.

You’re swimming in a sea of humans who can’t look beyond their noses, let alone into the future.

They don’t have any goals.

They have no worthy accomplishments.

And they love nothing more than to waste time when they’re free.

Why?

Because it’s the only time in their day when no one’s down their throat, pressuring them.

If you have purpose.

If you have a forward vision.

You can’t let time wasters slow you down.

I’m not telling you to be rude.

I’m telling you to be active.

You need to understand that the world is set up to waste your time.

Everything is slow.

Everything moves at a snails pace.

People in supermarkets move through the aisles, seemingly in slow motion.

You call your bank to resolve an issue and have to wait on hold for 2 hours.

You order food at a restaurant, wait so long that you’re not even hungry anymore.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate my point.

I was in Cyprus a few weeks ago on holiday with my family.

It was exquisite.

Despite it being the middle of January, the sun was out and the temperature was well above 20 degrees celsius.

We had a tremendous time charging around the island.

North, South, didn’t matter.

We treated it all like the red carpet.

Anyway, on one day when me and my family were going to head to Mount Olympos, we stopped off at a restaurant for breakfast.

We left the house early so we could have a long hike on the mountain.

After driving an hour, we decided to stop off at a restaurant we’d been to before.

Last couple of times we went, everything was fine.

The waitresses were polite.

The food was good.

What more could we ask for?

The problem was, we’d only ever been there for dinner.

Turns out breakfast is not what this place specialises in.

We show up there at around 10 in the morning and ask the waiter if they’re open.

He says “yes”, but he doesn’t sound too sure of himself.

We ignore his lack of confidence and sit down.

After looking at the menu for just a few seconds, we know exactly what we want.

I order pancakes.

My dad orders scrambled eggs.

And my aunt orders a traditional Turkish breakfast.

The waiter was being a bit weird throughout this process.

Instead of taking the orders down automatically, he was peering over our shoulders to confirm our selections.

Almost as if this place had never prepared any of these meals before.

After ordering our food, we ask for tea to drink.

He says they didn’t have any tea.

Red flag.

What kind of restaurant can’t serve tea?

How incompetent do you have to be?

You literally just have to boil water, put a tea bag in a mug and voila!

You have tea.

So instead we asked for coffee.

But guess what?

No coffee.

Red flag number 2.

At this point, alarm bells should have been ringing in our ears louder than a bomb siren in Dresden.

We were at a fully equipped restaurant, yet these people couldn’t make basic beverages that children can whip up.

Instead of standing up and leaving, we decide to give them a chance.

After all, we were exceptionally hungry.

We ask for water and wait for breakfast.

After about 8 minutes, the waiter comes back to our table with bad news.

He informs my dad that he can’t have what he ordered because, and I quote, “the chef isn’t here”.

Now, he said this in Turkish so I didn’t understand him.

I speak Turkish but wasn’t familiar with the word for cook, it’s not a word I’ve ever used before.

If I had known, we would have been out of there in a heartbeat.

But because we were so hungry, my dad picked something else and we decided to wait.

We waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I mean, I know they’re called “waiters”, but this dude was taking the title way too seriously.

Until finally, my dad had enough.

He went to the bathroom, but on his way to take a leak, he decided to take a peek into the kitchen.

What he saw shocked him.

In the kitchen was a janitor we saw mopping the floors of the restaurant before we arrived.

He was playing around with an egg.

At this point, we’d lost our appetite.

Despite the restaurant being completely empty, the waiter didn’t even have the urgency to bring us our water promptly.

Truly pathetic.

I’m not going to tell you how long we waited, because it’s frankly embarrassing.

But after having so much of our time wasted, we got up and walked out.

It was the first time I’ve ever done that.

And frankly, I hope it’s the last.

How anyone can run a business like that, I have no idea.

Especially a in the restaurant industry, where margins are incredibly low and competition is fierce.

When we left, we were all filled with a sense of empowerment.

We felt emboldened by our decision and were ready to attack the rest of the day.

There’s something really attractive about grabbing life by the horns and taking initiative.

After that unfortunate event, the day turned into something spectacular.

We had a breakfast of power at a different place me and my father knew.

Drove across the border and marauded our way up the twisty Troodos mountain roads of Southern Cyprus.

A truly beautiful sight to behold.

And once we reached Mount Olympos, the warm rays of sunshine were replaced with snowy showers from the tundra.

It was tremendous.

After conquering Olympos and claiming it as our own, we drove down to the metropolis of Lemesos, a city I once visited as a child.

Finally, after having nice meal, I drove us all the way from the southern tip of the island, all the way back up to the northern shore.

So why am I telling you all this?

In short, life can only exist if you live it.

You cannot afford to wait for life to happen to you.

You can’t waste any more time wishing for things which aren’t real.

You need to stop holding off on doing the things you know you should be doing.

Because contrary to popular belief, the longer you wait — the worse it gets.

If you’re a coward now, you’ll be an even bigger coward later.

If you’re afraid of taking risks now — you’ll be petrified of the smallest risks down the road.

Get out there and get moving,

Godfrey