TIME… HOW WE VALUE IT, INVEST IT, SPEND IT AND BANK IT
TIME… HOW WE VALUE IT, INVEST IT, SPEND IT AND BANK IT
Time and how we value it has been a very intriguing topic based on feedback from our readers. This is one of 130 topics addressed in our most recent book (pages 42 – 45) THE NEXT CHAPTER – CHANGE THE MINDSET, CHANGE YOUR LIFE - for all online book retailers - https://www.thenextchapter.fyi/buy-book
When asked about the most important priorities in their life, particularly after age forty-five, peoples’ least common response was “time.” And yet, time is the only non-renewable asset we have in our lives. Surprisingly, there are many who say, “No worries…I have lots of time to get to that!”
But, like the sand in an hourglass, time is the inventory of available days ahead to live our lives fully and experience everything on our bucket lists. When we were young, time seemed to move so slowly and we were always able to rebound from any setback. With each passing decade, it’s increasingly important that we review our priorities and make decisions that will move us closer to achieving them.
Virtually every one of us can immediately grasp how important time can be to a person with a terminal illness or someone who is near retirement age but may not have saved enough to relax, savour their achievements, or enjoy the time and opportunities that lie ahead.
How do we measure and value time? Most of us have experienced working fifty weeks and looking forward to those precious two weeks of vacation each year. During those two weeks, we have a micro focus on packing everything possible into each day, so as not to waste a single moment. And then we return to work exhausted and now need a vacation from our vacation.
For the rest of the year, we start our work week looking forward to the weekend and our time off again. So, the question we need to ask is, are we really living every day to the max or just going through the motions? While some careers are more inspiring than others and some jobs are truly boring…nothing holds us to working at something we truly dislike other than the lifestyle choices we may have made previously and continue to make.
In conversation with Peter, a client with whom we had been working for some time, we asked him about his job. He revealed that he had worked as a summer student with an automobile manufacturer in his last year of high school. Based on his work ethic, they had offered him a contract position for one year. He thought this would be a great idea, as he was thinking of taking a gap year before going on to college or university.
When asked how long he’d worked there, his answer was surprising: “Well, I have thirteen years, five months, and twenty-two days until I can retire with full pension.” In spite of his youthful, fit, and upbeat demeanour, he was counting the days until he was free, as if working in this plant was a prison sentence.
Henry David Thoreau, in his book On Walden Pond wrote that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation suggesting that many people live a somewhat empty life caused by unfulfilling work, lack of leisure time, and misplaced values.
As the measure of time and the quality of life we enjoy are directly related to our values, expectations, and priorities, the enjoyment we derive from our lifestyles, our homes, and our time off is totally subjective. Although we may find ourselves victims of bad decisions and need to be accountable for working our way out of them, developing a proactive lifestyle plan is crucial to maximize the opportunities ahead…no matter what stage of life we are in.
Questioning Our Choices
Growing older is not a destination on a map. Rather, it’s a state of mind that slowly evolves and challenges that youthful sense of invincibility…the one that pushes us through every obstacle, or at least it did until now. While that invincibility is hopefully replaced by more pragmatic wisdom that can guide us safely through our midlife years, it’s valuable to remember that the journey is seldom smooth sailing.
“What happened?” we may ask. While the answer appears to be very different for each person, this is hardly surprising given the uniqueness of our individual DNA makeup. However, actuaries, psychologists, historians, and archeologists love to categorize us. If only it were that simple.
Let’s face it, each of us is the sum of our life experiences, which, in turn, were built on a foundation of family genetics and shaped by our parents, extended family, teachers, friends, peer group, and other formative influences. Whether a person sees themselves as a success is largely determined by the mindset they adopted early in life—is their life ahead filled with endless opportunities or a mine field to be navigated? In either case, it’s a personal choice, and when we get up each morning, we have the opportunity to choose how we’ll shape today and those days that follow.
Whether we see education as the way to open doors in life or as a waste of precious time when we could be making money and having fun is also a choice. In retrospect, many of us may have second guessed the wisdom of those adolescent and early adult choices.
In our teens, we look forward to graduating. In our twenties, many settle down, get married, buy a home, and start a family. In our thirties, the focus shifts to advancing our careers, our kid’s sports and activities, and that next promotion or raise. And some of us chose to ignore the advice of those investment people who are telling us to save for our retirement as well.
By that point, we are totally preoccupied and can’t imagine life beyond age forty-five or fifty and certainly not being sixty-five. But then one day, something occurs, and we come face-to-face with the reality that life happens! Ready or not, time has relentlessly moved us through each successive chapter of life, and many of us wake up to find we are there…too often without ever having stopped to smell the roses and celebrate along the way.
Growing older replaces youthful invincibility with pragmatic wisdom.
Investing Our Time and Ourselves for the Future
Though we may wish we could, one cannot bank time or save it for another chapter of life. On the other hand, investing that time wisely can give us the freedom to live a more comfortable lifestyle in the future. An excellent example is the choice of staying in school and getting the right level of education, one that will yield the best opportunities for a career we can be passionate about. Becoming a lawyer, a doctor, or a politician may not seem appealing when considering the number of years we’d be a starving student; however, for many, it is a good choice.
Becoming a firefighter, a police officer, or joining the military appeals to those who want to contribute in a different way. Yet others choose to create a business, as it allows them to be their own boss. There are no bad choices… as long as they’re congruent with those foundational values we have discussed throughout this book. If we honour our values, beliefs, and expectations by choosing a field of endeavour that seems right for us, then that is the right choice.
However, should we discover ten or twenty years later that it’s not working for us, then to continue doing something we truly dislike is not a healthy lifestyle. We probably know someone whose vision of the future is counting down the years until they retire and escape from a job they truly despise, as they feel trapped in order to sustain the lifestyle they currently enjoy.
One of the consistent factors in the lives of successful, happy, and healthy midlifers is having recognized at a relatively young age what is important to them and then applying their time and skills to achieving that. While much of their lives has been invested in working long and hard in pursuit of this, they feel truly fulfilled by whatever they have achieved.
Simply put, a carefully considered lifestyle plan, one that is prepared as early as possible in life, can enable each person to live the life they have imagined and worked for.
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In life, what happens to us and around may not be our choice, but how we respond,
always is…
Change the Mindset, Change you Life
