A friend of mine, Jim Kohn, talks about spending time versus making an investment in time.
This is one of the biggest challenges we hear from people struggling to get ahead these days. We all have very busy lives, and carving out time for the important things can be very challenging. It really comes down to a question of VALUES. In the long term, what is most important to you?
Most people would love to be able to invest $500-$1,000 into a savings account every month to gain some financial freedom for the future, but very few can. We know we have to "pay ourselves first" when it comes to financial planning for the future. However, we just don't have that much money left after we pay our living expenses. Many people just spend their money without any purpose - on anything that comes along. Do you handle time the same way?
Most people spend their life doing the urgent rather than the important. And there is a direct correlation between the lack of focus on how time is spent and the lack of money left over for the future. Most people don't "pay yourself first" when it comes the money they have earned, and they don't pay themselves first when it comes to their time!
So the important question is this when it comes to your time: Do you consistently do the urgent versus the important? Are you leading your life by letting outside forces dictate how you spend your time? Do you live "reactively" bouncing from one mini-crisis to another because all those little "dramas" appear to be "issues?" Or... do you continue to focus on the big picture - that which is IMPORTANT! Do you stay on track with small consistent efforts every day to keep working toward the big prize?
It's important to recognize the difference between "spending" and "investing" time or money. Its the difference between doing the urgent and doing that which is truly important.
When my friend Jim talks about "spending" time - he is referring to doing the immediate - the "urgent." That's SPENDING your time. That makes it an EXPENSE. When we SPEND current money on a new toy, there is no return. Notice the term "SPEND." We also talk about "spending" time on other pursuits in life: When we spend time watching television, there is no return. When we spend time on letting others pull us into their life's challenges, it may have us dealing with the urgent, but it keeps us from what is our IMPORTANT goal. There is no return on inventment (ROI) in these time pursuits.
Most people fear doing the necessary steps to become successful or financially independent. In the "Slight Edge" by Jeff Olsen, he talks about how focusing on a series of small CONSISTENT steps each day is what brings true success. They never keep doing the important small things consistently because they don't see immediate results. Or worse - they never get started since they feel success would require too large of an over-all life-change.
So what can you do to "INVEST" your time rather than spend your time? How can you use time in your favor to make your future better?
One way to achieve future success is to invest time, instead of dollars, on a consistent basis, to eventually generate a stream of residual income. When we invest time or money, we are giving up something now to get something (much) bigger in the future. It's what we call "return on investment". While we can't always invest the money we would like to for the future, we probably can invest the time if we really want to. And if we invent the time properly, the money will follow!
Consistently investing a small amount of time into a home-based business can eventually pay large rewards by generating a future residual income. For those who say they don't have the time, what do weight loss gurus teach you to do when you need to lose weight? Keep a diary. You become amazed at what you are acutally eating when you see it all down in writing. Now keep a journal of your time. Be honest. How much time can you "carve out" from all those urgent things that are causing you to "spend" your time? There has to be an hour to invest in your future financial freedom.
Where are you "spending" your IMPORTANT, valuable hour each day?
- TV?
- Facebook?
- Meaningless phone calls? (Did you really solve your friend's problem or were they just dragging you down?)
- Texting?
- Surfing the web for the latest e-Bay deal? (How much did you really save if you lost that hour?)
I know people who have generated 5-digit monthly incomes with an inventment of 1-hour per day in their home-based business. Now, who says you can't invest in your future?
Invest your time into your future success....
