February 18, 2021
You have two assets that are far more important than any other asset you have.
No, it is not your money. You can always go out and make more money. Rather, your two most important assets are not renewable. Once gone, you can never get them back, so it’s up to you to invest them wisely each and every day.
My hope is that this article will bring you into sharp awareness of these two assets so that if you’ve been failing to utilize them well, then you can course correct and proceed forward with better self awareness.
1. Your Time
You probably guessed this one. Yes, your time is one of your most important assets, if only for the fact that it’s finite and non-renewable.
Once time is spent, you can never get it back.
Soon after my deconversion, it dawned on me just how important my time was. Up until then, I always thought that I was getting an enteral life in heaven. When that illusion fell away, I realized just how valuable time really is. We really only have so much time do what we want to do in this life and on this earth.
And remember—there’s no guarantee that you will have a long life.
There’s a reason people say “spend time” the same way they say “spend money.” Your time is a currency of its own—an asset.
When you spend your money, it’s gone. When you invest your money, hopefully you will make a return.
It works the same way with time.
When you spend your time, it’s gone.
When you invest your time, you’re likely to see a return. Invested time is time used doing things like working out, learning something new, or building relationships, whether social, romantic, or for business.
Like money, time can also be budgeted.
I encourage every single one of you reading this article to do a time audit. That means for an entire week, you track everything you do and how long you spend doing it. Make a spreadsheet and organize the data.
- Track exactly how much time you spend scrolling social media.
- Track exactly how much time you spend actually working (stop your timer when you’re taking a break, having coffee, chatting with a coworker, etc.)
- Track exactly how much time you spend watching television.
The results may shock you.
I did this exact thing. When I saw how much time I was spending and how little time I was investing I very quickly began making some changes in my life.
2. Your Attention
Your attention is your second most important asset. It’s not talked about nearly as much as time, but it’s no less important.
Again, financial terminology is used in relation to your attention. When someone tells you to, “pay attention,” that means they are presenting you information you’ll find valuable and that you should invest your focus there, not elsewhere, in that moment.
What you devote your attention to has a strong correlation to the quality of your life and your happiness. And just like with time, the choice is up to you whether you commit your attention to productive or non-productive things.
- There’s a reason YouTube has a recommendation algorithm that feeds you the next video without you having to actually click or choose anything.
- There’s a reason Netflix plays the next episode just as the previous episode ends.
- There’s a reason websites use attention-grabbing, click-bait headlines.
Everyone is fighting for your attention as hard as, perhaps even harder than they are fighting for your money. If they can capture your attention, then they have you. And the algorithms are in place to suck you down a black hole and, before you know it, an entire hour has passed.
What can you do if you find that your attention is often on things that aren’t benefiting you?
It’s harder to do an “attention audit.” With a time audit, all you have to do is start and stop a timer when you are doing certain activities.
Tracking your attention is more complicated. Because while you may be “doing” one thing, your attention may be elsewhere. If you’ve ever taken a really boring class, then you know exactly what I mean.
I’d recommend you start by making a list of everything that you feel should get your attention throughout the day. Some examples could be:
- Your job
- Your side hustle
- Your kids
- Your work out routine
- Learning a new language
A list like this is useful because when you pause during the day and ask yourself what has your attention in that moment, and you determine it’s something outside of your list, you can then switch gears and refocus back onto something more beneficial and productive.
As I discuss in my book, developing a meditation practice is the most basic, first step thing you can do to practice regaining control of your attention. But fighting for your attention outside of a meditation session is to practice self awareness in the present moment—remembering to stop and ask yourself, “what has my attention right now?”
Don’t feel discouraged if you can’t stay focused on beneficial things literally every second of the day. No one can. Your brain isn’t meant for that, and it needs to relax. But don’t get tricked into giving your attention to more “relaxing” activities and letting the beneficial ones not get the attention they deserve.