When you lose something of great value – not a possession – but a relationship, an important job or client, a loved one, or a friend, you learn a critical life lesson.
One more dollar, one more gig, one more client, one more opportunity…doesn’t matter.
The only thing that marches on constantly, consistently, relentlessly, and without concern for what happens to us, is time. The loss of something important reminds us that time is the one great equalizer. It’s the one thing we can never create more of. It’s the one thing we can never recover or get back.
So, when we fail to prioritize what truly matters. When we give our most important clients, employees, and loved ones the “rest” rather than the “best”, we let the unemotional march of time erode the most valuable parts of our lives.
And once we reach a certain point, the erosion has carved away too much to recover, to hang on, to survive.
When we grip too tightly, we cause pain. When we over-allocate resources, we throw ourselves off balance and hinder our ability to respond and adapt calmly and coherently. When we let time march on without a care about how we’re using it, we find that we can’t recover the truly valuable things in life.
I often say that most people don’t know the dollar value and, thus, the opportunity cost of an hour of their time. If you don’t, you’re likely making suboptimal choices about how you’re allocating the most precious and irrecoverable resource you have.
Don’t wait until you’ve lost something you can never get back to realize you need to use your time differently. Use the tools above to understand where you can improve today because if you don’t act quickly, time will march on.
And then it may be too late.
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