The Most Important Thing You Need to Stop Wasting!
It was a long-weekend-Monday. My wife, my two daughters and I were lying on the bed. My shoes were on and my suitcase was loaded into the car.
It was 11:17 AM, and I had to be out the door by 11:30. I had 13 minutes left with my family and then I’d be gone for 10 days.
This shouldn’t be a tragic story, except that this had been going on for 3 years. Every two weeks… the knot in my stomach. I’d be gone for ten, and home for four.
Our lives were measured in goodbyes…
I had missed birthdays, anniversaries, school concerts and more. I had missed my daughters growing up.
The night before, my youngest asked me, “Are you going home tomorrow Daddy?”
“I’m home right now” I told her, but she was right. I was just a visitor in my own home.
As we lay on the bed, Harry Potter played on the TV. I watched the clock.
Only 12 more minutes…
I should have been present in the moment. I should have enjoyed those 12 minutes, but instead I just laid there feeling sick.
“What am I doing?” I thought.
I wondered how this life of an absent husband and father came to be. How did we get here?
And then it hit me.
Had I known how important those 12 minutes would be, I would have made different choices.
And it wasn’t just those 12 minutes. It was a minute here, a minute there. An hour, a day… a week.
It’s just time, right? How important can it be? As it turns out, it’s pretty damn important.
I made a mental note to explore this idea on the drive ahead. For now, I wanted to be present with my family.
Twelve minutes goes by fast when you’re hanging onto someone you don’t want to let go of. I gave my final hugs and with pain and regret I walked out the door.
“Remember this feeling”, I told myself. “Don’t ever forget it!”
And Then I Drove Away…
I wish I could have just hit the brakes, and maybe I could have. But real life isn’t Hollywood. I had financial commitments that would come with a higher cost down the road if I neglected them.
It wasn’t time to change course just yet. But I had finally understood why my decision process was flawed. From that moment on, everything would change.
I finally understood that “time” is our most valuable resource, and for every future decision, I would give it the respect it deserves.
I would do whatever it took to make time a priority. Time with my family and friends. Time to do the things I loved doing. Time to look after my health, and to build my own future (not someone else’s).
Our culture is materialistic. It’s all about stuff. Our economy depends on it. We make stuff, we sell stuff, and we consume stuff.
Endless hours are worked because we love “stuff”.
But what about time? Do we not love time?
The thing is… we can’t see it. We can’t hold it in our hands. We can’t show it off and it doesn’t feed our ego.
So it gets overlooked. Wasted.
A minute here, a minute there… hours add up to days, days to weeks… and before we know it, we’re looking back on years wondering where they went.
But the truth is, time is all we really have. When we run out of time, it’s lights out.
And it’s not only our most valuable resource, it’s also non-renewable. There’s a reason we use the term “spending” time because that’s exactly what we’re doing. Spending it.
With every decision we make, we are deciding how, and on what, to spend our time.
How Much Time Do We Have?
No one is certain how much time they have. Statistically speaking, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the global average life expectancy to be 71 years (as of 2013). Depending on where one lives, the average could be as high as 80+, or as low as 50.
But as individuals, averages don’t tell much of a story. If we don’t look after ourselves, things like heart disease and diabetes can get us much sooner. Car accidents take the lives of thousands every day. And, just because we’re alive doesn’t mean we’re healthy enough to enjoy it.
Time is far more than life expectancy though…
How Many Christmas’ Do You Have Left?
How many people only see a loved one once every year at Christmas? How many Christmas’ do you have left? How many do they have?
We don’t live close to our family and my wife only sees her Dad for a few days every couple of years.
So let’s just say he has 20 years left… It seems like a long time, but at that rate, my wife only has 30 days left with her Dad.
If we lived closer she might have hundreds. But we chose money over time, so we don’t live closer.
As I backed out of my driveway, my youngest peered over the deck railing and waved. I could hear her shouting, “I love you Daddy.” She was four at the time.
My oldest daughter who was seven and had dealt with our goodbye’s for as long as she could remember, she learned to shut her emotions down. Or at least box them up.
She’d get quiet and concentrate on other things.
It hit me like a ton of bricks because here’s the thing. Even if I could live for 500 years… they will only be young once.
Before long, our relationships will change, and even though I look forward to their teen years too… all the time in the world does not change that fact that I was missing the ones we have now.
So it’s not just about how much time we have… it’s what we do with it while we’re here.
How many more times would I have to endure leaving them? More importantly, how many more times would they have to endure seeing me leave?
I should have made better choices…
Our time is disappearing. Minute by minute, day by day. How we spend it is more important than we can imagine.
Money…
We don’t say it, but actions speak louder than words. Most of us value money far more than we value time.
We obsess over our decisions regarding money. We commit most of our time to earning it.
And we spend most of our time thinking about it.
For myself, and for most people I worked with, who also left their families… money had become our priority.
I wonder what the world would lool like if we valued time over money?
What do you think? Would your life be different if time was your number one priority? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you found this article useful, or think it may be helpful for others… please share 😀
Cheers,
Jay
Originally published at gighustlers.com on April 18, 2017.
