Have you ever asked yourself this?
As in, why do you spend your time the way you spend it?
It’s become a little bit cliche nowadays, to say time is the most precious commodity.
But it really is.
On your deathbed, you’re not going to think about how much money you have.
You’re going to be thinking about how little time you have.
And you’ll think back to all of the investments you made with your time, not the investments you made with your money.
And your life is just time.
Fundamentally, that’s all any of us have.
No matter who you are or what you do; your life is just how you decide to spend your time.
And so why do you do what you do with your time every day?
Lots of people can answer this confidently and say that they are studying for a medical degree because they want to be a doctor.
Or they are in a monastery, meditating for 10 hours a day because they want to become enlightened.
They have a clear path in life.
But a lot of us, Me included, don’t really know why we do what we do with our time every day.
We just sort of do it.
But this isn’t how I want to live my life.
And I don’t think it’s how you want to live yours.
So, I had a think about me on my deathbed.
And what investments with my time that I’d like to look back on.
And I found two studies that helped me find an answer.
These studies showed me there are two key indicators as to whether you live a happy life.
And determine whether you have spent your time well.
Those two indicators are:
1 – the quality of your relationships; and
2 – the degree of control and autonomy you have over your own life.
This has a significant impact on the question of how we spend our time.
If all that really matters (and I mean that really truly genuinely only matters) is the quality of our relationships and the amount of control we have over our lives, then the way we spend each day might change.
We might work a little less in order to nurture relationships with friends, family and loved ones.
Which we should all do and I urge you to do too.
This week, finish early one night, book a comedy club and a restaurant and go have some fun with your best mate, your sibling, your parents or your partner.
Just do it, you won’t regret it (doesn’t have to be a comedy club; you can do anything, just make it fun.)
But the second point is more tricky.
It suggests we may consider using our money to give us back control and autonomy in our lives.
But it needs fleshing out a bit.
What I mean here is: instead of spending all of our money and living paycheck to paycheck, which makes us beholden to our boss and our job, and gives us no control in our life, we are saving money and investing it to give us a buffer which means we aren’t so scared of our boss and so scared of losing our job because we have a cushion to fall back on.
Ironically, this will probably make us better our job too.
I also think it makes the question of what we do for work more interesting.
Some of my friends have really high-powered and high-paying jobs, much more significant than mine.
But when I actually look at their lives and weigh them against these two fundamental factors, I’m not jealous.
The people who earn a lot of money have very little control over their lives because they work for a demanding boss who tells them what they need to do when then how to do it (most of the time).
They also have little time to invest in their relationships.
And so yes, they earn money and have status with a big job title. But I’m not sure they’re any closer to happiness.
they might be, of course, but only if they are investing time in their relationships and if they feel like they have autonomy over their life.
But they’re less likely to have this.
And so are you, unless you’re careful.
So I’m not saying here what you should and shouldn’t do.
I just think it’s worth considering and thinking about why you do what you do every day.
And spending more time with loved ones.
And putting more money aside as a backstop.
Something to ponder this weekend.
Enjoy your time, for it is fleeting.
Love, as always,
Max
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