Free Time

I used to play video games quite a bit – both console and PC. Especially with as much as I work, it is nice to do something entertaining that does not require intense amounts of concentration and that’s consequential reach won’t last beyond that mere hour or so. All of the problems will fade away and all of my mistakes forgotten. That isn’t quite how life works, but it is a nice escape.

What I have found recently though is that many times, the same releasing effect that entertainment has causes me to steer away from taking part in it. This is because, at the end of it all, I have blown off some steam, but I have also not done anything that has any lasting result. I am no closer to my wife, no closer to my God, no smarter, no wiser, and nothing that I have done has encouraged anyone else.

This conversation is not about video games, but about how we value our time. A quote by Jim Rohn says:

Poor people have a big TV, while rich people have a big library. -Jim Rohn

Now, “poor” and “rich” may not just apply to our bank accounts. And “big” might be the adjective we could attach to something else in our lives. How “big” are the little minutes every day you let slip away doing your inconsequential things? And with that, how “rich” is your marriage? How “poorly” is your latest idea or passion going? And maybe let’s push the boundaries a little, how financially poor or rich would you call yourself?  The love of money is the root of all evil, but most of the time we just aren’t being wise with our time or money.

It is easy for us to let minutes slip away without thinking, and yet the grand truth behind success is that it is not what we do when other people are doing things, but what we do when other people are not. Our “free time” is when we really can pursue what we love and have buried deep within our hearts.

May we think about our time and how we spend it. It may be that those moments we’ve wasted that are the very key to changing our lives. Maybe we could get our finances in order. Maybe we could kill off our debt. Maybe we could read and grow our mind, or maybe we could serve a person in our life and heal a strained relationship.

Financial success, business success, spiritual success, and relational success are not all that different at their root. They just take that extra bit of time and discipline and things probably will begin to radically change.