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Moments: The secret of life.(The Origin)

Written by: Swarup Dutta

Article Overview: Last fall two unrelated media events sparked the creation of Time Control’s Moments tool. The first was an interview with Dallas Cowboys' football star Deion Sanders. Having made a career of highlight reel interceptions and punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns, Deion reflected that he defined the success of his career by individual moments on the field. With all of the years of preparation for the NFL, with all of the countless hours of physical. and mental conditioning, with all of the practices, with all of the hours of actual game time throughout his career, it was the individual big plays that defined Deion Sanders. Moments tool is about how we measure our success and joy through time.

Moments: The secret of life.(The Origin)

The Origin

Last fall two unrelated media events sparked the creation of Time Control’s Moments tool.

The first was an interview with Dallas Cowboys' football star Deion Sanders. Having made a career of highlight reel interceptions and punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns, Deion reflected that he defined the success of his career by individual moments on the field. With all of the years of preparation for the NFL, with all of the countless hours of physical and mental conditioning, with all of the practices, with all of the hours of actual game time throughout his career, it was the individual big plays that defined Deion Sanders.

These individual defining moments could be summed up into just a handful of minutes. In his thousands of hours of living the game of football, Deion’s success and fame were measured in mere moments. It is for these moments that he is paid millions of dollars a year.

When I heard this interview the Moments tool didn’t hit me quite yet, but I began to think about how we measure our success and joy through time. I immediately thought of other sport stars and how their success and fame were measured the same as Deion Sanders’. Almost every sport’s hero I could think of was defined by mere moments -–the accumulation of short-lived big plays that made them famous.

Mark McGwire was perhaps the best sports example in my brainstorming. Mark McGwire, Major League Baseball’s all time homerun leader, electrified a nation and rejuvenated a dying past time in 1998 when he not only eclipsed Roger Maris’ 37-year longstanding 61 homerun single season record, he shattered it with an almost untouchable 70 homeruns. Each homerun took only seconds to hit and just a moment or two to complete the running of the bases and a short celebration at home plate. Americans who never followed baseball began to watch and become more and more interested as the media followed his every step that season.

With each new homerun, with each monster swing closer to the record he took, special moments accumulated. McGwire’s homerun swing to tie the record at 61 and his next to eclipse it were moments frozen in time for baseball history. The live national television coverage, the unbelievable amount of reporters and cameramen, the St. Louis hometown fans’ intensity, and McGwire’s classy sense of his place in history created a sense of magic for baseball that hadn’t been felt in decades.

The true measurement of time for each of these events was only a few minutes. But their worth, their value to Mark McGwire, his family, teammates and friends, Major League Baseball, the tens of thousands who were present, and the millions who watched live was priceless. Defining moments for Mark McGwire, Major League Baseball and America.

I thought this idea of defining moments was neat for sports stars but what about everybody else – what about us in our own personal lives. I reflected on parts of my own past and tried to see if moments impacted me in the same way. They had. When I thought about my time in college at the United States Naval Academy, I saw it was moments that defined my experiences. Although I had spent four long years at Annapolis, all I could focus on in remembering my past was individual moments in time. The events that welled up in my memory only took a few minutes each – getting my head shaved my first day of arrival, overcoming individual physical, mental and emotional challenges thrown at me my first year, experiences with friends and roommates, courting my wife, finally beating Army in football, receiving my diploma from the Vice President of the United States, and throwing my cover into the air with a thousand fellow graduates as the Blue Angels zoomed overhead during graduation.

I put this same focus toward my Naval aviation career and had the same results. My eight years of aviation service was defined by moments. My success, my defining memories, my reputation were defined by the accumulation of individual minutes in time. Although I had spent years in training with countless hours of study and practice what stuck with me, what defined that time for me was the few exhilarating moments spent in my first flight, having my wife and parents pin on my Navy Wings of Gold, flying by myself for the first time, the handful of times I tracked Russian submarines, flying at the North Pole, and dodging hurricanes and capturing drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

Following the Deion Sanders’ interview and putting some thought into it I knew I was on to something that would help Time Control, but I felt I was still missing a piece of the puzzle. Then a week later I heard Faith Hill on the radio. I was driving home one evening with my family and just randomly switching radio stations to find a good song to listen to. I seldom listen to country music stations but just happened to lock on to one at the right time. Faith Hill’s “The Secret of Life” was playing. It was an upbeat tune so I stuck with it. Then I began to actually listen to the words. The lyrics hit me like a bolt of lightning, and I got very excited. This was it! Hill’s simple message was the missing piece of the puzzle I didn’t even realize I was looking for.

Faith Hill’s message was that the secret of life isn’t complex or mysterious. It lies in the simple pleasures and rules of day to day life that we tend to overlook. As she sings in her song about two guys having a conversation in a bar, the secret of life is “a good cup of coffee,” “keep your eye on the ball,” “a beautiful woman,” “Monday Night Football,” “Rolling Stones records,” “Mom's apple pies,” “gettin' up early,” “stayin' up late,” “try not to hurry,” and “to find the right woman.”

Obviously her list in the song doesn’t apply to everyone, but her message does. Rather than trying to concentrate our lives on looking for a magical key to unlock the secret door of life, we should open our eyes to the wonders before us every day. They’re different for each of us, but we all have them. Faith Hill’s message is to be conscious of and grateful for the simple pleasures and truths in our lives.

By the time her song was over on my drive home I had completed my Moments tool. It only took a few minutes itself to create, but its impact felt so true and it complemented my other Time Control tools so well, that I knew it had significant value to our control of time.

The tool Moments says that our joy and enrichment in time are defined by our accumulation of individual, positive moments – both defining, significant moments and simple, everyday ones.

Hear the full audio at www.timecontrol.cc

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