We have many assets in our lives that have worth other than material wealth. In fact, these assets can be used to create material wealth and intangible worth. I refer to them as the three Ts: time, talent, and treasure. These three assets do not rise above all else and all others; however, they should be viewed as a significant means, vehicle, or springboard to achieving the many goals contemplated within The Meaningful Life. And what can we do with these assets? We can use the three Gs of guard, grow, and gift to make sure they add value to our lives.
Time
We cannot extend the seconds, minutes, or hours of a day. Thus, it behooves us to use our time wisely. In fact, we should selfishly guard it. Quite frankly, we waste a lot personal and professional time. We don’t take enough time to reflect and assess how we are using our time. Before we can bring about change, we first must identify what needs changing.
To take a step in that direction, look at the past month. What items or events do you look back on as a “UWOT” -- an utter waste of time? We all have UWOTs and they likely will pop up again in another format. But having identified a UWOT, we should endeavor to prevent the same UWOT from consuming our precious time. Take a moment and look over your calendar for the next month and identify any event that is a potential UWOT. Then politely cancel it – now.
Equally important as looking out for UWOT events, is the need to identify the items that didn’t get on our calendars. We should grow the allotment of time we give to these items. We cannot increase time. The 86,400 seconds we have everyday cannot be increased or decreased. It cannot be banked or deferred. But we can grow and reduce how we allot the use of our time. For the things that matter and are meaningful, we can add more of that to our calendars.
These include the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” items that we fail to intentionally make time for. Things such as connecting with an old friend for lunch; taking well-deserved time off; setting aside time to “fill in your blank” that you have always wanted to do. These are just a few examples. We continually make micro and macro scheduling decisions every day. The sum of these daily decisions ultimately shape the years of our lives. Be reflective, strategic, and intentional about these decisions.
Finally, consider gifting your time to a cause greater than yourself. When we do, certain things will occur. Our lives will become filled with more meaning. We will become more resilient and better able to balance the domains of our lives. Finally, in our altruism we will discover joy.
Talent
Talent is the complete skills set that we possess which allows us to earn “currency” in the marketplace or fulfills a purpose in our lives. These talents come from both nature and nurture. Our talents can be the source of professional success, personal fulfillment, or a directional key to finding meaningfulness in life. Our talents may appear in both the professional and non-professional domains of our life.
We should zealously and jealously guard our talents. They need to be developed and deployed in order truly thrive in life. We can’t go wrong by growing and investing in our talents. These are our strengths, things that will create currency, value, and wealth for us. Just as we can gift your time we can also gift our talents. We can gift our time in the form of delivering meals for a feeding program. However, that does not involve using our talents of let’s say graphic design to create a brochure for the organization. Gifting your talent may or may not be something you want to do. Although you may be super talented at something, you may want a diversion from that and not overtax the talent and choose to gift just your time.
Treasure
Treasure is not limited to tangible assets that can be monetized or serve as currency in the global marketplace. It can be viewed as something provided as compensation for work or something that can be used to barter or trade for other things we need or desire. Treasure can also be the non-material things that add non-monetary value and pleasure to the time that we have on this earth. For some, that may be a significant other, children, an organization, or activity that we enjoy.
Our journey in life may require a little or a lot of treasure. Regardless of the amount of treasure that we have amassed, this too must be managed wisely and viewed circumspectly. Treasure should never be used to measure net worth. We are infinitely worth more than our material treasure, and that treasure does not define us. At best, financial treasure is a snapshot of our current net wealth.
In either scenario, we must zealously and jealously guard our treasure. We must protect our financial treasure, and guard the non-monetary things in our lives that are meaningful to us. The things that cannot be replaced. The people, events, and experiences of life. Things that will linger on long into our lives.
Our treasure should only add value to our lives. If it does not we might want to rethink whether it is treasure. Anything that adds value is surely worth growing. Finally, just as we can gift our time, we can gift our treasure. We are not likely to gift away our children, but meaningfully gifting our material resources will provide the same level of joy as gifting our time.
Although we cannot save time in a bottle, we can surely determine what goes in our daily time bottle.
Reflections Questions:
What events or activities are not an optimal use of your time?
What can you do to guard your time from these UWOTs?
Who is someone in your life that you treasure?
What can you do to intentionally grow your time with them?
What are some of your talents?
What can you do to intentionally develop these talents?