Spirituality, time, money and TRUE POWER

What do I give my time to? What message do I send to myself and others through it?

Have you ever heard the saying: “Time is money?” Everyone that is more than five hears old has probably heard it. We all know what it means: Time can be converted into money. And vice versa. But there are other connections as well. For example that if we don’t pay attention to them, they tend to slip through our fingers. And we always seem to have too little of them. While a few have way too much. But when it comes to time, those that have too much are usually those that are unemployed, while those that have too much money are leaders of multinational corporations, banks etcetera. Not that I’m against people being rich, but when they are so rich that they start wanting to use their money to influence politics or even take over the world, then someone should probably take their money away from them, since their money are more dangerous than an atom bomb. Because if someone had a really dangerous weapon and was using it in really dangerous ways, you would, if you could, want to take the weapon out of that person’s hands, right?

But I’m getting a bit off topic here.

As I said, people either seem to have too much or too little time. I belong to the former category. There never seems to be any balance.

Something that I feel that I have to add before I move on, is that what I've noticed lately, is that this should absolutely not be confused with getting as many things as possible done. What matters most is what that which we spend our time on does with us. And this is important. If I do certain things, this does something to me. If I for example allow distractions to constantly get a hold on my attention, I will become more and more unfocused. But if I get into the habit of bringing back my attention to what I'm doing here and now, I will strengthen my focus. And attention and focus are some of the most important skills we must develop. Especially since we live in a world that, by design, constantly tries to rob us of our attention and focus.

What I’ve come to understand, is that an advantage, because I’m not addicted to my phone. But I do have other distractions. My distractions are mainly movies and TV-series. And I also waste a lot of time being unfocused and sloppy with what I do. And the more I am unfocused and sloppy with what I do, the more I turn into an unfocused and sloppy person. One that has to work under a lot of stress to fix the consequences of being unfocused and sloppy, I might add. 

This is one side of the coin. The other is that how I treat my time will have an effect on how others treat my time. If I don’t value it and respect it, why would others? If others see me waste time on trivialities for no good reason, they may, consciously or unconsciously, believe that they may have something more important to fill my time with. There is an equivalent when it comes to money. If I engage in unwise spending it will have an effect on those around me. Others may want to join me and together we will be even more unwise, than if we were just being foolish on our own. 

The reverse is true as well. If you decide to take control of your time and money, it will have a positive effect on those around you. And when it does, their actions will reinforce your positive behavior. 

Think about this and you can probably see that it’s true in your own life. Think about what this means. This means, as with so many other things, that you have quite a lot of power over your life and those that you share it with. But you don’t exercise that power through forcing your will on others or the world. You exercise that power by taking charge of yourself. Then others and the world will follow. This is the old cliché: “Be the change that you want to see.” But it’s not just a catchy slogan. It’s actually how reality works.

Maybe what we spend our time on might not matter that much in the grander scheme of things. Maybe it does. I start to lean more towards that it actually does. But no matter what, we are here and now and I at least don’t want to reach the end of my life feeling like I spent most of my time on things that don’t matter. 

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Energy management

Quite a few people that I listen to talk about that money problems essentially comes down to a problem in energy management. I figured that there might be something to it but haven’t given it much thought beyond that. But if I suspect that this might be at the core of one of my biggest stumbling blocks, I should probably give it some thought. 

Another idea that comes up frequently, is that how you do one thing, is how you do everything. And what I’ve realized is that I often don’t work smart. If I’m in the gym, I lift as heavy as possible and till fail in every set. When I need to get something done fast, I simply push through without thinking of what I’m doing. This usually result in a couple of things. What I’m doing ends up taking longer time because I didn’t think of the most efficient way of doing it. I get stuck because I run into some difficult problem and have already wasted my mental energy. And afterwards, I have to deal with a bunch of problems because I’ve done a sloppy work. 

When it comes to eating, I’m usually rather strict. But now and then I binge out on junk food and candy. 

So, I’m thinking that if I balance out my energy a little bit, I will be able to both have a more consistent energy level, enjoy life more and resist urges. I can enjoy some chocolate now and then, without adding significantly to my weight, feeling lethargic because of over-eating or feel guilty because I know I’m doing something to my body that I shouldn’t.

So, therefore I believe that energy management comes down to treating both the energy that goes into the body and the one that goes out of it in a smarter way. I need to work smarter and adjust the type of work that I do to where I currently am. When I fore example get home from work, I should probably focus on easier tasks and leave the more difficult ones to when I’m not worn-out. 

When it comes to what is going in to the body, I need a good balance between treating food as fuel and pleasure. I maybe shouldn’t eat the most unhealthy stuff. But some chocolate and nuts in moredate amounts once or twice per week might not be that bad. It was a long time ago that I believed in asketism, but sometimes I think that I have some residue from that period of my life left in me.

What it all comes down to, I guess, is to be conscious of what I’m doing, not rush things and do things in a thought-through manner. I also need to negotiate a bit with my ego and throw it a bone now and then, preferably according to a fixed schedule and in fixed amounts. In this context, it means to eat candy moderately and on fixed days. But it can of course be applied to alcohol, movies, TV-series etc. There should probably also be some room for completely letting go if I truly and honestly feel like it some time. But NOT ON A REGULAR BASIS. 

If I take the stance just described towards pleasure, I will also probably be able to enjoy my pleasures more, without feeling guilty about it. Let’s see how all of this works.

Financial advice from a man with financial problems

Why should you take financial advice from someone with financial problems? The answer to that question is most of the time that you shouldn’t. But if you also have problems with money, and you are still lying to yourself and others about money, I’m at least one step ahead of you. 

I admit that money matter to me. I do my best to accept where I currently am. I try my best to be happy and grateful for what I’ve got and to see that all that ultimately matters, is my relationship with God. But I admit that financial problems is a huge stress factor in my life. 

So, this is what I've realised:

I want to have resources to really help other people. Not just help others in similar financial situations as my own to put some band-aid on huge wounds. Band-aid that burns huge holes in my own pocket. 

I want to go abroad on vacation every year. I want to travel abroad to meet interesting people and get mesmerised by all the beautiful places in God's creation. Today I can’t. And when I finally can afford going on vacation, I constantly think about what everything costs and feel bad when I spend more money than I’ve planned. Which has happened on exactly every vacation I’ve ever been on throughout my adult life. Simply put, I want to be able to go on vacation without having financial stress constantly in the back of my mind.

I want to go to the store and just buy the things that I want, without looking at the price of the items. 

I want to never have to worry about bills ever again. 

I don’t want to have to check my bank-account several times every month, to make sure that there is enough money there.

I want to be able to save money every month.

I want to have a buffer.

I don’t want to have to worry about unforeseen expenses. 

I don’t want to argue with my wife and other people about money.

I recognise that all of these things cause stress in my life in a way that significantly lowers my happiness. This does not mean that I shouldn’t try to meet my situation with as much acceptance that I can muster up. It’s a good thing to learn to bear our circumstances and to do our best to focus on the positives instead of the negatives. 

But what it does mean, at least for me, is that I need to face reality as clearly as I can and, to the best of my ability, try to find out what it takes to create a financial situation that I’m truly content with and the do it to the best of my ability. 

This, I believe, is true for most people that don’t live in an ideal financial situation. To admit and accept these things, I believe is sound financial advice, even if it doesn’t come from someone who has “made it”.