To believe that time is the most valuable thing we have?

[ByLoyalGreenWriter]

People often talk about money, success, or relationships being the most important, but isn’t time really the one thing we can never get back? AIBU to think that how we spend our time matters more than anything else in life?

If you can nap or Mumsnet then you have time.

It's the lack of time for whatever you want to do with that's a problem.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently OP and it’s SO SO true

It's all about what choices we have, or haven't.

We're all in the waiting room. Make the most of it.

OP you need to listen to the Craig Douglas song ‘Time’ - it’s a banger

I have been thinking a lot about this recently. Next week it will be 3 years since my sister died, she had turned 54 the week before. (It is her birthday today). She had an illness for a long time but even though she had been bed ridden for the last 6 months, I don't think I had expected her to die.
Her child, a teen at the time, will marry next year and has just announced that they will become a parent this year. These milestones would have meant the world to my sister .
You can buy so many things in this world but you cannot buy time.

Absolutely. And we need to appreciate that time every day. A very good friend of mine was diagnosed with terminal cancer on new years day. Totally out of the blue, 57yrs old. It’s made me realise I am wishing my life away, waiting for things to happen (eg DD become 18) so I can do things I have planned. I am going to appreciate every day, especially the days I get to spend with my wonderful friend as time is not on her side as its spread so much. Literally life has turned upside down with zero warning.

Appreciate good health, appreciate spending time with those you love and building memories. That could be a simple pleasure like binge watching some TV with your dogs curled up and a blanket on a cold January day.

I don't remember where I heard this, but it's always stuck with me: 'money comes and goes, but time just goes'.

This is always trotted out on these threads, along with

the cliche about “No one on their deathbed ever wished they had worked more,” but it’s only partially true.

Of course working so much you never see your family is miserable but having loads of time and no money to do anything is probably worse.

I would rather work hard to provide enough surplus cash to do more than exist and have less but higher quality time with people I love, personally.

Time is indeed valuable but time stretching out endlessly with nothing to fill it is my personal hell.

The quality time you spent with loved ones (family &friends), is the most important thing in life.

We do need money in order to achieve this.

This. Time is hard with poor health.

Time but even more so, love.
We hope for time,we live in time. But we absolutely live for love.
My neighbour lost two of her sons in the past few years. Time has been brutal, in many ways. I've watched time drag her through unfathomable grief and leave its teethmarks. But time also moves her away from acute grief back into that space where love gives her enough strength to persevere. Time moves on. Her face softens as she learns to transcend grief. Time has carried her. Love holds her.

Both time and love are blessings unmatched by anything else in life.

The obvious answer is that you want a reasonable amount of all the things you list. Having a large amount of any of them is meaningless, if you don't have a reasonable amount of the others.

There's no point having time if you don't also have money, relationships and good health. They're all interlinked. I've had periods in life where I've had an abundance of spare time but no friends or family to spend it with and I've been way more miserable than now, when I have a family and little spare time.

Time, health and money are the 3 most important resources that most people have, and the importance of each will vary from person to person and across their lives.

Ask a 20yo which is the most important and they will probably say money, but ask them if they would swap with Warren Buffet and of course they say no, because time becomes more scarce/important when you’re in your 90s!

edited to remove typos and to agree with pp that relationships are vital for happiness

I agree with you 100%.
When my son was born in 1999 and then diagnosed with a life limiting disease with the life expectancy only being 32 at that time it changed my whole perspective on life.
Death has always been a topic in our house because it was gonna be a reality one day that we would have to bury our son so we sort of embraced death all while acknowledging just how shit it all is anyway I will get to my point lol unfortunately my son died in an accident aged 22 in May 2022 and of course it devastated me and his dad and his little sister but I felt a kind of peace because of his diagnosis there was never anything left unsaid and in a weird way that is only because of him having Cystic Fibrosis.
He asked me once if I would be livid if he died from something else rather than what was expected to kill him and I told him he better bloody not lol and he found that hilarious and everyone said after he died that it was just typical of him and how funny he would have found it (not that we think death is hilarious btw lol but as a family we used dark humour a lot especially my son) I can honestly say I treasured every minute with him because I knew it wouldn't last forever and I'm so so thankful for that and I wish everyone could approach life this way.
Since then I have lost my partner (feb 2024) and obviously that also devastated me but I know life is so short so I do appreciate every minute with every one I love (unless they are getting on my tits lol)
Sorry for the long unexpected reply haha I just wish that there was a better approach to death