Source: CANVA
A couple of days ago, I had a chat with someone I got to know here on the Hive blockchain when this topic came up.
Not about spending your time as such, but to spend or not to spend your profits.
Now, in the time I've been here on the blockchain, I've seen (or read) enough to know that there will be enough support for both sides. And I'm most definitely not going to get into that argument.
In short, when it comes to your profits, I believe it's your profits and it's your decision to deal with it as you see fit.
It's good to give advice when asked for it, but in many cases, advice is dished out freely, whether you want it or not...lol.
But this discussion did lead me down the path of thinking about how we spend valuable assets.
One of Your Most Valuable (If Not The Most Valuable) Assets
Yes, it made me think of how we spend one of our most valuable (if not the most valuable) assets.
And that asset is time.
What do you spend (or waste) your time on?
This is a topic that can actually be full of contrasts.
I think to a large extent it depends on what you value the most at the time. Today you might make a decision and it is the most obvious choice to you at the given time. You'll never get an opportunity like this again.
Yet, several years down the line, you may regret your choice due to something else you have missed out on.
You see, it all depends on what you value the most at the given time.
For some people it might even be a difficult choice, for others, it's a logical choice.
For me personally, I can attest to the fact that I've been faced with choices in my own life. In some cases, I could benefit from making that choice in terms of my career. Yet, it would have taken me away from my family and I would have missed out on many of the highlights in the lives of my children.
Do I regret that I chose in favor of my family?
No. Not one bit. The relationships I have today with my wife and my children are something that no money can buy.
With that, I'm not saying that we don't need money...
It surely is nice to have money. It's good to have money. There are lots of good things you can do for your family with money.
Money can pay for good education. It can enable you to afford comfort and safety for your family and so much more...
But when money becomes such an obsession that it takes you away from your family, it can also cost you dearly.
I cannot recall exactly of whom it was said, so I will not link it to a specific individual. But something I heard some time ago, was about the father figure of one of the richest families in the world.
While he was lying on his death bed after suffering from an illness, he was asked what he desired the most at that stage.
His answer was that he would give anything if he could just have a conversation with his son.
Apparently, none of his children had a good relationship with him, and his son didn't even want to speak to him. All out of bitterness for their father's obsession with money and never being there for them.
This man had all the money he could desire, but he lost his family in the process.
We often hear people say "I'm doing it for my family". Those are very noble words. And it's admirable. But only up to the point where it becomes an excuse...
And It's Not Just About Money
The first thing we associate with this kind of topic is "money".
We're all familiar with the saying "time is money". And yes, when you are wasting time, you are often wasting (or losing) money too...
But it's not always just about money.
It can be your business. It can be a hobby. It can be sports.
Whenever you set a goal, it normally involves something you enjoy doing. Sometimes, the motivating factor can lie in the achievement of your goal.
How often do we hear about people setting the goal of running their own business (especially online) and we hear the reason is "I want to spend more time with my loved ones", or "I want to have more time for doing the things I love".
But when that goal becomes an obsession, they end up having even less time for themselves or their loved ones than what they are having now.
Source: CANVA
Know Your "Why"
What we need to keep in mind is to know why we want to achieve that goal in the first place.
What are you going to do once you have achieved your goal?
Would that lead to another goal?
Will you be able to keep growing as a person?
I can recall a well-known Wimbledon tennis champion who after he became the youngest person to win that title, became suicidal and suffered from depression because after achieving that awesome goal, he didn't know what to do next. There was just no meaning to life anymore. There was nothing to motivate him anymore.
We often hear how people are working themselves to a pulp to reach early retirement...
Retirement? And then? What are you going to do with yourself all day long?
If you want to work hard and retire at a young age to start traveling, or you want to have the time to work on your hobby, that's great! But have you given it any thought?
That brings me to two quotes I came across when thinking about this topic.
- Time is what we want the most, but what we spend the worst. ~ William Penn
Yes, we all want time. And when we get it, what do we do with it?
- Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. ~ Will Rogers
This one made me think long and hard about this when I read it.
We rush through life at a dazzling speed trying to achieve, obtain, and accumulate...to reach early retirement so that we can "sit back and relax".
And then, when we have that time on our hands, we don't know what to do with it. We get bored. Our health starts going in the wrong direction.
Let's think about the "why" or the "what".
Why are we doing what we are doing?
And what are we going to do when we get there?
Wow...okay. Enough thinking about time for one post...lol.
Thank you for reading my post.