I was speaking with a friend the other day and one thing
that kept coming up in our conversation was time. This person, as do I, focuses on really
taking advantage of all of the time given to them. Time is our most precious gift and I know
that at times (pun intended) many of us forget this.
We trade time for many things, money being the most
popular. Then we spend this money on
other things that occupy our time. So we
trade time doing something we may not enjoy for time doing something that we
may enjoy. Really sitting back and
thinking about this makes me wonder if this makes any sense at all…Obviously
there are situations where people enjoy their jobs or enjoy doing whatever it
is they do for money. So for them the
sacrifice of time isn’t as drastic. But
for many others, whom hate their jobs or just don’t enjoy it, this trade can be
quite detrimental. Me…I enjoy my
job. But I also don’t have to sacrifice
as much time as others. Plus my time is
spent in my home and not at a traditional “office”. I am lucky in this regard. So if we trade our time working for money,
why don’t we spend more time outside of working doing things we actually enjoy,
or really taking advantage of Life!
Lets break down time…
We have 24 hours in each day.
7 days in each week.
365 days each year.
52 weeks in each year.
The average life expectancy for a person is about 78 years.
We spend anywhere between 7-8 hours sleeping each night.
For the sake of simplicity I’ll say the average adult works 40
hours each week and gets 1 week off per year.
The math…
8 hours of sleep each day * 7 days a week = 56 hours.
80 hours of work in 2 weeks.
112 hours of sleep in 2 weeks.
2920 hours of sleep each year.
2040 hours of work (minus the 1 week off).
2920 + 2040 = 4960 hours each year spent sleeping and
working.
8760 hours total in each year – 4960 = **3800 hours of “free
time” in a year**
3800 * 78 years = **296,400 hours of “free time” in an
average lifetime**
Forgive my math breakdown above…but breaking down the math
helps me visualize time better being the very logical and analytical person
that I am. As shown above, a person whom
has a full time job and averages 8 hours of sleep per night will have 3800
hours to do what they want each year and they may have 296,400 hours in their
lifetime. These do not subtract travel
time to and from work or any location, cleaning ourselves, or any other activity
that takes 15-30 minutes here and there.
So the actual totals are much smaller.
These hours may seem massive. But they are not once compared to the time we
trade doing things we must do like sleep or earn money.
What we choose to use our “free” time on should be
considered more valuable to us than what we are trading our time for doing
work, sleep, etc. If we reminded
ourselves of how precious time is we wouldn’t trade it for just anything or to
spend it with just anyone. We would
require that thing or person to mean a lot to us. Instead we trade times for many things that
do not benefit us in anyway. Why do
this? If you knew you had 1 year to live
exactly from today what would you do with your time? Would you spend any of
your time watching TV? Would you be spending 8 hours each week day working?
Would you sleep 8 hours a night? Would you not keep in touch and build
relationships with your family, friends, and loved ones? Would you travel the
world, country, or outside of your comfort zone? Would you not appreciate all the little
moments in your life spent doing the “little things” like enjoying a good meal
or conversation with another human?
These are things that many of us don’t think about. We spend a lot of our time earning money, but
what do we do with that money…do we spend it traveling the world to experience
new cultures and meet new people, do we spend it helping others in their lives,
do we spend it on friends and family, do we use it for entertainment…the list
goes on. Many of us spend our time
getting a higher education so that we may earn higher amounts of money for our
time. But, earning more money doesn’t
make the trade easier because many of us compound our expenses and don’t get
full use out of the more money we are earning.
Lets not waste time…I’ve thought about potentially using
another word here instead of waste. But
I want it to be clear that time is precious, therefore waste fits for me. Don’t waste your time in a job that isn’t
either providing you with the joy of being at that job or the income to do many
other things you enjoy supplementing not enjoying the job. Don’t waste your time with friends or in
relationships that aren’t mutually beneficial.
If someone isn’t helping you in some way, shape, or form, they are
hurting you. The best relationships are
about helping each other not bringing one another down. Surround yourself with people whom want to
build each other up and have similar goals and ambitions as you. Surround yourself with people whom also
appreciate your time and understand how precious it is to you and their selves.
Some people learn in their lives how precious time is and
begin to take advantage of all of the wonderful moments life has to offer. Others don’t realize how precious life is unfortunately
until it is too late. I choose to enjoy
the moments in my life to the best of my ability. Of course it’s all about balance (I’ve blogged about this before), so I’m not quitting my job (yet) to travel around
the world living out of a backpack. But
I am doing my best to travel to as many new places that I can, meet new people and build relationships
with them, work on my current relationships with friends, family, and loves
ones, and enjoying and embraces all the moments in my life good and bad. These are things to me that are worth my
time. What is worth your time?
Fred
