How Are You Trading Your Time, Energy and Life?

"The price of anything is the price of life you exchange." ~ Henry David Thoreau

We all do business in life.

We sell our time. We sell our energy. We sell our hard-earned money. We sell our attention.

Most of us walk through life with a steady pace, never stopping to think about where that movement is taking us. If it helps or hinders us. If the trading we do every day allows us to live our best lives. If trading gives us a higher level of time with those we care about the most. If we can expect them to be fully involved, empowered, and happy.

Or do we turn our backs on them, tired, frustrated, and frustrated?

The work we do in life is harmful to us physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Trading My Time, Strength, and Enthusiasm for the State and the Corner Office

Like many of us, I have spent part of my life chasing the corporate dream. You know things - a lot of money, a lot of responsibility, an attractive job title, lots of kudos.

But something interesting happened along the way. With the rise of each new currency there has always been someone earning more. Each change in job titles came to an abrupt end. A lot of commitment used to come with a lot of headaches and often politics (something I put up with a little bit). Progress has never felt like progress in a long time. I always felt like hitting a glass roof.

I saw these feelings and wanted to understand them, so I followed some thought and discovery. I realized that I was feeling this way because I was pursuing the things I thought I should be pursuing rather than the things I really wanted to pursue. Simple but powerful difference.

Company mobilization, rioting, and ‘linking your way to the top’ are not only well-established, but also someone else’s way. It never worked for me, and in the depths of the corporate machine I tried to embed myself, that’s when I realized I wanted something else. In addition, I needed more. This model would always be a good fit for me.

So, this is the part where I tell you that I have decided to pursue my dreams and live 'with my love of work.' Well, not really.

I decided to position myself as one company, myself. I will no longer wait for the years of ‘being a manager’; Now I was in charge of my ship. Thankfully, I have the skills and experience that others find important and able to earn a living from (about ten years as I write this).

This season it was not all champagne and roses. I have had very barren times when I thought I might need a new system. I count that, I have had very rich times full of rewarding work, clients, and healthy pay.

Is this my dream job? No. There are other ways to earn a living (full-time writing, for example). And knowing that you have to find your own job is mind-boggling and comes with a certain level of risk, so not everyone. You also need thick skin for this career path.

However, my job gives me a certain amount of freedom and flexibility that I really value (it allows me to travel longer for example). For no apparent reason, I get a job offer that I say yes to. And I rarely go to the office 'showing off my face' and beat the clock during the day. I could work at home, in a coffee shop, or elsewhere. My output is measured, not how often people see me in the office.

These aspects (freedom and flexibility) are very important to me. In addition to job titles and offices in the corner.

My work gives me a mental challenge that I enjoy. And sometimes, I work with very cool people, I learn a lot, and I make a real difference.

There may be gaps between clients and projects from time to time, but when I work, I get better (by most people’s standards). This pays for sacrifice and travel, so it’s enough for me at the time and it’s the right amount of people I work with.

Clarity, and there is nothing wrong with working for others. In fact, whether you work directly in business (employee) or self-employed (like me), we all serve someone. We are not all designed to be entrepreneurs or self-employed, and that is fine. Find your own righteousness and accept it I say. There are many ways to make a living.

My point is that I know my trade and am very happy to do it. If that changes, I will have to make a new plan.

Extensive studies

Although my example involves being one company, supporting the way I want to live, that may be the opposite of where you are and what you need.

Your business can be linked to getting a co-op job where you get paid and a pension and then someone else gets a job. Well, your trading needs to be activities that you are willing to do.

What I encourage is that we know about the trade we do in life. That we know where we spend our energy, time, and effort. In fact, we know where we are spending our time.

This is a powerful prism with which we can look at everything we do.

Yes, sometimes we will have to do trading that may not be our first choice, but we can do it on purpose. Visualization has a great or long-term purpose in play.

Likewise, we can see that we are doing a trade we did not want to do, a trade that takes more of us than a setback, and then we can act accordingly.

Questions to Ask Yourself

We can keep the trades we do forward and focus on our minds by asking ourselves simple but demanding questions.

Is the trade we do worth the energy / time / effort / money we spend on them? Is it possible to see a return on our investment?

Does our business help us to get closer to our goals?

Does our business benefit our relationship? Are we present and available to the people we care most about?