Uplifting Wisdom from a Timeless Book

Inspirational snippets from the 1910 classic, “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day"

Friends,
Welcome to my essay.

Quite some time ago, I read a great book. It is “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day” by Arnold Bennett. Here are a few snippets of my learning from this timeless classic published in 1910.

Hope these snippets, taken from the first three chapters of this slim book, prove useful to you as well.

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Chapter I: The Daily Miracle

My Key Learning:
1. Time is the raw material of everything. Time is infinitely more important than money.
2. With time, everything is possible. Without time, nothing is possible.
3. The daily supply of time is a sheer miracle. Thus, every single day, when we wake up in the morning, we find our purse magically filled with 24 brand new hours!
4. That wealth of 24 hours is ours alone: it is the most important of our possessions. No one can take that wealth away from us because it is un-stealable. The supply of that wealth is very democratic as well: no one receives even a minute more than we receive.
5. We can never get into debt: we cannot spend tomorrow’s 24 hours today. Out of our daily blessing of 24 hours, we can only waste the present hour. We cannot waste the next hour: this brand-new hour is kept ready for us by God. It is the best example of Divine grace!
6. Hence, it is of utmost importance to budget our time and live within our daily income of 24 hours.

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Chapter II: The Desire to Exceed One’s Programme

My Key Learning:
1. The majority of people are tormented by their conscience because they know the days are rushing by, and yet, they are nowhere close to achieving their potential in life.
2. The reason for such inner torment is that, day after day, they are content to remain within their comfort zones. Hence, they automatically condemn themselves to stay mediocre all through their life.
3. Only the rare minority who go above and beyond their comfort zone are able to fulfill their God-given potential and thus succeed in the business of life.

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Chapter III: Precautions Before Beginning

My Key Learning:
1. The chief beauty of the constant supply of 24 hours each day is that we cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour is lying ready for us, as perfect, as unspoilt as if we’ve never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all our life.
2. We can, thus, turn over a new leaf every hour if we choose. This is the most encouraging truth of life.
3. When we start an initiative aimed at improving some part of our life, let us start on a very small scale and be content with the very small success we will get as a result.
4. A very small success will not remain so always; when continued over a prolonged period, it will get transformed into a large-scale success that is lasting as well.

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Summary of My Learning:

I would like to summarize my learning by quoting a golden sentence of Arnold Bennett himself:
“The best use of our daily income of 24 hours is of the highest importance, as everything in life depends on that. And we shall never have any more time than 24 hours a day to achieve our purpose in life.
We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.”

Best Wishes,
The Uplifting Essayist