Time is the most researched topic on google. Three times more than money, three times more than sex and almost twice as much as both of those put together.
I say often that time is our most valuable asset or resource and we can never get it back. There’s a sweet spot to gaining the resources (money mostly) to be able to have bought your future from yourself to do whatever you want to “someday”. Because you shouldn’t ignore that fact that you may live for a very long time. And you might have something come up that needs your resources later. But this idea too, I question and offer that you do the same. Is money the only or main way for us to impact our lives, family, community? This deserves examination.
I work with people who consider themselves successful all the time. A standard, by the way, that they define. And yet they don’t have the time to meditate for ten minutes a day. They struggle to have “date night” with their partners who they say is the most important person on the planet. We all know people like this or we are one or we’ve been one in the past.
So I’m asking you… what is truly important to you? And… how much of your time do you use to be with that thing or person(s)? This has very little to do with money and more to do with harmonizing your life to be content enough with what you have to concentrate your time where you want to now. Because the trouble is always that you think you have more time than you do.
Recently I was chatting with a friend about working, retirement, and what I’d do when I got older. We discussed when or if we’d retire and why. We talked about how fortunate we feel that we both are doing what we love and that we don’t feel like we need to escape from our “jobs” or “occupation” in order to then be able to do what’s important to us. I realize this comes with or from a certain amount of privilege but for those of you that don’t know, I came from what many consider very low class or even poverty. This means that you or anyone can do this. And for those of you that make a bunch of money and are caught up feeding the “money machine” it can be done.
What are your top three priorities and does the time you spend with these things reflect that?