Time, our most valuable asset.
Our most valuable asset in this life is time. How much we have, how we spend it, and who we spend it with. The young think it is unlimited and the old wish they had more of it. Time can be your biggest enemy but can also heal the deepest wounds. It drags on when you don’t want it to and it speeds up during the moments that you want it to slow down.
There is a reason that people always reference time when reflecting on their lives. Because at the end of the day, our time on this earth is all any of us have. I think you can look at time from two perspectives.
You can look at time as a detriment in your life. You can be the person who always complains that they don’t have enough time in the day to accomplish what they need to accomplish. Yes, many of us are extremely busy, but as a generalization, I have found that it is not how busy you are but how you manage the time you have.
You can also look at time as an asset. Let’s take my wife Courtney for example. She is a full-time professional in the workforce and a full-time mom. Her job is fast-paced and demanding. Being a mom of two young boys with another on the way in all aspects is even more fast-paced and demanding. She has to be on her A-game 12-14 hours a day. Here is how she differentiates herself from those who look at time as a detriment.
1. She prioritizes and compartmentalizes her daily tasks and optimizes those tasks in a way where she can squeeze an hour or two at the end or the beginning of the day to reflect and relax.
2. She lives in the moment better than anyone I have ever seen. That is why I fell in love with her. She has the innate ability to shut out the regrets of the past and thoughts of the future and live in the here and now. Because she does this, she is one of the most happy-go-lucky people you will ever meet. Her mood is a direct reflection of how she prioritizes her time and how she sees its value.
A great way to look at time is like a compounding asset. We have 1440 minutes to use each day. Let’s say that for most of us, if you strive to get eight hours of sleep per night, you have 960 minutes of time per day. To get the most out of those 960 minutes you need to evaluate your habits and choices and put them into two categories, time assets, and time debts.
Time assets are actions or choices you make today that will save you time in the future. They also are actions or choices that focus your perspective to value time in the moment. Time debts are actions or choices you make today that will cost you additional time in the future.
