What Is Your Time Worth?

Stress is a funny thing; all too often we see it as a measure of success. We all realize that too much stress isn’t good for our bodies but often feel like we have no choice.

We scramble around to make deadlines, keep up with household chores, rally ourselves to try and maintain a positive attitude and just when we feel we’re getting ahead something else pops up on the schedule.

It feels like a no-win situation, one that we’re destined to lead until the miraculous week of vacation we covet. If you spend your vacation at home, chances are you use the time to catch up on things or do renovations and end up with no relaxation. The same goes for an away vacation, there’s the pre-trip planning and packing and the opposite when you return.

Apparently I have not mastered the art of a seamless return from vacation, on our last family trip our luggage sat at the front door for 2, yes 2 weeks before I managed to unpack and wash everything.

Ok so we lead hectic lives, it’s annoying and creates negative stress in our lives which we’d like to eliminate, what should we do?

I have a secret which worked for me, it’s not a method to help cope with stress, it’s the key to truly change your situation and reduce the business in your lives.

Are you ready for it?

Change your perspective.

There it is….as simple as that and yet like any worthwhile live change it takes effort and focus. We have to recognize how conditioned we are
to value business. Many of us were raised to believe it’s a sign of success and internally question ourselves when we have a slow day.

One easy way to look at it is to ask yourself how much your time is worth. Now of course there are differing answers here but if you’re a
parent and change the question up a bit it may be easier. What if I said “How much is the time you spend with your child making memories worth?”

Ahhh that was a light-bulb moment for me, it helped me realize that I’d been spending time doing things which had no lasting value.

So can you do with this new found perspective?

Keep a calendar – look and see what you’ve got scheduled, not only will this reveal how busy you actually are but it will allow you to avoid conflicting events

Learn to say No – this is a tough one but when you begin to value your time, you’ll have to say no to some invitations. Ask yourself what your motive is for attending, if it’s not going to be of value then politely decline

Plan your meals and shopping – we will lose less time scrambling around deciding on what to make for dinner and going grocery shopping. This frees up time for positive activities

Enroll the family in a limited number of activities– when my daughters were in multiple activities we raced around town and didn’t get quality time together

Feed your body – concentrate on the free time you have and schedule activities which will benefit your health and that of your family i.e. yoga, skiing, swimming, family walks ….

Feed your soul – we need to maintain our spiritual balance along with our physical, perhaps there are things you’ve been sweeping under the rug because you’re too preoccupied to deal with them. This isn’t a healthy practice and each of us needs to clear out the clutter by devoting some time and energy to our spiritual well-being.

Disconnect and reconnect – set one night of the week where there will be no electronics, no phones and spend quality time as a family.

Limit time online – this is a big one for many of us! It will be sad to let go of that Farm you’ve worked so hard to build or that high score in your favorite game but time spend reconnecting with yourself or your family is much more valuable.

These are just some examples, you’ll find there are many more as your perspective changes.

I’d love to hear how you’ve managed to find balance in your lives.