In my opinion the most fulfilling way of using time is by investing it on things that are important to me, to learn and expand, grow beyond who I was yesterday, and think of ideas of how to become all that I can be and taking action in that direction. To really invest all my energy on following my dreams.
We can sell our time by working and getting paid per hour and often only being a part of someone else's dream instead of going after our own until it becomes so familiar that our dreams drown and we just go about living each day pretty much like the day before. When we ONLY sell our time and not taking the time and effort into looking at how we can expand, we live very unfulfilled lives. Where there is no vision, we perish. When we sell our time just to get money, we are really poor.
We can waste it by doing drugs, playing endless hours of video-games, watching way too much TV or throwing imaginary pillows etc at each other on Facebook for hours every day.
- How do you invest your time and energy?
Do you have some dream that you want to live out, but you are holding yourself back by stating "I'll do it tomorrow" a little bit too often? Is procrastination holding you back? How can we change that?
First; we need to become clear. Clarity is essential. You have to have a clear picture of what it is that you want to accomplish in life; who you want to be, and what you are here to contribute to the world.
It's when we are vague about our dreams that they often stay only that way; a vague picture in the back of our minds with not much power to come forth. It's not enough to say that you want money for example, because that's what everybody wants! You have to be more specific:
What are you going to do with all that money that you want? Are you going to educate yourself? Where, to what? You want to buy new clothes? Well, what kind of clothes? How do they look, feel and how would they look on you?
And "everybody" would want to go to Greece for example. Where exactly is it that you want to go? What would you eat, and where? What words are good to learn so that you can communicate when you arrive? Do you need a passport? Where/how do you want to live? How much is the flight-tickets? How long are you going to stay?
We need to get into the energy of it, we need to get excited about it!
Get emotionally involved.
So you want your own business? What kind of business? What is your role? Are you going to have employees..?
- What is your mission statement?
Get that in order and you will always stay focused and it will help you stay on course and help you live your greatest life, because you are living it in alignment with your inner most important values and purpose. It will be your guiding light in all your day-to-day decisions.
A mission statement can be for your personal life, career or anything that is important to you and it should be a short statement, and it should be memorized and even carried with one to remind ourselves of where we are going and why. I have mine on my fridge so I see it everyday.
A mission statement is a short statement about what your life is about, your core values, and who you want to be in the world.
It requires that you sit down and write about your:
Vision= Your What; what you see as possible for yourself and the world.
Purpose= Your Why; why you are here, how you are going to be.
Mission=The How; what specific actions are you going to do, what your goals are. What you are here to do.
It may take some time to go through everything in order to become clear, but it's worth it many times over. I really recommend that if you haven't yet; take some time now and write your mission statement and then go about your life following it. Let it direct you and guide you in all you do.
As an example I can share my own, and some others too. It can be short or longer, but I recommend a short one because it's more clear and easy to remember.
Here's some famous ones:
The Body Shop: "Tirelessly work to narrow the gap between principle and practice whilst making fun, passion and care of our daily lives".
Wal-Mart: "To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people".
And how about Walt Disney's: "To make people happy".:-)
- Have fun with all of this and notice how the energy gets flowing when clarity enters!
