"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of" ~ Bruce Lee

I had never actually known that Bruce Lee, aside from being the most famous martial artist man has ever known, was actually a philosopher. Tragically, this quote of his has its importance personified in his premature death at the young age of 32 years old.

So "If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of'" What could this mean? I'm sure some people would say 'No, life is made up of the people you live it with' or 'Life is not just made out of time, it is made out of the experiences we live through' and so on. All of these are true. But we must remember that these quotes and sayings are not locked in stone. They are not facts. They are opinions. And through these opinions, we learn to see the world through the speakers eyes, and perceive the truths that they believe in. And these opinions are true, to whoever believes in them.

The quote tells us to not waste time, as 'Time is what life is made up of'' Taken literally, it is absolutely true. We humans live only for a finite lifespan, there is no immortal man (at least, not yet). So, Bruce Lee is telling us not to squander the time we have. Many of us, in fact all of us at some point waste time by procrastinating, not doing the things we know will be good for us, but putting it off because we don't feel like doing it. Staring mindlessly at a wall also wastes time but somehow I don't think Bruce Lee was referring to something like that.

But more importantly, the quote carries a deeper meaning of discipline, dreams and courage. 'Don't waste time'. How many people in the world never accomplish what they've always wanted to do, solely because they never started. How many people have said they would like to do things, like go to the gym, learn how to cook or some other goal that they don't ever accomplish? That would be wasting time...lingering on thoughts, dreaming and fantasizing instead of going through the process of doing whatever is necessary to accomplish one's goals. Several articles here and there saying that the reason most people never start doing something, is because they are afraid of doing it. Afraid that their efforts will be in vain, afraid that they will fail, afraid that it was pointless to do so. If we examine the quote...and try to extrapolate a bit...

Don't Waste time = Don't be Afraid


Whatever we choose to do is pointless, only if it loses what it is worth to ourselves. Going to the gym is pointless, if afterwards we decide the pain of working out isn't worth the better health we gain (the muscles help too). Learning to cook is pointless, if we decide that we can get our wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, or anybody else to cook for us. If however, we take the view that whatever we want to accomplish, is worthwhile something that we must accomplish...then why let fear hold us back from doing it?

This post is getting quite long, and I suppose I should be going. There is so much more I feel like saying, so much more I think that I need to explain, to clarify. But I suppose I'll leave that for another post, and I'll let whoever reads this decide the meaning of this quote to themselves. I know what it means to me, to whoever reads this - let us know what it means to you by commenting. No matter how late.