I was going to announce some fairly special news today, but I’m going to save it for later. Instead I’m going to talk about something that generated significant debate among a group of friends I have.
I was asked the other day where I find the time to put out the content that I do and juggle the demands of my business, podcast, blog, and being a dad and husband. It’s a good question. And honestly, it’s not easy. But without trying to sound too much like an arrogant asshole, I work my ass off and I invest my ‘free’ time into those activities that will generate a significant return.
All of my ‘free’ time is pretty much dedicated to putting together content and working on my business. Actually, as I write this, I’m sitting at the dining room table of a cabin in the mountains for a much needed boys trip away. And while everyone else watches the Manchester United game or is off skiing, I’m writing a blog post. I invest my ‘free’ time working on my business. I’m not saying this to impress you, but I saying it to show the differences in how people choose to invest their ‘free’ time.
I used to think that people who put in that much work and had no ‘free’ time must live depressing lives. And then I realized that there is no such thing as ‘free’ time.
Think about that.
There is no such thing as ‘free’ time.
Like all assets, there’s a cost to how you use it and there’s a return to how you invest it.
If you’re not investing your time wisely, you won’t get anything out of it. Or worse, it will start to cost you a lot of money (the opportunity cost of time is a very interesting discussion). Now, you can choose to invest your time in many things. Most of our time is spent sleeping, working, with out families and eating/drinking, and then we get ‘free’ time. This is the left over time outside of those activities. How are you investing in that ‘free’ time?
Some people choose to invest that ‘free’ time watching T.V.. And look, I’m not trying to hate on you for watching the T.V.. I get it, watching T.V. is a nice way to relax and numb the pain sometimes. However, I am saying that the return on that investment is pretty low. Some would argue there’s a significant cost and a series of negative returns to watching T.V.. You can choose to invest your ‘free’ time there OR you can choose to invest your ‘free’ time into activities that will better your life and give you a real quantifiable return.
Areas where you’ll see a real return on investment are investing your ‘free’ time in:
- Developing a business
- Practicing a musical instrument or artistic pursuits of any kind
- Developing a skill set
- Writing
- Reading
- Physical exercise
- Prayer and meditation
I CHOOSE (I capitalized those words because it’s important for people to realize that they get to choose where they invest their time) to invest my time building my business and developing content for my audience.
Now, this doesn’t mean I’m a robot, guys and gals. We need down time. I get it. I will be the first person to admit to enjoying the occasional sleep-in and eating too much junk food. But I am saying that you need to stop viewing your ‘free’ time as free.
It’s not free.
You can choose to invest it wisely and get a good return or you can choose to invest it unwisely and get nothing, or worse, lose a lot.
And so I want to leave you with a question:
If time is an asset (which I don’t think anyone could argue) and if ‘free’ time isn’t free. How are you spending that ‘free’ time and what return are you getting from it?