“Time is money” - or is it the other way around? The modern-day paradox of exchanging time for money
The other night I had an interesting conversation with some new people I met. The question was whether, at that exact moment, we would rather: A. have more time, or B. have more money. As we took a vote, the group was split 50/50 with the answers. The funny thing was that the people who answered A. “have more time” said they were sure everyone was gonna say so.
We concluded the split in votes in the following way: the three of those who replied with wanting more money had been living a very financially strained life for the past year, with long periods of unemployment and high expenses. The ones who replied with wanting more time had full-time on-site jobs.
The gist of the story was obvious: we had all been in the same process of exchanging valuable life assets: the two assets that form the base of everything in life. Assets that alone, don’t bring happiness to anyone, but in balance have the potential of creating a very satisfying and good life. TIME & MONEY.
The conversation immediately made me want to write something about the topic, as it hit close to home. I believe there are many people out there (myself included) who struggle to balance time and money and wish they didn’t have to.
I feel highly stressed about not having enough time to do everything I want to do in life because I still need to spend time earning money so that I GET to do everything I want to do. Most of the time though, the stress isn’t even about the time spent, but the fact that most people (myself included, so far at least), spend MOST of their entire lives working - and not doing everything they want.
As humans and contributors to this society, planet, and our families, we absolutely need to work - that’s true and undeniable. Without the work we do, without talented people of many professions, we would live in a dysfunctional world. Some people are lucky to have jobs that give them excellent living while not needing to sell their time and well-being in the process (by lucky I mean, have worked their asses off to be able to do so).
Then there are people, who make a decent living but dislike their jobs or aren’t feeling well and content, maybe because the job is too stressful, straining, or time-consuming. Or maybe, it’s located so that the rest of the environment doesn’t offer anything valuable to one’s life, thus making them miserable.
Our work shouldn’t be our whole life (unless you’re an entrepreneur, then it’s likely a tremendous chunk of your life, at least in the beginning).
BUT, work isn’t the only thing we exchange our time with. We have passions, hobbies, relationships, and ways of winding down. What does this have to do with exchanging time with money? Read on…
Lean on your passions and skills.
What if by truly choosing what we do for a living, we could live a life where we didn’t need more time or money because we had plenty of both due to spending them on things that make us feel happy and fulfilled?
In their jobs, many people end up working in an environment that they don’t enjoy, with people that they don’t share much in common, and doing things that don’t necessarily align with their values, passions, or skills. After each day they come home to cook dinner (not eating out in restaurants), browse their phones (not creating amazing real-life experiences with others), and explore Netflix (not the world), repeating the same thing every day while waiting for the weekend and counting days to the next vacation.
Maybe after learning a new skill or developing one out of our passions, we could create a life of independence, thus having more time, energy, money, and life to do the things as in the brackets in the above paragraph. Or anything else we enjoy doing.
We all get to choose how we spend our time. If you choose to watch Netflix, that’s absolutely fine, and especially if it is a tool that helps you relax, it’s more than recommended. But if you’re the person who constantly finds yourself complaining about your life or the work you do, maybe it’s time to think about the following trades:
finding a new 9-5 job that better responds to your needs, values, and passions will give you more than it takes from you. Your time isn’t exchanged only with money now, but also with developing as a person, as a professional, and gaining valuable connections. Doing something you’re good at and enjoy doing will give you a purpose like no other.
switching that 2 hours of watching Netflix (or even half of it) to reading to learn from a book or training a skill you enjoy, you could potentially make a living off that skill within the next few years.
switching that social media browsing to doing something active will generate energy in your life like nothing else, and serve as an investment in your future health condition as well -> creating more time for yourself and the things you love doing.
taking time to rest from being up and about all the time and saying yes to everything will improve your mood, energy levels, and motivation in the long run. We need to get rid of that FOMO (fear of missing out) - our lives are what we make them, and to have an extraordinary life we need to rest. it. out. once in a while.
Most importantly, what we need to learn as humans are consistency and patience. I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling that year by year I’m becoming less focused and less patient. While knowing that building something amazing takes A LOT of time and effort, I often find myself thinking, “What if I’m wasting my time with this and it will never pay off?” And then I don’t stick with it even though I love doing what I started doing in the first place.
Well, I have decided that from now on, if I find myself having that thought even on the surface of my mind, I’ll try to revert my thinking to “I enjoy spending my time this way. If this never yields me anything, at least I’ve spent my time wisely doing something that’s meaningful to me. At least I’ve done my best trying, and learned a few things in the process.”
Now, tell me, what will you do the next time you find yourself thinking “my life is not how I want it to be” instead of doing what you always do (which is why nothing ever changes)? Comment below, I would love to hear ☺️👇🏼
With love, Stiina
