Our most valuable resource is time. More than gold, more than power, more than anything else, time is the one resource that is constantly slipping away each and every moment and even more than that it is the one resource that we cannot get more of. Right now we live in a time when familial bonds have weakened and many people are lost and adrift alone in a world that seeks to divide and take advantage of them. Most see very little of their families anymore.
Whether because their families are dysfunctional, the amount of work required to earn a living anymore, or because of geographical separation. No longer do the sons work the fields with the fathers, uncles, and grandfathers. No longer do the grandmother helps raise the young and teach the mothers. We are divided, separated, and overall worse off for it.
In all of the advice that men’s self-improvement sites give, I rarely ever hear family mentioned. You’ll have millions of words spilled on how to get sex with more women, make more cash, and how to have six pack abs. But very little is spent on things that go beyond such basic things. A man alone, no matter if wealthy or healthy, is still a man alone. And man was not meant to be alone.
We were made to exist, survive, and thrive in tribal units, in families. With others by our side. This had biological uses, sure, after all what is the strongest and most wealthiest man versus one wooly mammoth or saber tooth tiger? Not much. But it goes beyond that into mental and spiritual facets of our existence as well. We were created for one another, for communion, for community. And that is something that is lacking for most in the modern world.
Time…Time…Time
We usually spend at least forty hours of our week at work. At least. But truth be told it’s a lot more than that. If not physically, then at least mentally. That is, if we have a job that can afford us a basic level of living. A decent home in a decent neighborhood with a decent sized family with decent insurance and the rest of it. Other jobs that free up your time usually leave you with not a lot of money to go around and so you spend time worrying about money and looking for a better job when you’re not at work. This doesn’t include time spent with a significant other or dating, time spent preparing meals, eating, or working on your health. Nor does it include time spent, reading, learning, or doing other activities.
Now how much time do you have left over for family, for those that matter most to you? Not very much. I remember one day thinking how I see my boss, whom I hated at the time, more than my father or grandfather. And what a strange time I was living in, in the history of mankind. This was one of the many things that fueled my hunger for entrepreneurship. Was the reason why when driving I’d listen to self-development CDs, courses, and books instead of listening to music.
Because each and every day I could feel my time slipping away from me and it made me feel sick. Because more than anything else I wanted my time back. Because more than anything else I wanted control of my time, which to me is control of my life. To me time, the control of it, is freedom. The tagline for this site is “reclaim your freedom” and essentially what that means is a reclaiming of your time.
Reclaiming your time for work, from bad habits, from bad relationships, from poor health, and the myriad of others things that’ll come crashing down on your freedom and destroy it. To free yourself from the spider’s web of the modern world so you can move free and unencumbered. Physically, mentally, and spiritually. But how do we do this? How do we reclaim time?
Gold Rules Us
We can’t escape the need for money. And therefore we must study money. It’s acquirement, the keeping of it, and the growing of it. Without it we can never have freedom. It’s not all there is to life but it is the foundation of a decent life for ninety nine percent of us. We need to find more and more ways to separate money from time. Pounds, euros, rubles, dollars, and the like from every hour, every minute, every second that passes. We need to find ways to leverage time to make the most money from it. That’s one reason I encourage sales jobs so much. One they teach one of the most valuable money making skills and two, they often provide you with a big influx of money.
Many will hate on them because they don’t separate your time from money but truth be told you need money to eventually separate your time from money. Starting some internet hustle isn’t going to provide you with what you really need. You need capital to do marketing to really get a business off the ground and that includes those that provide “passive income” whatever that may be. But this is a long term outlook, what can you do today to spend more times with family and loved ones.
What You Can Do Today
Make it a priority. Despite all that I mentioned above we do have more time than we think. What we need to do is track that time and prioritize the things that matter most to us. Make time. Tally up your hours for the week. Ruthless and honestly record how you spend each and every one of them. You’ll very quickly find that you have hours of time that are being wasted, that could be redirected into productive and useful things. That could be used to do things like spend time with family.
Look for things that you already do that you can loop them into. Whether that’s going to eat, trying an event in the city, taking a class, or things of that nature. Stop by after work if only for a few minutes to say ‘hi’. Though not nearly as powerful as face to face interactions, texting or even better, calling, every now and then also helps. I do this with old friends from time to time, just to check in. Because otherwise inertia being what it is, it could be years before we talk.
You have time. You have to overcome inertia and make time to prioritize those people that are closest to you. Do it now, because time slips away, and it’s better to work hard than have regret later.
Best Wishes,
-Charles Sledge
