Wish you had more Time? Money? Energy?

How do you “spend” your time? How do you “spend” your money? What about your energy?

People often tell me they don’t have enough time/money/energy to __________ (exercise, prepare healthy meals, go to church, hang out with their friends, travel, etc.). But I wonder to myself: “What are you spending your resources on instead of these things?” I happen to know many people who work long hours, and have ‘busy’ lives, but they seem to always have the time to exercise, socialize, stay connected, and stay on track with their nutritional goals and ideals. Why is this?

Perhaps it’s simple. I believe these people have gotten very clear on what they value. The truth is we all spend our time, energy and money on the things we value, we just might not yet be very clear on what these values are.

If we’re just looking at what our resources are, we all have time (the same 168 hours/week), money (everyone has at least some), and energy (they say the human body has enough potential energy to power an entire city!). So what gives? I think it can be easy to waste time/money and energy unconsciously only to later feel used, frustrated, run down and exhausted. Sound familiar? If so, read on…

It’s time to decide what your values are and where you’re spending your resources. This is easy, I promise

Start by putting the following in order of importance to you. (Hint, there’s no right answer but your answer is right for you and will tell you a lot about yourself and where you want to be spending your resources).

Physical Health

Learning and Growing

Financial Balance

Family Connections

Social Life and Recreation

Spiritual Connection

Emotional Wellbeing

Career

Quickly jot them down and put a number from 1-8 next to each.

Okay, now let’s look at a typical week. Next to each of these categories, decide about how many hours you spend and how much money you spend on each one of these categories. Guess for now but come up with a couple of numbers for each. For example, how much do you pay for exercise clothes/membership/fees etc? How much time do you exercise each week? How much time/money do you spend on learning (reading, studying etc.)? How much time do you use to manage your expenses/budget/savings etc. You get the point.

Does what you’re spending on each of these make sense to you? Do you want to spend more money on some categories and less on others?

Some things are easy to change once you can see what they are, others are more complex. I find this exercise empowering because it frees you from feeling guilty about not having enough time/money or energy to do the things you never intended to do in the first place. It will also help you be more honest in your conversations with others because you will more easily say no to things you do not value in order to do those that you do value.