Eliminating the Insignificant

Time is limited, but the things that try to take our time are limitless, and so we need to “eliminate the insignificant.”¹ as someone said it. We need to be more “choosey” in our choices with less attention to trivia and more attentive to the things that mean the most— because we never have time enough to do all we want to do or ought to do. A John Burroughs said it, “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.”² And along with all the pressure of the present, we must take time to plan and think ahead for the future. When we are shooting at moving target, we must shoot ahead if we want to hit it, for it keeps moving ahead where we are aiming. Many centuries ago Seneca said: “Even if we paid strict attention, life would soon get ahead of us; but as we are now, life… passes us by…, and although it ends on the final day, it perishes every day.”³ We need to take time to think, to learn from the past, to appraise the present, to plan the future. “There must be,” as Massillon said, “a certain desire of improvement and serious turn of mind, opposed to everything frivolous; a habit of retirement and reflection; a methodical arrangement of life:…”⁴ And the fast the pace, the greater is the pressure, and the more we need solid foundations and our roots down deep. We should eliminate the insignificant, the trashy and the trivial, and not let our lives be broken into little pieces that get lost along the way. We need each one of us, a plan, and a purpose—so that each motion and each moment has its meaning. We need to eliminate the insignificant.