Most of us won’t ever be financial billionaires.
And that’s ok. Most of us don’t want or need to be.
But anyone can be a time billionaire.
The fact is, most people are solving for the wrong thing.
Time is our only nonrenewable resource.
Yet most of us gladly trade our time for money, or even worse, we give it away for free.
Hustle culture is a disease. We wear busyness like a badge of honor. When someone asks us how we are, our auto-reply is “Busy. Crazy busy.” And we say it like it is a good thing.
The truth is, all the money in the world doesn’t matter unless we are using it to intentionally design the exact life we want to live.
With any goal (including financial), it’s important to start with our why. When it comes to money, most of us just want the freedom to spend our time doing things that bring us joy with the people that we love.
Once we start from that place, it turns out most of us need a whole lot less money than we think we do.
In fact, most entrepreneurs that I work with eventually come to a shocking realization: they already have enough money to do exactly that.
Once we come to that understanding, we must face a second truth: it is completely within our power to take control of our time and use it to live life to the fullest.
I recently wrote about Gay Hendricks and his book, the Big Leap. What I didn’t tell you is that beyond the Upper Limit Problem, that book contains an affirmation that changed my life:
”I am the source of time.”
This simple yet powerful statement requires us to take radical responsibility for our time. Once we internalize this concept, commonplace excuses like, “I don’t have time for that,” simply lose power because they are exposed as untrue.
If you are willing to truly take back your power over time, here are some questions I’ve used to reshape my relationship with our most precious resource:
1. Questioning Time Scarcity:
Ask yourself, “How am I wasting time worrying about not having enough of it?”
Reframe: Instead of focusing on the lack of time, focus on being present and making the most out of the available moments. I learned this one when I got divorced, and my time with my kids was cut by 50%. I had to learn to be truly present and savor every moment with them. I’m a better father because of it. In Tim Urban’s famous essay “The Tail End,” he calculates that by the time a child turns 18, parents have already spent 90% of the total time they will ever spend with them. That one hits hard.
2. Understanding How You Manufacture Time:
Consider, “In what ways can I create more time by being more efficient or delegating tasks?”
Reframe: Recognize that streamlining processes or sharing responsibilities can expand your own time resources. Ruthless delegation is a superpower. My friend Dan Martell is the best in the world at this. One of his favorite sayings: If you don’t have an assistant, you are the assistant.
3. Identifying Time-Sucking Habits:
Reflect on, “What habits or activities drain my time without contributing to my fulfillment or success?”
Reframe: Commit to reducing or eliminating these time-suckers and reallocating that time to more meaningful activities. The best thing I’ve done in the last year is politely declining all coffee meetings and brain pickers. It’s hard at first; it triggers all of our people-pleasing tendencies. But the fact is, I have big goals that I must prioritize. Now, I simply have my assistant ask for a clear business objective prior to the meeting.
4. Dealing with Time Anxiety:
Challenge yourself, “Do I often feel rushed or anxious about time? What triggers these feelings?”
Reframe: Take radical responsibility for your time. Stop playing the victim to time and everything will shift. Once I took extreme ownership of my time, I magically started to find myself doing more of the things I love. Reading for leisure, spending time outdoors, laughing with my wife.
5. Exploring Time Abundance:
Ponder, “What would it look like if I had all the time I needed?”
Reframe: Imagine a day when time feels abundant, and identify the feelings or actions that contribute to this sensation. If you want to truly take back your time, it all starts with being intentional. Identify the things that matter (big rocks) and stack them first. Want to know how I do it? I use an exercise called the Perfect Calendar (if you’d like a copy, simply respond to this email.)
6. Breaking Through Upper Limits:
Ask, “How am I limiting myself with my beliefs about time?”
Reframe: Recognize limiting beliefs as self-imposed barriers and work on expanding your sense of what’s possible in the time you have.
Every morning, I start the day by reviewing my goals and affirmations. The first sentence?
”I am the source of all time, and time flows from within me.”
A billion seconds is slightly over 31 years. You can be a time billionaire any time you choose to be.
Spend it wisely my friends,
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