The Value of Time: A Motivational Speech by Tonny Rutakirwa
Discover the profound insights on the value of time in a motivational speech by Tonny Rutakirwa. Learn how to make the most of every moment and appreciate the importance of time in achieving your goals.
SPEECHESMONTHLY STATEMENTS
The value of time. Seems like a rather grand concept, one of those big statements that we all struggle to define accurately. And the problem is, and always has been with people, that we don't know the value of time until that time runs out. It's a tragedy really, and one that I've always struggled with. Or at least I did, until someone told me a story, a story that changed my perspective entirely on the whole thing. I've never forgotten it, and I want to pass it on to you.
So I have a friend who's a nurse. And she loves her job, really cares about what she does. She takes care of people, and she cares about every one of them. Even the ones who don't care about her at all. She deals with drug addicts, criminals, mother's having their first babies, kids with asthma, pretty much every different kind of person you could think of. And some of them are normal, just your usual day to day stuff, they come in for a check up, or a blood test, or whatever it is the doctor wants from them. But she told me about one guy, an older man, back when she was still a student nurse. Now this guy had been in the hospital for a long time. He'd been checked in with some illness or another and, because he was of that kind of age, things weren't looking too positive in terms of him having too long left in his life once he left the place. The fall has made the clock of his life start ticking, and ticking fast. Everyone knew this, the doctors, the nurses, the man himself. They knew that, even though he might leave for a while, it wasn’t going to be years, or even months.
Now, I know myself, that if I was in his situation, I’d be feeling pretty miserable. What’s even the point of keeping up a brave face if you know you have barely any time left? I think a lot of us would be the same way. Gloomy and hopeless, because this situation was gloomy and hopeless. But this man wasn’t like that at all. If anything, he was almost too cheery. He’d chat to the people in beds next to him, he’d make jokes to the doctors and the nurses, and spent most of his few weeks there smiling. His family would visit, and he’d be making them laugh too, despite the fact that they were obviously devastated about the outlook for him.
My friend was very curious about this man. She couldn’t help it. She was only a young woman, nowhere near her time to die, of course, so she just couldn’t fathom how this patient was dealing with it so well. And he’d talk to her, just like he’d talk to all the other nurses, and they’d chat about the weather, or sports, or anything else that came to mind. But above all else she was dying to know. What was keeping him so calm? Why did he seem so… content? So she made excuses to be around him, to try and figure out this mystery.
This man was obviously no fool though, because eventually he noticed, figured out what was happening, and he asked her. He said “You want to know don’t you?” And of course, her being a nurse, she pretended she had no idea what he was talking about, that she was just doing her job, all the rest of it. But he saw through that. “You want to know why I’m not wailing, crying, howling woe is me at the walls? Because I’m going to die?” And to this, she had nothing to say. What can you really say when someone asks you that question?
So she said nothing, and he told her anyway. And this is what he said:
I’m not rich. I didn’t spend all of my days on exotic holidays, I didn’t drive a fancy car, and I didn’t live in some big mansion. My days weren’t filled with parties or champagne or anything posh like that. I had a normal life, and a normal car, and a normal job.”
None of this seemed all that impressive to my friend. There was no secret to eternal happiness there. But the man kept going.
“What I did have” he said, “was a family. I had a wife, and three great grandchildren, and two absolutely gorgeous children. And all of my moments that I wasn’t working, I spent with them. I could’ve spent more time, I’m sure. I don’t doubt that for a second. But the moments we did have, they’re what mean the most, and they’re what stay with me now. Why would I cry when I already have everything I could ever want?”
And that was that. That was his secret. That was his answer. Family. Nothing complicated. No ancient secret or gift from the skies. Just knowing that the time he spent with his family was incredible.
And that’s the value of time, at the heart of it. We can try to put a figure on it. How much money do you make in an hour, that kind of thing. But this man, this patient seemed to get where the value of time really is. It’s not in the money we accrue during that time. Or in the material items we can grab. It’s in the moments we create with the people we love, because if we end up where he was, and eventually we all will one way or another, no amount of cars are going to make a difference. The number of rooms in your house won’t matter either. The only thing that will matter at that point will be who you spent your time with. If those memories are still with you in your final days, then that was the most valuable time you could have had.