Essay on “The Value of Time” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes

The Value of Time

Time is precious, time is money. We all grow in time, we live in time and we perish in time. Time is universal and all important. But what is time? Perhaps no body can define it precisely. We may not be able to define it, but we know what it is and how valuable it is. Our life is a short span of time in the eternity and we must make best use of it. Everybody wants success, but only a fortunate few achieve it, because they make the most of every second of this precious commodity called time. Time and tide waits for no man or woman. One cannot command time to stop or to wait. You cannot buy it, nor can you recover it. Time once wasted and spent can never be regained. The flow of time is ceaseless and eternal. It is more powerful than the mightiest kings, princes and monarchs. Kingdoms, dynasties and epochs come and go, but the flow of time goes for ever uninterrupted. Time is deaths time is birth, time is old age, it is everything. Nothing escapes time. Time is abstract but its footprints are concrete and palpable. You may use it wisely or spend it foolishly. The choice is yours, and so are its consequences. It is the basic material that goes in making your career, your wealth, happiness, success and stature in society. Shakespeare had said:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.

Time is opportunity which has been used by the wise to their best advantage. As a result of that they have risen to dizzy heights of success. Those who recognize the inaudible foot-steps of time have always kept pace with it, and have been profusely rewarded. But those who have not been able to roll with the flow of time’s easels course, have been a total failure. If we take no note of time, we lose a precious opportunity. It is a mistaken idea that we can kill time. On the contrary it is time that kills us if not utilized properly. Many have become immortal and timeless because they strived ceaselessly in using every minute for the benefit of mankind, and bequeathed great discoveries, inventions, ideas, plans and other such treasures to the world.

It has been rightly said that time wasted is mere existence, used, is life. But how many of us really love. Most of us only exist as do stones, trees,_ animals and other non-intelligent beings. The proper use of time is the best guarantee of success and happiness. Time is endless, infinite, eternal and universal; but in relation to individuals, it is limited. As such we should properly make use of it. You can neither borrow, steal or earn time. The time lost once, is lost forever. When we say ‘a stitch in time saves nine’, we say the same thing idiomatically. The results of putting off things are often harmful. A work done in time is time gained. A decisive action at a given moment is very vital. Time travels in diverse speeds with divers’-people. For an idle and lazy man it may even standstill, but for a laborious and intelligent person it flies on wings. They feel their life span too short and the work to be done too much and too hard. The tragedy with most of us is that we never know the real value of time. We spend it so lavishly like a prodigal that there is no time left even to repent. With all great, sincere and hardworking people, the most common theme has been the shortness of life. The prophets, the poets, the philosophers, the wise and the men who have had always really mattered, have told us that our life is a bubble, a shifting sand, a passing dream, a thing of naught, evanescent as the morning mist or dew, and yet we spend it as if our life a is as lasting and stable as the stars shining above. Most of us waste time criminally in idle gossips, in the market places, in hotels, clubs and restaurants in useless talks and trash. It makes one sad to think how all the teachings and sayings of the sages, the wise, the teachers and the divines have been of no avail in this context. We waste our precious time either grieving over our past mistakes or in making castles in the air in the future. But we never take hold of the present. In other words we spend today in fretting over the dead yesterday, or day-dreaming on tomorrow which is yet not born. In the words of poet Shelley:

We look before and after

And pine for what is not:

 Our sweetest laughter With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those

That tell of saddest thought.

These lines very beautifully underline the tragedy of our life. It is an established and time-tested fact that one becomes great and good in proportion to the time profitably used. The necessity of economizing time can never be over-emphasized. The hours people waste, may be the very minutes that would have ensured their happiness and success.

For obtaining success, good results and happiness it is necessary that there is proper use and application of time. “A time for everything, and everything in time” should be our guiding principle. By proper handling and application of time one can accomplish in a day as much as another person would achieve in a week. The secret of this lies in the proper application of time. The successful men never talk in terms of leisure, because they never have any. It is only the idler who has leisure and leisure. What is best in our culture, civilization arts, etc., we actually owe to the men who have made the very best of every minute. A right use of time is the right use of opportunity. Such men and women have always been punctual in their work which means of doing things exactly in time. Proper application, economy and punctuality of time are the basic steps leading to success. History is full of examples how punctuality has led to victories, and unpunctuality to failures, defeats, humiliation and ruin. Punctuality is also courtesy and good manners.