Time Is More Valuable Than Gold And Bitcoin Combined
Understanding The True Value Of Time
ADVANCE CONFIDENTLY!
“Time is a fixed income and, as with any income, the real problem facing most of us is how to live successfully within our daily allotment.”~Margaret B. Johnstone
Time truly is a fixed income. Each of us receives the exact same amount every single day. There is no hierarchy of time. There is no aristocracy of time. Wealth won’t buy you one second more than the poorest of the poor. Intelligence provides no advantage here either. The most intelligent person on the planet receives the exact same allotment of this precious commodity as does the person who struggles to think.
Wisdom however, now that’s a different discussion. Wisdom is the gift that allows for the full utilization of our very precious 86,400 seconds of income. Wisdom helps us determine how to best invest this precious resource. Wisdom is often mistakenly referred to as the accumulation of knowledge. Wisdom is not the accumulation of knowledge, it’s the application of knowledge.
“Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible, without it nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it.” ~Arnold Bennett
Time can never be managed. It can only be invested into the activities of our choosing. Time management is a catchy phrase that made a complex issue seem simple. What we manage, if we are disciplined enough to see the importance of it, is activity. Time is simply a receptacle for activity management.
As it relates to time, we don’t even get paid for our time even though many of us are paid by the hour. What we get paid for is the activity we put into the time allotted for the activity. Some would argue this is semantics, but if we truly got paid for our time we could just simply stay home and eat bon bons all day. No, if we work for a company or for ourselves, either way, whatever we are paid, it will be for what we produce, for the activity we put into the time allotted.
As human beings we have free will, which also means we have free choice. We choose how we invest and spend our time. We choose our work, our vocation, our creative outlet, our leisure activities, what we read or don’t, what we watch, or don’t, what we listen to, or don’t. The allocation of our time is one of the most important decisions we make on any given day.
A common phrase we often hear is, “If I only had more time.” The hard truth was expressed over a hundred years ago by the author Arnold Bennett and was captured for all eternity in the following quote.
“We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.”
When determining how to best invest your income, consider what you really want and then strategically allocate specific blocks of your daily commodity into that activity.
Most of us procrastinate to avoid the discomfort associated with a specific task or activity. We fool ourselves into believing we can do it tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that, or even worse, someday…
As a recovering procrastinator, I am all too well versed in the many ways of avoidance. Creativity is NOT a superpower for procrastinators! But let’s be honest, we all do it at least every now and again. As a matter of fact, we are prone to it and without discipline and vigilance it’s easy to have a day slip away never to be regained.
Fortunately, tomorrow is kept for us, no way to get into debt, impossible to borrow from the future. Now, now is all we have. We talk about our twenty-four hours because of the system we use to measure time, but the truth is all we have is this moment and then it’s gone, and we are onto the next moment. Therefore, it’s so important to structure the proper use of this ever-precious commodity.
Another note on time. We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a day and to drastically underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade. Here’s a rudimentary example that might shift your thinking based on what I refer to as the cumulative effect. One hour per day invested into the endeavor of your choice is 365 hours per year which equals approximately 45 workdays. Multiply the 45 days by 10 and you have 450 days or 1.25 years. When we think about all the things we could accomplish in this amount of time, it’s absolutely amazing. All because we suddenly understood the value of an hour consistently invested into the activity of our choosing. No, it won’t happen overnight, but think how much smarter you’ll be a decade from now.
Ponder this one-hour rule and think of all the different experiments you could conduct in your own life by applying this rule every day. Oh, and as it relates to habits, think of how many productive habits you could develop and apply to your future with this one simple change in focus. This is an example of what I call the cumulative effect and what Darren Hardy calls “The Compound Effect” in his bestselling book.
“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.” ~H. L. Hunt
Be “WISE”, don’t leave this task to chance, for if you do, you will find this gift slipping away just as the sand slips from one side of the hourglass to the other…
For a truly interesting read, check out the work of Larry G. Maguire.
Here are a couple of his articles:
https://link.medium.com/AZVEDERIjeb
https://link.medium.com/5zLHe8WIjeb
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
