Ask anyone what is the most costly commodity there is, and most people will answer that it’s something such as gold, diamonds or some rare metal. But what most people never realize is that these are all eternal commodities. In a thousand years they will still be around. A really valuable commodity is one that disappears if you don’t use it. In this respect the most valuable commodity is time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

There are lots of ways to waste time, but one of the most common is spending time feeling depressed or angry about the way we have been treated by others. It’s something which many people do, and it seems that human beings are somehow conditioned to think of the bad things that have happened to them rather than the good things. Even when we are contented, the memory of how bad we’ve been treated by someone can suddenly jump into our thoughts without warning, casting a dark shadow over what might well have been a happy time.

This constant remembering of bad experiences at the hands of others seems inescapable, and eventually begins to seem a normal way to use our time. Remembering is normal, but allowing those bad memories to cloud the present is actually it’s a pointless way to spend our time, because we can’t change the past and can really only work in the present. By thinking of the past we actually destroy any ability we have to do something in the present—and the present is the most valuable commodity we have, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.

This shows the importance of forgiving and forgetting the wrongs done against us. When we forgive we can let go of the past and begin to work in the present. Then once we begin to work in the present we soon find that the incidents of the past are no longer of any consequence. Working in the present enables us to make use of that most valuable commodity—our time—and eventually use it to make the most of ourselves.

Steve Bentham runs the website http://www.inspirationinsights.com, a website dedicated to inspiration and motivation