Compensation Part 3

The time never comes back. I've had the occasional time waste. I feel very fortunate that I don't fall victim to the more conventional time sucks. I don't have a television, and I never have. I do not play video games, have never been into sports. I have always felt that the time that I have has always been my own. I have never once in my life complained about not having enough time. Part of it is that I have never been one to overextend myself. The other part of it is that I know that my time is very, very, very limited. If I live a long life, and I feel like that's probable, I'm already past the halfway point. I find a little solace in that. However, my time is not preordained, and I could be at the very end of my life as I write these words, and I would never know it.

When it comes to compensation, we don't often consider time in the equation. We should. When it comes to the working world, there are allowances for time. Flex days off, extra money, etc. But what about those hours that we get to control? What about all those hours that so many of us while away in the idlest of ways? I think about these hours a great deal, and I hope to use them wisely. It's sad that I don't feel like I do as much as I could. I still get a great deal done, and like I said, I have never been one to complain of a lack of time.

It's there though, all around me. I have friends, I have family members and the people I see frequently. I know plenty of people who spend their time in ways that I think is a complete waste. It's those people who turn off entirely that I feel so bad for. I feel bad for the ones who shut off by switching on some screen or other or by sparking up the weed. I live in present day Colorado, after all, and the weed and weedheads are around me. Without passing too much judgment here, a word of warning, too much weed is not a good thing. I've known more than a few people who I have noticed growing dimmer each year.

The question is, of course, is the entertainment or the drugs or any of it more important that the time in which it takes to do those things? If it comes down to a finite amount of time, say 24 hours, what do you do with it? Sure, there's the sleep, somewhere between five and ten hours for most of us. One-third of the 24 hours is common. Then what about the other two/thirds? Working, for most of us, is about half of that, if you count the windup and cool down on either side. That leaves us with six or so hours in the 24 that is relatively “free.” How free is it, really? There are the daily chores, the physical maintenance. So carving it down even more, we can safely say that there is even less time.

How it's spent is the real conundrum. It's too easy to flip on the passive entertainment. It's easy to tune out and click off. And once that happens, we have become lost in folds of the daily grind, right? Those few precious hours granted to us every day really will equate to how we spend the rest of our life. When the time is wasted, it can never be regained. For instance, many years ago, in my youth, I partied once for three years. I have no recollection of anything specific. I was not writing, which is what I set about doing. I was not particularly happy. I had a lot of fun, though. The compensation for that time? None. The cost? Three years. Not much in the grand scheme of things. What if it was the last three years of my life though? At the end of it, I'd expect I'd feel bad, full of regret.

In a way, I find it too real that most of us waste our lives. It's a strange mix of the modern era. We have more time, or in theory we have more time, but for so many of us, it's not the case. It's not the case because we have let the distractions take over. It's not fair.

But the compensation of time? If there is such a thing is not a outwardly noticeable thing. When we have the time, even if it's the smallest amount of time, to really focus and look inward and create outward, we have won. We have won. It may not seem like the ultimate in gain, and it may not be the ultimate in financial fortune, but I suspect that in the end, it will be worth it. I have always felt that time will buy money, but not the inverse. What we do with our time, much like what we do with our money is as more important of a judge of character, I think, than how we spend our time to earn our money