My Time, Your Time

Time is an awful form of currency. Unless it is an exchange. Currency was invented as a way of solving co-ordination problems in barter. Unless by chance you had exactly what the other person wanted, you couldn't exchange anything. Having something that you know you can exchange with someone else is useful. It frees up potential. I still think we can do better at releasing potential. It is an awareness problem. The better you know someone, the more you care about them, the more exchange can move into the more interesting area of relationship. Where there is no accounting. Where you give without expectation.

Money allows things that are completely different to be compared. Things are given a price. That price IS NOT ITS VALUE. Value is deeply personal. It is fuzzy. It is yours. It is why we walk past things that are too expensive, and buy lots of things that are good value... to us. Price is a way of shifting things to where they will be paid the most. That is all.

Price is not Value. Value is deeply personal.

One of the first steps of taking control of your own financial freedom is to break that connection. If you can make sure that your 'standard of living' can be financed well within your salary by building a buffer, the price of things will stop affecting your day to day life. If the way you live means you don't have to watch your bank account closely, because you live simply, the price of things will stop affecting your life. If you can slowly detach what you do from what you are paid (your time's price), then what will start to drive your life is value, not price.

We all have 24 hours in a day. It is an enforced form of equality. You can not accumulate time. You can not separate yourself from time in the way you can separate capital from labour. It is yours. Like value.

That is why it drives us nuts when someone does something where the implicit message is 'my time is more valuable than yours'. It is not. Not at all. Busyness is a choice. If someone says they are too busy to do something for themselves, they are saying their time is more important than yours. That is never true. We all need help occasionally, but that is where relationship comes in. Favours. Exchange. Otherwise it is just a power play.

Protect your time. Time is priceless.