Facing Up to the Time Value "Correction"

Unemployment, furloughs, and general malaise about our current economy create a devastating impact on anybody's asset portfolio. While many of our investments take a ride in the marketplace in a manner beyond our individual ability to control, one commodity we personally overstated in value in year's past is perhaps one of our most important today: time.

For the past several years, I noticed how many people, young and old, leveraged their bank accounts, personal contacts, and anything else of material value in order to avoid having to give up any extra hours or minutes, or even seconds, to the world around them. Fundraising for charities lost all matter of creativity and friendship-building, with the events held up as successes nothing more than opulent check-writing exercises.

Many friends and colleagues would buy just about anything on impulse if a salesperson or coworker told us it would save us time. Sometimes, the results were truly productive, such as with the mass adoption of PDA's, Blackberries, and the IPhone. I would imagine, though, that many are spending their newly found "free time" as permanent vacationers from their former employer trying to turn some of these doodads and high-tech trinkets into cash, or something that will help them get by another month out in the proverbial cold.

Time is valuable, but as every mentor (family or otherwise) taught me, it only benefits you in the way you use it. So often, those I saw so effective at saving time on the job or in public wasted it so frivolously at home or elsewhere. If you hung around a Starbucks or bookstore coffee house these past couple of years, you saw a lot of people withdrawing their time savings, doing nothing while enjoying a $4 latte.

What is important for us to realize about time is that it cannot be saved like any other investment to use so much later. Time is allocated to each of us equally in 24-hour increments a day. We can't "bank" what we do not use. Every hour and minute has the same potential to enrich our lives, as well as those who can benefit from our services as professionals or kindness as individuals of faith.

Every day for me today is as busy as I can make it. Even recovering from a cold this weekend, I am still trying to utilize every possible moment, whether it's helping my wife with an upcoming project or taking my daughter out for a drive amidst the late-winter rain and cold. When work arrives Monday, my internal schedule will be jammed with tasks and duties, followed by evening rituals where I have the opportunity to enjoy time with my family. Right now, every day is a full day.

Much of the reason why my time is utilized is because I am pursuing personal passions in my professional life, creating a career that applies my natural abilities and connects with my interests. So many took a different path in the past decade, simply accepting jobs that promised financial security or opportunities for systematic advancement. Unable to overcome the emptiness they felt despite their perceived professional success, many turned to the commodity of time. They have learned now, however, that time is not a commodity, but rather a resource that is only available as it arrives and passes.

For those with time on their hands, use it to identify and embrace those personal passions that can lead to professional success. Recognize that the hours available today will only be available today, just like tomorrow expires at its end. The key is to take advantage of the day available, morning and night. Build upon what you knew at its beginning, the knowledge, experiences, and values you learned from days, months, and years past. Apply this background to grow in some manner or way each day, whether through accomplishment or learning lessons out of failure. Regardless, if time is used to its potential, you will end the day with more than what you started.