Every one of us has it. None of us can add to it. We can shorten it by making poor choices or waste it by languishing. “It” is of course time. Every 24 hours you get 1440 minutes to do with as you can. Rich, poor, famous or not we all are allocated an equal amount.
Each minute is valuable. But what is each minute worth? Can you put a number to it? Can the value grow or diminish? Absolutely!
Get your time value calculator
In listening to Kevin Kruse I realized that I wanted to know what my time was really worth in a financial sense. Click HERE to download the Time Value 1440 Calculator tool where you too can determine what your time currently values at in a monetary sense. What does each minute that you waste cost you? Is what you are doing pushing you toward your goal of having more valuable time?
So how do I improve?
If you want to improve where you are in life you need to do it in increments. There are very few true “overnight successes.” Steady growth combined with a set goal with a pre-determined time frame will help you reach it.
We all remember the story of the tortoise and the hare. While the hare was explosively fast, in the beginning, the momentum and excitement wore off and he ended up losing the race to the steady tortoise. While the tortoise wasn’t the fastest he continued on toward his goal without losing focus. He didn’t let the things of the world distract him and in the end was the winner.
Use the 1440 calculator to see what your time becomes worth when you are making the ideal salary. How far do you have to go? How do you get there? The answer is one day and one accomplishment at a time.
The calculator helps you realize where your values lie. What can you do in one minute? Tuck your kids into bed? Get a really good kiss? Do 30 sit-ups? Each of these activities (and more) pay dividends over the course of a lifetime, and the good news is they don’t financially cost us that much in the grand scheme of things.
Just 1%
Today strive to be 1% better. 1% of 1440 minutes is 14 minutes and 40 seconds. Can you devote just 15 minutes of your busy, crazy, hectic schedule toward making your ideal life? Try putting down the social media or turning off the tv. While these distractions seem like a good idea at the time they can envelop you in a downward spiral of drifting that doesn’t achieve what you want. (Think of the hare taking a nap during the race.) I am not saying that spending time in these activities is necessarily bad, just monitor yourself so that you don’t allow them to distract you from the greater purpose.
I believe that the ideal life is one that is living in today while understanding that tomorrow can be even better. Each individual must determine what that better is (financially, physically, spiritually, emotionally etc). We go through many stages while we are here. We have successes and failures. The ideal life learns from their failures and uses those experiences to increase their successes. How do you get there? The same way you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.
1% at a time – just 15 minutes a day. Get up earlier, remove a distraction, do something proactive to begin living the life you want tomorrow today.
