Time = Energy

I have a theory. That time and energy are of the same value. Now I know this might not be scientific but hear me out.

The amount of energy one can give out is directly proportionate to the length of time that a person has to expend that energy. For example, if you have a certain amount of voltage in a battery, that energy will give you x amount of light. You cannot burn a light bulb for a longer period of time than the energy that you have to burn. So time is equal to energy.

So what does that have to do with anything in the real world?

I am starting to realise that my energy/time is my most valuable commodity. I honestly feel that humans have only a certain amount of energy that they can give out in a day. There is only one you and your energy is limited to you. Therefore, there is only so much of you that you can give to a certain time period. Because time is static (we all have 24 hours in day) we can only give our finite energy to that time.

Another way of putting this is there is so much need around me I need to ask what am I going to focus on. There will always be another problem to solve, another person to help, another conversation that needs to be heard, another point of order that needs to be achieved. The problem is that we can pump so much of our time/energy into the abyss of issues around us and yet, come away feeling the same as when we started.

We can feel burnt out, hopeless, in despair, confused, numb.

I think deep down inside all of us we want to matter. That at the end of the day that our time/energy achieved something. That our existence actually is noticed. It can often lead us to a saviour complex. Where we need to save the world. We need to become the answer to the brokenness around us. We need to sacrifice ourselves for those around us. We become the good news rather than a reflection of it.

I am starting to realise that I have only a couple of hours in the day in which to do my work. I am just one person in a sea of people. I can only do what is in front of me. This does not mean that I don't work hard, on the contrary, it means I pour myself fully into the task that is ahead of me. I am not distracted by trying to fix everything. So I might get less done but I do it more thoroughly.

Sometimes brokenness is so apparent it calls for immediate attention. However, in the same breath I also believe that beauty is also apparent and we have to give the same amount of time/energy to recognising the beauty around us . Often we are so busy fixing that we forget to just be in this moment. To notice what has been there right in front of us all along. To realise we are finite beings, with finite energy, working with a finite time.