The Importance of Time Spent Well
I was in the truck with my middle son earlier today, and he said something that got me thinking. He said, “Thanks for spending time with me, dad.” He got me thinking about time. And what’s really important, whether it’s with our kids, with our spouse, with our friends, with anything else in life, is it the time or the stuff? Obviously I think everybody understands and would agree that it’s more time and presence, than it is material things and stuff. Most. Granted, there’s gonna be some that don’t agree. So it really made me thinking, what if time was a publicly traded commodity, traded on the stock market? What if you could invest money in time, and buy time? What would you do with that time that you could invest? We talk about this whole man-up piece and what that looks like, and what that looks like manning up in … I’m gonna just talk about kids, because it was my son who brought up the topic for me and got me thinking.
What does that look like, as far as that manning-up piece with your kids? I think what it looks like is, it looks like being willing to spend dedicated time. One of my friends read the pre-written book and he wrote a review of it for me. He was talking about his dad, and how his dad gave up golfing for 15 years while he raised his family, his boys. He gave up something that he loved to do, because other stuff needed to be done. Not because he wanted to be a martyr, or anything else, but because there was things that needed to be done, that he had to do, that had to come first. He wasn’t selfish with his time. His wants, his desires, came second. Now, I think there’s a fine line of juggling and balancing where, if you’re not doing something that you want to do, that fills you back up, you’re not gonna be able to support other people. So I think there’s that, don’t get me wrong. You shouldn’t negate everything that you do. But at the same time … my dad always had a rule, you can play as much as you want, but playing didn’t start until the work was done.
Once your work was done, do whatever you want. He didn’t care. I think that’s one of the important pieces when we’re dealing or trying to man up with our kids, being in that position of being able to give them time. Give them time that they need, that they deserve. It may mean taking away from our own time of doing certain things that we may want to be doing, maybe selfishly, or things we enjoy doing. It may mean doing that for a period of time. That can translate over into your spouse, your field. One of the things I did with Brenda when we decided that we were gonna grow the business that we’re in … I wanted to show her how committed I was, I gave up my fall hunting trips that I did every single year. These are trips that I had taken since, gosh, I was in my late teens, with the same guys, doing the same thing, going to the same places. Something that I looked forward to every year. At that point, before we started really growing our business, I would save every year all year long, just to be able to afford to go on those trips.
But again, it’s that piece of time … there’s only so much time in a day. Only so much time to get things done. And my commitment level to her, and to us as a couple, and in meeting our goals, was to the degree of, okay, I’m gonna cancel what I like, what I need or what I want … which is short-term right now, in order to fulfill what we want to do together. So think about what you’re doing with your time. I guess that’s where I want to challenge you guys. And whenever you start feeling sorry for yourself, think about the endgame. One of the sayings out there is, live like nobody else today, so you can live like nobody else tomorrow. What does that mean? Sometimes that may mean, you sacrifice today to achieve something that most people aren’t willing to sacrifice right now, so that later on in your life you’ll be living the high life, living like nobody else is living. Because you took the time and invested the time in you, in your business, in your wife and your kids, whatever that looks like. I can guarantee you this, if you invest time into all these areas that I talk about in the book … whether it’s as a husband, as a father, in your field or whatever business it is you’re in, in your faith, in your friendships and in yourself.
If you will take and invest strategic time … I’m not talking just time for time-sake. I’m talking focused, strategic time. If you invest that time back into those things, the payout on those things … I did a video called, Cost vs Reward. The cost of the time invested is gonna be absolutely nothing compared to the reward you get out of it. That’s what I was thinking about today, guys. Hopefully that hits some, get some people thinking. Get some people going … as you’re going through your day and looking at how you’re spending your time, just to get you thinking. Again, I’m not gonna call you out, or saying you’re doing something wrong, because we’re all moving forward and making imperfect progress in all these areas. My whole goal is just to get you thinking, because if we don’t know, we don’t know. All right, guys. Hopefully you’re enjoying this. I’m having fun with it. Remember, if you want more, we’re gonna be doing some more blog stuff at manupproject.com. Next week we’ve got some fun things coming with some man-up challenge stuff that we’ve got in order.
I can’t wait to [unveil 00:07:02] that. I believe we’re gonna do it Sunday night. Otherwise, we’re just gonna keep talking, and hopefully encourage you people to continue moving forward with everything. All right, guys, you all have a great night. Catch you later.