“My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s very clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” - Steve Jobs
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “Time is Money”. I used to roll my eyes when I heard it. Why always bring everything back to money? Wouldn’t we live happier if we stopped counting? I was annoyed that “being responsible” meant keeping track of money, time, resources,… everything.
As I grew older I understood that there was a deeper meaning to it, with this shift: “Money is Time”.
When we buy something we are actually not paying with money. We're paying with the time that it took us to earn that money. We are paying with our lives. Yes, money can be made again, but time cannot be bought, recuperated, earned again.
Seeing things this way is not to stress us every time we spend or lose money, or become so stingy that we get anxious every time we take the credit card out. It is for us to become aware that by buying less and “needing” less, we can actually gain time. We can earn ourselves some extra time to do the things that really matter.
It has made me more aware of how precious my time is and how important it is to be clear with what I spend my time and money on.
The good news is that when we are clear about our purpose, what we are here to do on this planet, our life becomes more simple. Because we see more clearly the things that are necessary to fulfill this purpose, and the ones that distracts us and make us drift further away from it.
Taking it a step further, the simpler we make our life to be, the easier it is for us to focus on our purpose, and be fulfilled by its accomplishment. I got that it was not so much about being over-cautious or “stingy” with our money, as it is to get clear on what is important to us, and most of all what is going to serve our purpose in life. It’s not as easy as keeping a budget excell sheet, but oh! is it worth it!
Once we get established more and more in our purpose, we understand how precious of a resource time is, because we absolutely don’t want to run out of it before we are able to fulfill our purpose! It can be finishing a project, learning a craft, sharing a talent with the world, fulfilling a mission, repairing a relationship,… whatever that is, it adds meaning and value to our time. That's we realize that the most precious things cannot be bought.
If you'd like to go a little deeper check out my blog post on how to discover and get established in your zone of genius.
Because you haven't come this far to only go this far.