The One Thing

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the course of half a century it’s that how we use our time, intellect and energy greatly impacts our ability to get what we want out of life. Spending inordinate amounts of time on low value activities is basically a waste of time because it’s a misuse of our resources of time, intellect and energy. Low value activities include common distractions such as watching the news, scrolling through social media updates and binge watching TV shows. Of course we will always make some time for these activities but often people get too absorbed in them because they are easy, and give us the feeling of doing something without actually having to challenge ourselves. To put it another way I believe that most people spend way too much time, intellect and energy on things that won’t help them to make a major difference in their lives. How often in our lives have we heard the phrase, “What difference does it make?” Indeed. When doing just about anything we should be asking ourselves that question!

So, I’ve often thought about where to start when giving someone life advice. In my earlier years I would tend to think of things that were very specific. Such as advising a person to exercise at least five times a week or to save at least ten percent of their earnings for the future. I’ve come to find that the specific things a person does are less important than a person having a strong grasp of a much bigger idea first. Hence, I have determined that the one big idea that a person needs to embrace in order to create a strong foundation for a well lived life is to spend sufficient time on things that truly make a difference in their lives. I’ve decided that this idea is the one thing that’s critical to convey and understand before committing to the various daily disciplines necessary to craft a satisfying life.

Digging deeper into this concept we also need to explore what it means for a life to be “well lived” as well as how we define ”sufficient time” spent on meaningful activities. The answers to these questions will be different for each person so that’s where things get quite a bit more complicated. And that underscores the importance of understanding the one universal idea that our time needs to be well spent. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that in general all of us can benefit from self investigation that takes a critical look at how we spend our time, intellect and energy each day. What should we be doing more of? What should we be doing less of? What should we start doing? What should we stop doing altogether? All questions worth asking.

As we enter a new calendar year I urge you to consider how you’re feeling about the direction of your life. If you do have unfulfilled desires or things that are troubling you then it would be wise to examine how you have been spending your time, intellect and energy. The results of such an examination will inform changes in how you spend your time in the future. For reference the key questions that you should be asking when performing such an examination are in a bullet list below. Happy New Year!

• Am I happy with the current direction of my life?
• Are there things I have been wanting to achieve that I have not achieved?
• How much time am I spending each day on low value activities?
• Why am I procrastinating and avoiding high value activities that will make a difference in my life?
• What things should I be doing more of?
• What things should I be doing less of?
• What should I start doing?
• What should I stop doing?

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Socrates