It’s a new year and already time is flying. January is almost gone and soon we will have only 11 months remaining to complete our business and life goals for the year. We have all read articles and books or heard smart people espouse the importance of using our timely wisely, but really—how seriously have we taken it?
Dr. Benjamin E. Mays—a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and past president of Morehouse College—wrote this poetic passage, which reminds us of how quickly time passes, yet how important it is:
“Life is just a minute, only sixty seconds in it; forced upon you, can‘t refuse it. Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it, but it‘s up to you to use it. You must suffer if you lose it, give an account if you abuse it, just a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.”
Do you really value your time? Are you aware of where your days are going? How have you spent these first couple weeks of your year? Has it been business as usual or have you raised your awareness, raised the bar and been doing the things that matter most for your life and business now and for the close of the year when you’ll look back to see how much progress you’ve made?
Most people spend too much time in business on insignificant busy work; they don’t invest it in the actions that really make a lasting difference. Spending time insignificantly is like spending money frivolously. It’s spent and gone forever with no hope for a return. But investing time in work that literally shifts your business is all together different. It actually makes your time more valuable by creating momentum. The better you get at managing your time, the more quickly you get results, which is almost like creating more time. Time is not a replenishable resource; we can never get it back, but we can maximize our effectiveness and outcomes by refusing to run around in circles and call it progress.
Those who are investing their time in the right places are seeing results and living with peace and without anxiety. They know that although the time will never return and the clock can never be turned back, they have spent their precious seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years doing what matters and creating a legacy, building up and edifying other people. When you create a legacy, there is a return on your time; and when you build and develop other people, you multiply your legacy.
Felicia Joy is a nationally recognized entrepreneur who created $50 million in value for the various organizations and companies she served in corporate America before launching her business enterprise. She is the author of Hybrid Entrepreneurship: How the Middle Class Can Beat the Slow Economy, Earn Extra Income and Reclaim the American Dream and a regular contributor on CNN. Follow her @feliciajoy.