Mortality work is the exploration and alignment of how you use your time taking into account the finite nature of and facing the true reality that now is the time for you to do a lot of what you say you’ll do later.
What do I want to do with my time that’s important to me? Spending time doing what I love with people who I love. Something fulfilling and something that generates soul dollars.
We each have approximately 1000 waking minutes a day. Some of you might already be thinking… I have more than that, I don’t sleep that much. Bingo! You’re already recognizing how we strike the bargains that we do to gain more time. How we use our time reflects our values. What you tell people you value is not what you value, what you value is where you spend your time. Hopefully they’re aligned. When it comes to work, play, spiritual practices, family, reading, where is the sweet spot?
What’s too much? What’s too little?
I say often if you’re not taking care of your body, your health, your relationships that you say are precious, you are not successful. I can rationalize doing things temporarily during a startup or for other specific reasons but if your plan is to work more that fifty hours a week for the rest of your life there will be compromises. How long are we willing to tolerate working 12, 15, 17 hours a day? 18 months, 3 years, 30 years?
You might wonder to yourself, what would it be like to work under 50 hours a week? Statistically speaking your efficiency drops to 10%. I know, I know, you’re different. You make good use of that time, don’t you? Do a time audit and let’s see what’s being neglected.
On occasions throughout my lifetime I’ve worked under 35 hours a week. I felt unproductive and like I wasn’t being useful. I’ve got some baggage there but if/when I don’t need to work I know now after some serious soul searching that I will still be working towards a mission with certain amounts of my time. I contribute now and I will likely continue to contribute whether it’s in my work or not.
The trouble is you think you have more time. Enjoy yourself because this all ends.
The opportunity:
Are you the person that needs to work less and quit compromising or are you the person that needs to find more generative things to do with your time?
Take action on the answer to that question.
If you’re the person who’s aligned and in the sweet spot, keep kicking ass and making the world a better place!
Thanks for your time, have a great day!