The scarcest resource you have
You probably have heard this one thousand times: “time is your most valuable resource.”
Do you actually realize why this is so?
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Let me tell you a story about two characters I know.
John
John is a 9 to 5 worker, so he spends every single day with his mind focused on his finance controller job at a major conglomerate in the United States. Many nights, John comes home, spends some time with his wife and two kids, and has a little time to read a book or listen to a podcast. The secret is that the most important parts of his day are the time with his family and the book/podcast. Time with his family fulfills his heart, time on the podcast and book fuels his desires.
John gets fired up about changes he wants to make in his life very frequently. He follows a health guru that has many tips for improving his diet. He follows this business coach that has many tips around how to start a company.
But, in the end, John is too tired to tackle most improvement ideas for his life. He actually works on 10% of the things he reads about and is initially attracted to, mostly because he dismissed them as “things that are probably too hard to tackle, logistically.”
So, his life is monotonous, but not too monotonous. When he does that 1% change, he is so happy, and he feels proud — even if he only makes one of those changes every five years.
He believes in that story, and he continues with his semi-monotonous life. He’s doing fine.
Jonathan
Switch to Jonathan. He works as a freelance project manager for several conglomerates — he takes on projects as he wishes and spends 50% of this time on those projects. During the rest of his time, he builds up his online business, he plays the piano, and he reads and listens to podcasts.
Jonathan also has a wife and two kids, and his heart is also fulfilled by them.
Jonathan also has a health and a business guru he likes to follow, and he is also inspired by things he reads or listens to in podcasts.
The key difference between John and Jonathan is that when Jonathan reads or listens to new insights, he is not tired, as it is part of the 50% of his day that he uses for that purpose. Furthermore, when he gets excited about a potential improvement in his life, he actually sacrifices part of the time originally allocated for his online business (he is the boss, in the end) and his hobbies in order to work on those changes — he spends time reflecting upon how he will make the changes, creates a plan, and tackles them constantly, it is actually a habit, which happens often.
As a result, Jonathan is able to follow through on about 80% of the changes he gets excited about, as he has time in his hands to do so, and does not dismiss those ideas as “not doable, logistically.”
Unsplash by Ben White
Every 10 years, John has made about two significant improvements in his life. He believes a story about how he is doing the best he can with the resources he has. Nevertheless, something deep inside him tells him that there is something missing.
During the same 10 years, Jonathan has makes about 16 significant improvements in his life.
As a result, Jonathan does not have to work anymore.
How are you using your time?
At Renspire Consulting we work with top-performing clients, helping them uncover and solve their deepest business and human challenges.
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