Before we talk about time, let's talk about everyone's favorite subject, money. Believe it or not there are a lot of close parallels between the two.
Wealth isn't just money, and power isn't just influence
We look at money as the ultimate wealth. Most of us spend our whole lives chasing it - but why? This may seem like a ridiculous question, but it's a question that I believe deserves some serious thought, considering how most people spend about 50% of their waking hours working for money.
Most of us believe that money will solve our problems. We've heard that more money brings more problems, and that old problems find a sneaky way of presenting themselves in new ways - but it's still hard to believe that more money isn't the answer. Let's take a closer look.
When you get more money, you suddenly have more options regarding how and where to spend it. These options become problems when we don't want to make the wrong choice. Though there's nothing inherently wrong with money, where we get all twisted up is when we don't see the responsibility that's paired with those riches. This is why I make it a point in my life to prove myself responsible with whatever I've been given. I'm training myself to be responsible with more. This concept is by no means exclusive to money.
We've all heard the saying from Spider-Man (which according to Wikipedia actually stemmed from the French Revolution), "with great power comes great responsibility." We've heard it, but usually the meaning doesn't sink in because we don't think of ourselves as in a 'position of power.' I learned in school to think of every dollar as a vote for which business should stay open. So, when you replace the words 'great power' with money, the saying takes on a whole different meaning. With money comes great responsibility. Money is power. Power is money.
As it is with money, so it is with time. Most people spend their lives working for time rather than having their time work for them. This usually leaves people broke - if not monetarily, it usually means that they don't have any time for themselves. Which leads us to the next section:
Broke is a mindset
Most people trade their time for money. Most people work at the office as a means to enjoy themselves on the weekends and their vacations. By contrast putting time to work for you looks like getting paid to do what you love and learn skills that you can use somewhere else. Though it may not have infinite returns like passive income, you're still putting your time to work for you because you're killing at least two birds with one stone - therefore making the most of you time. Put your time to work for you by doing something once that will pay off continually moving into the future.
To all the people who say that's impossible, they're trapped in the broke mindset.
A perfect example of the broke mindset are most winners of the lottery. Surprisingly, most of them go broke rather quickly. The same thing happens to professional sports players who retire with millions of dollars - somehow, they find a way to spend every penny and file for bankruptcy. These things happen because these people don't know the true value of that money. They take it for granted, thinking it will last forever, and don't spend it responsibly. That lack of responsibility is a broke mindset.
Our perspective on time and money
So, why all this talk about money if this article is about the value of time? Well, for starters both are resources; actually, they're our ultimate resources - everything that we have stems from them. How we handle money isn't exclusive to our finances, it's the lens in which we see all our resources through.
How we deal with finances directly influences how we spend our time. How we handle money isn't about the dollar amount, it's about what you do with what you have. That's how self-made millionaires did it - they turned what little they had into a slightly larger sum, and after a long enough time of repeating this process they had a fortune. They knew the value of their time, talent, and treasure.
If you're not responsible with the money that you have, whether that's a lot or a little, you will spend your entire life working for it. People who are financially responsible put their money to work for them. The same concept applies to your time. Just like money, time is a resource - it just happens to be much more valuable. We need to start treating it that way.
The ultimate investment isn't some startup that's going to blow up, and no it's not even cryptocurrency - the ultimate investment is your life, more specifically your time. Every moment you spend is a seed you sow - the question is are you planting the right crops, are you nurturing them well, are you harvesting at the right times?
We all have the same amount of time; it just comes down to how we think of and by extension how we value our time. How we value our time dictates what we will do with our lives.
Make the most out of every moment
What do you do with your time? What are you planning to do with your life? Do you truly understand the value of it? I doubt that many of us live day to day like this is the only chance we'll ever get.
Something that continually blows my mind is how many people seem to waste more time when they have more free time. Conversely when we don't have much free time, we tend to make the most of every moment. You don't need to be busy to value your time, just like you don't need to be wealthy to value your money. You just need the right perspective.
Clearly other people are willing to pay you for your time, why don't we think about paying ourselves? Too many of us conceptualize the worth of our time in terms of what other people are willing to pay us. Is it worth missing your kid's tee-ball game to put in a few extra hours of work at the office? Know what your time is worth. Constantly ask yourself 'what really matters?'
What are you doing with the life that you have? Though our time is scarce, we still have to choose to make our time valuable. The chances of you being born were about 1 in 400 trillion; you've already won the lottery, so act like it by dealing with the limited time you have responsibly. We can only shape our lives to be meaningful and valuable when we come to grips with the value of our own time. This is your one chance to live your best life. Make it count.
