Watch the Telly or Earn Your Freedom - A Time Spend Choice

--------- Time Spent Per Day ---------
Year	Men	Women	Teens	Children

2000	4:11	4:46	3:04	3:07
2001	4:19	4:51	3:04	3:12
2002	4:22	4:58	3:09	3:10
2003	4:29	5:05	3:07	3:14
2004	4:26	5:07	3:07	3:16
2005	4:31	5:17	3:19	3:19
2006	4:35	5:17	3:23	3:26
2007	4:35	5:14	3:21	3:25

Four to five hours a day on average watching television (according to Nielsen Media Research) - I have to take out my calculator! In ten years that's 18,250 hours, in twenty 36,500 - a pretty significant chunk of one's 750,000 Hours!

But a more important exploration is why do people spend all of that time watching television? Is it so fulfilling that we want to spend 5 hours a day on it or is it simply there? Is it a comfort after a hard day's work? Is it a soothing treat after working a job we don't enjoy? Have we simply not thought of a good alternative to hours in front of the telly?

Here's one alternative. Five hours is actually about the same amount of actual 'work' time that is put in at one's day job (after meetings, breaks, training, etc.), it's a significant amount of time. What if you designated some (or all) of that TV time as Freedom Time and used it to earn your freedom to do what you want? Here's a few initial thoughts on things that could be done with Freedom Time:

- Start your own business (doing something you love) - 5 hours a day is equal to the amount of 'work' time put in by many people during their day job (after meetings, training, etc.)
- Start writing for profit
- If you don't have a clue what to do, start researching how you could earn a second income
- Get your finances in order, focus in and figure out where your pennies and pounds are 'leaking' out of your pockets
- Find ways to earn an income off the things, knowledge and experience you already have.

Telly time or Freedom Time, two different choices - and two different destinations...

Re-Encounter of the Mall Kind

It's very interesting being back in 'civilization' (although I don't think that word means what we think it means) and feeling the old consumption urges. I thought after being out of things for 5 months, those spending desires had disappeared. While on the boat, I had no desire to go shopping and certainly wasn't interested in going to a mall.

What a difference a place makes! Welcome to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a consumption Mecca designed to entice you spend all your pennies and then some! This experience really drives home why it is so difficult to step off the spending treadmill if you're still in the same spending place.

I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but I've been having a craving to go to the mall! Now I haven't watched any TV and haven't read a paper so that's not it. I don't have anything on my list of need-to-buys or even on my list of want-to-buys. Do you suppose there's some subliminal messages posted around town, 'You need to go to the mall', 'You must go to the mall' - perhaps posted right next to traffic lights?

So we decided to go with it and went to the mall. As we walked in the door, Steve commented, "Demon place, designed to separate you from your money" in his best Sean Connery voice. And boy, is the Galleria Mall here designed to get you there and then once you're in the door, hook you in but good. The surroundings are so nice, why would you want to leave? (I do have to say the gold swan faucets with wings in the bathrooms were an interesting touch.)

Nice surroundings or not, they are designed in every aspect to get you to spend. Now if you get a lot of value and enjoyment out of time at the mall and think that is a great way to spend one (or many) of your 750,000 hours, then spending time at the mall would be an appropriate choice for you. However, for every hour you spend at the mall - if you're spending any money and you will be - then you also have to include the time you work to earn that money to spend. So is a couple of hours at the mall worth losing two of your 750,000 Hours plus the 3-5 you'll have to work to pay for your little expedition?

That's how we end up staying on the treadmill, we think nothing of hitting the mall for a couple hours and dropping $100, but for many folks that's 4-5 hours of work. Multiply that over the course of a year and instead of moving towards your ideal lifestyle, you're moving further and further away...

P.S. As Steve predicted, we were soon parted from our money - we couldn't escape the mall without spending! I think we'll stay outta there!

The Value of Now

Came across a couple of wonderful examples of living one's dreams.  They make me think about the value of doing things now versus waiting.  Check out these two photos of boats in the same bay in the Bahamas.  The small boat has a couple on it and their dog.  The big boat has a crew plus a couple and some friends.

 

The thing that I think is interesting here is the small boat can be bought for very little money (or bought and fixed up for even less) and then, poof!, you're off living out your dreams - now (in your 20's, 30's, 40's).  The big boat (unless Daddy left you that trust fund) will take many years to earn pushing you well into late 50's or 60's before you head out to enjoy your dreams.

 

Now the little boat is a lot smaller and it doesn't come with a crew.  However, it is very funky and cute - and, most importantly, very comfortable.  It's got a great deck on the back, perfect for diving from, dining alfresco and just watching the world go by.  That size also comes in a price range that many people can afford with some work, savings, and a little effort.  You can have the little boat now.

 

The big boat, well, it has everything - big screen this and electronic that, plush everywhere and lots of space.  It also has the associated big price tag.  You can have all that, but you have to work for the next 20 years to get it.  Are those things worth 20 years of your life?

 

The financial advisors and writers we read suggest that you need big chunks of cash in order to retire, big chunks of cash that will take until you're at least 65 to earn.  I think that's a myth designed to keep the consumerist economy chugging along.  You are conditioned to have more, more, more rather than to realise when you have enough (remember, Steve's Concept of Enoughness - what is enough for you?  Never mind what everyone else thinks is enough for you!).  There are plenty of people (besides us) who aren't waiting, who are having their ideal lifestyle now.  All too often we put things off because we want the 'big one', the big house, the big boat, the jet-set lifestyle, but have a think about it, is it you that really wants that or have you simply been told that you want it / must have it so many times that you believe you do?

 

And don't forget, along with waiting 20 years, there's also the issue of health and physical capability.  There is a difference between what you feel like at 46 as compared to what you feel like at 66.  All those advisors neglect to mention that if you put your dreams on hold for 20 years you might not be (physically) able to pursue them - heck, you might not even be here!  (As you may have noted, I do not find the idea of putting things off until later appealing, this is a big reason why!)  How many people do you know who have reached the age of 65 or 68 and find that they (or their partner) are no longer capable of doing those things they've dreamt about and saved for for so long?

 

Is it worth the wait just so you can have the bigger _______ (fill in the blank) or would a smaller _______ suffice if you could do go now?  Would a smaller _______ work if you could have it for 20 extra years?  (Hmm, let me think, would I want 20 extra years cruising the Bahamas or a bigger boat?  The word DUH comes to mind!)  It's certainly worth considering, don't you think?

 

So what's the value of living your dreams 20 years early? 

Is Work All Bad?

A lot of my posts focus on pointing out that we only have a limited time here and do we really want to spend what little time we have on work. But sometimes you gotta work and sometimes you like work and sometimes you'll work at the same time as living out your dreams. I've had jobs that I absolutely loved and I adored running our consultancy, Steve had to pull me out of that one! The point that I'm trying to bring out is that work should be a thoughtful, considered action - not something you just do because that's what you've been told to do and that's everyone else does. To put it really simply, I think there is good work and bad work.

Here's an example, I knew a man from New England who worked in a retail store and hated it! He hated it for the 17 years that I knew him. Can you imagine, going into work every day for 17 YEARS and counting the minutes until you were done? In 750,000 Hours terms, that's 37,000 hours wasted doing something you don't like - a huge amount of life time spent which could have been spent on something this man liked to do. Steve knew people in the service who were 8 years away from retirement and were counting the days until they were done. That's a heck of a long time to be counting down the days!

That's bad work.

Good work is a job you love, you really get a lot out of doing it. You might even do it for free, you're having so much fun (but don't tell your employer that!). You get up every morning looking forward to the day and it flies by, before you know it, it's time to go home. That's good work.

There is a caution here about the good work though, sometimes we fall into it and are having such a good time that we never raise our head above the parapet to see if there is anything else that we might like more. Even though you enjoy good work, make sure that you are still living out your dreams or working to live out your dreams. You still need to take the time to think about what you want out of this life and to make sure you get it. It may very well be that your work is so good that that is exactly what you want, but often times when embroiled in good work people forget to consider all of their options and they may have other things they want to do in this lifetime. Even in good work, make sure it is a conscious choice after evaluating ALL your choices!

If you think about the 'Book of Your Life' that you'll be looking back over when you're 85 (or 90 or 95...), you'll enjoy reading about the good work and be really sorry you spent all that time on the bad work.

Key points here - stay away from bad work and if you're in bad work, don't stay there - those hours will be spent, you won't get them back! And even if you're lucky enough to have good work, make sure it is a considered choice after looking at all your options - not just the one you were pushed or fell into!

If Hours are Currency...

...which they are, how are you spending them? Time is the only true currency. We exchange time for money, things, experiences.

Time is the only true currency and we only have a finite amount of it. We can improve the value or return on investment of our currency, getting more value from time spent. We can actively manage our asset (our time) and ensure we get the most out of every hour or, like money, we can let it slip through our fingers not knowing where it went.

How is your time being 'spent'? Are you getting the most value from every hour as you use it up and it's gone? Or do you drift along letting the hours pass by in an endless succession of mudane, value-less activities?

TV uses your time 'currency'. Is TV watching a 'great' experience or is it more frequently 1 to 3 hours per day (1095 hours per year) spent clicking through the channels trying to find something worth watching? Some really enjoy their television and ensure that they watch shows that they love and that they spend no time watching commercials. Others click, click, click through hours of their lives. I don't watch TV because I fell out of the habit when I moved to England 7 years ago (my habitual shows weren't there anymore and I never picked up the habit again), that's no TV at all in seven years. No, I take that back. We were in a hotel room in Miami a few weeks ago and noticed that there were 90 channels, and thought we might like to watch something. We scanned every single one of those 90 channels and didn't find a thing that would have been more interesting than a walk on the beach or a coffee with some conversation and people watching. Is TV watching a great experience for you, giving you a great return on your time currency investment or is it simply an unthinking habit that you've fallen into along the way?

There are other time 'spends' that may not thoughtfully happen. Commuting time, for example, or extra time (uncompensated time) put in at work, time spent running errands that could be done better online, etc. The key message here is that time is the only currency, once it's spent, it's gone. Are you 'spending' your time the way you want to?