“You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time.”
– Tony Robbins
Time is a finite resource.
Good Health. Doesn’t matter if it means you can work longer hours.
Nice wife, perfect kids. Doesn’t matter if you never see them.
Nice house, nice car. Doesn’t matter if you are always at work.
There is a scourge in our society around being busy. How much of your time is taken up in useless meetings, replying to emails just to let people know you saw the email?
All this noise takes away your time, your valuable time. The old saying goes, “time is money.” Unfortunately society has taken this literally, but the contradiction lies in how we protect our time. If our time really was money, we would have it locked up tighter than Fort Knox.
Think about it. If we were as free about spending our money as we are about committing our time we would be bankrupt.
Time is an account you can always withdraw from, but never deposit in.
The Tail End
In his popular blog post The Tail End Tim Urban visually represents the life span of someone living to the age of 90 as a series of dots on a single sheet of paper.
Think about that, your life can be reflected on one sheet of paper. This should be humbling.
I am 44. If I am fortunate enough to live to 90, according to his logic, means I have 46 more Christmases to celebrate, 46 more beach trips to experience, 11 more presidential elections to vote in.
He also points out that as a parent, by the time a child leaves for college you will have spent 93% of your in-person parenting time with them.
Crazy to think, I am going to let some late meeting or email response take away a chance for me to make a lasting impact on my children.
I realize that I am not so important that my job will cease to exist after I am gone. However, I do realize how important my influence is as a parent and no one can take my place as a Father.
Your not being selfish with your time, you are being wise with your time. Your relationships outside of work deserve more of this valuable resource. I understand many who read this, including myself, might have not been as guarded with their time. You can’t get that time back, but you can definitely protect it moving forward.
Make the time you have left count.