“The thing is, we think we have time.” – Buddha

My dad thought he had time. His dream was to visit all the National Parks when he retired. He worked six-seven days a week most of his life. He was an honorable man who felt a deep obligation to make an enduring difference for the people he worked with and for.

He achieved that goal. But at a cost.

Dad finally took off on his long-delayed dream a week after he retired. A week after that, he had a stroke in a hotel bathroom. He eventually recovered, but he never got to visit Banff, Zion or the Grand Tetons. He never got to do what he had dreamed of doing his whole life.

I don’t want that to happen to me.

I don’t want that to happen to you.

I don’t want that to happen to anyone.

Please, right now, change your perspective about TIME. Change the way you think about it. Change the way you talk about it. Because it matters.

Do you talk about “never having enough time?” About being “behind time?” About waiting until you have “more time?”

Please understand you will never have MORE TIME than you have RIGHT NOW.

The best way to make the most of your time is to spend it on what really matters now, not someday.

To that purpose, I’m sharing 20 thought-provoking quotes that can increase your awareness and appreciation of the all-important role time plays in creating your quality of life.

Confucius said, “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”

Simply said, being more mindful of how you spend your time is the single best thing you can do to make the most of your “second life.”

You might want to print out these quotes and post them so they’re in sight, in mind so you keep your promise to make the most of your time … top of mind.

20 Quotes to Make the Most of Your Second Life

1. “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” – Carl Sandburg

2. “The bad news? Time flies. The good news? You’re the pilot.” – Michael Altschuler

3. “One day, you’re going to wake up and there won’t be any time left to do the things you’ve always wanted to do.” – Paulo Coelho

4. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” – nurse Bonnie Ware, reporting the #1 regret of people at the end of their life

5. “At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results.” – Chuck Yeager

6. “The future is already here and we’re already late.” – John Legend

7. “Now is the new later.” – Sam Horn

8. “Tomorrow is another day, but so was yesterday.” – Rene Ricard

9. “The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” – J.P. Morgan

10. “Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.” – Lao Tzu

11. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard

12. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin

13. “If you’ve made a decision and haven’t taken action, you haven’t really made a decision.” – Tony Robbins

14. “It’s only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day to day basis.” – Margaret Bonnano

15. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol

16. “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” – Henry David Thoreau

17. “How did it get so late so soon?” – Dr. Seuss

18. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” – C.S. Lewis

19. “We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” – Nelson Mandela

20. Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck

Pope Paul II said, “The future starts today, not tomorrow.”

The time is ripe to value yourself and value your time. The time is ripe to change your future by choosing to invest your time in what will matter in the long run … starting today, not someday.

– – –

Sam Horn, CEO of the Intrigue Agency, is on a mission to help people create the life, work and relaionships of their dreams. Her books been featured in NY Times, on NPR and presented to NASA, Intel, Cisco, Boeing, ASAE. This is excerpted from her newest book SOMEDAY is Not a Day in the Week.