I’m a big fan of random facts and seemingly useless information.  I’m also a big fan of Stephen Fry.  So when the two are combined in the TV programme ‘QI’, I’m pretty much content.

I happened to catch an episode recently and although I can’t remember specifically what topic they were discussing, the subject of ‘moments’ came up.  Specifically: how long is a ‘moment’?  A long conversation and lots of banter later, it emerged that the QI definition of ‘a moment’ is 3 seconds.

There are many different kinds of moments.  For example, we often talk of ‘living in the moment’, ‘enjoying the moment’, ‘being in the moment’ etc…

I’ve had some clients give it a negative twist, as in “I’m just living moment to moment, I can’t see a future for me right now”.

A lot of the work I do with my therapy and coaching clients leads them to ‘lightbulb moments’ – those points at which they come to some kind of realisation about why they’ve been doing the things they’ve been doing, or thinking/feeling the things they’ve been thinking/feeling, or why they’ve believed the things that they’ve always believed about themselves up until now.  I like those moments – they’re pretty magical, and it’s part of why I love what I do so much.

Something else that I love to do is to capture ‘moments’ in my photography.  Shared glances, emotions and expressions.  A stunning landscape.  The beauty contained intrinsically within what I see through the viewfinder.  Those moments where there are no barriers, no walls – just simple, uncomplicated, honest moments that tell a story.

‘Moments’ have been on my mind a lot recently.  The word seems to be in a lot of the music I’m listening to.  It keeps popping up in the books I’m reading.  And the death of my Nana has obviously made me think a lot more about how precarious life is and how we really do need to make the most of every single moment we have – none of them should be wasted.

So I got to thinking – if a moment lasts for just 3 seconds, how many potential moments are there in each day for us to experience?

(*surreptitiously gets out calculator and frantically presses buttons*)

Ok – there are 28,800 moments in a 24 hour period.  If the average person gets 8 hours sleep per night, that leaves 19,200 waking moments for us to take advantage of every single day.

19,200 moments.

Of course a lot of them will be spent working, or commuting, or doing housework, or eating.  But who’s to say that we can’t make those moments special too?!

And those moments when we’re not doing mundane stuff?  You know, when we’re spending time with our families, our friends, our kids.  Or when we’re doing the stuff we love to do, the stuff that’s good for our soul.  Or even those rare and precious moments that we have to ourselves where we can be still and quiet and peaceful.  Those are the most important ones.  Those are the ones that you have to squeeze as much passion and happiness and enjoyment and love out of as possible.  Those are the ones that you have to be aware of, to be conscious of, to make yourself notice.

Because when a moment is gone, it’s gone.  It might remain in your heart and in your memory, but you will never again experience that exact same moment.

And that is what makes moments so special.

So I’ll leave you with this:  Go and take a moment for yourself.  Yep – right now.  That moment is yours, and you can do with it whatever you choose.

Just make that moment matter.