Dear friend,
I wanted to write you a letter on how to save time, the most precious commodity we have on earth.
To start off, realize that time is the ultimate non-renewable resource. That means that no matter how rich we are, we can never “buy” or “earn” more time. Time is like a smartphone battery, you start off your life at 100% charge, and as time goes on, you lose charge. Eventually you will reach 0% (death). And in life, we have no charger to let us “recharge” more time.
Unfortunately, we silly humans don’t value our time enough. We (stupidly) value money over time, whereas it should be the opposite.
Time is more valuable than time. If you lose a year of your life, you’ve lost it forever. If you’ve lost $100, you can earn another $100 in the future.
Why is it that we value money over time?
Well, the mistake we all make (myself included) is that we think we’re going to live forever. Especially when we’re younger, we put little to no value on our time. We cannot possibly imagine that one day we will die.
If you’re older, you might be waiting until retirement until you finally “live” by doing what you want, by traveling, and finally following your passion.
But how foolish it is that we wait until we are retired until we pursue what we love. What guarantee do we have that we will even live to 65? I had a friend who died by getting killed by a drunk driver, my friend Simon Kim was only 16.
I’ve hear many other stories of premature deaths. A professor of Cindy’s caught a rare cancer, and died in his early 50’s. My friend’s old boss got killed by a driver when he was riding his bicycle to the gym (he was in his 30’s). It is also common for many people nowadays to die while texting and driving.
Why do we delay our lives to the uncertain tomorrow? Even though we perceive ourselves to be young, who knows if we will die in our sleep.
My buddy Seneca advises me: “Go to sleep as if you were never going to wake up again, and wake up as if you’re never going to sleep again.”
But how do we save our time in today’s crazy and hectic world?
First of all, value your time above everything else. Value your time over money. Your time isn’t worth $10, 15, 20, 100, 200, 300, or even $1000 an hour. The value of your time is priceless. Don’t sell yourself or your time for cheap.
Secondly, learn how to say “no” to both bad and good opportunities. Steve Jobs said innovation is saying “no” to 1,000 good ideas. It is hard for all of us to say no and “let people down.” But the truth is if you don’t learn to stand up for yourself and your time, nobody else will. Learn how to say “no” in a kind way, by thanking others for their kind offers, but that you’re going to pass this time.
Thirdly, don’t procrastinate what’s truly important to you. Procrastinate on unimportant things. Realize, tomorrow is never. If you have an idea for something you want to write about, if you want to read something, create something, photograph something, or meet someone, don’t put it off until tomorrow. Do it today, as if you won’t wake up tomorrow. And not only that, but treat others like they will die tomorrow. This way you will never have any regrets.
You only live once. Don’t let anybody else take control of your life. Take control of your own steering wheel in life, and savor each hour and minute of your time.
Never forget, it isn’t life which we have. It is only time.
Be strong,
Eric