Are you familiar with this conversation?
Friend: Hey, want to go for a drink?
You: Sorry, I don’t have the time.
I am sure you have answered that way before. Probably more often than you thought. I certainly use this as an excuse whenever I am busy. Tired of hearing the same reply, my friend scoffed at me;
“Why are you always so busy? Whatever happens to your free time?”
In the midst of surviving the rat race, paying the bills and keeping up with an exhausted body, those words hit me hard and woke me from the distress that has clouded me for years.
The irony is that, I always thought I had everything; a good college education, a healthy body and a stable income. So working hard seems like second nature to me.
But something else was happening. My family sees less of me as I am always late for dinner. My friends stop asking me out because I am working all the time. I used to take a lot of photographs, but now, I don’t even touch my camera anymore.
Whatever happens to my time freedom?
Before I created this blog, I actually thought that all these lifestyles were normal. All busy people behave like that. Surely there’s nothing wrong with that, right?
“Have you ever planned your life?”
I thought everything was in order, that a stable job equals to a good life. But at a closer look, I knew that my situation is not even close to picture-perfect. I was just using hard work to mask my own reality.
What I didn’t realize was that I had traded my time to earn a living so that I can afford the things that I want, but on the downside, it’s almost impossible to find time to enjoy these pleasures.
In other words, I may be rich financially (someday), but I’ll always be poor in terms of time and living a good quality of life.
When I draft my timeline (like the one in this infographic), I finally understood the perspective of time and what I have been missing out on life all these while.
I have filled my path with restrictions and obligations to the point that they obscured my freedom of choice, especially on how I choose to spend my time.
“If you have all the time in this world, what would you do differently today?”
I haven’t thought about this seriously before. It never occurs to me that I would do anything different with my life until I reach the retirement age, or at least when I earn a five-figure income. Obviously, I would be quite worn out by then.
What Is Your Time Freedom?
If I am allowed to choose, I don’t think I want to wait until I am old and gray to enjoy what I love doing most. As I begin to expand the list of my time freedom, I could see myself giving more priorities for my personal well being and happiness.
This has given me a new profound purpose in life as I realized that time is actually the real wealth currency. Those who have more time to enjoy life are just as, or perhaps, more successful than those who are financially rich.
Regardless of which life stages that you are at, it’s time to explore your choices. Let go of the things and people that you can’t change and embrace new opportunities to create wealth that can reward you with both financial and time freedom.
So, the next time someone asks you out for a drink, go for it. It is an invitation to slow down and to enjoy the finer things in life.
> Learn About My Journey Towards Time Freedom <
What’s your definition of freedom? Please share your thoughts with us.
I like your article on time freedom. I never thought of having more time as freedom before. But you have shown me it is. I absolutely love your video with the jelly beans. Man, what a great way to bring home the idea of how much time everyday things take out of our lives! Your article got me to thinking of just how much time I have wasted and that I need to do something about it. now. Thanks for that – I’m on my way to do something about it right now.
I like your concept of time freedom. It feels similar to time prosperity. It made a lot of sense to me because even people who make a lot of money sometimes feel like they never have a moment to relax. So practicing time prosperity is something I do often to give me a sense of fulfillment besides achieving financial freedom.
Thanks for the great article on time freedom – a concept I had never put much thought into before until now.
You touched on many important points about what life should truly be like. I absolutely loved the “jelly bean” video. WOW! What a great visual to bring home the point of how important the allocation of time truly is to our enjoyment of life.
This is precisely what we should all be striving for, the freedom to spend each day we have doing something we love.
Hello Cathy,
I like your site very much, and sure register to work with you. You provided such detailed info on a very simple way easy to understand. So I’m with you on this journey.
My dream hasn’t been to own my own business, but I know by owning my own business I will have the freedom to spend doing what I love. Thank you for adding this together.
I was just texting someone today about my schedule for each week. I noticed that all my time is tied up with the jobs I do. And I mean all my time, everyday. Your website is a refreshing look at how life should be. A lack of time should not be a determining factor in major life decisions. I am trying to build a new life with Wealthy Affiliate to be able to schedule my work around my life instead of searching for time to live around my work. I love your take on things!
Bobby, I am Paul, I notice you enrolled in the Wealthy Affiliate in 2017. 3 1\2 years in the program. I am ready to take the plunge in about an hour, what think?
Go for it Paul. Anyone can benefit from having a blog which is essentially what the training teaches. Plus, there’s a free membership – so you’ve got nothing to lose.
Hello Cathy,
This site has a unique niche which has me thinking at higher level. You have touched me with some hard facts which we normally ignore and they are vital to life. That video about how we spend the days of our lives is an eye opener. I applaud you for sharing such inspiration. I am very intrigued by all that you have here. Simple yet beautiful site! I have taken some pointers as I am a newbie to website building. I know I will get there sooner than I think though. Keep doing you’re thing and continuous success.
Hey Cathy,
I really enjoyed reading all of the posts on your website; they were so educational. I learned a lot about Jaxxy, and Quora; as well as time freedom. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Dale
This website almost put me in shock.
It told me exactly what I was wanting without me knowing it. I have been asked, and asking myself, what it was I wanted. I always said financial freedom; freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted, without worrying about making money. The real answer is “Time Freedom”.
Money isn’t really that important to me. All I need is to pay the bills and have enough money to do a bit of fishing or travel when I want to. I found myself wanting to read every word of this site non-stop.
Welcome to my blog, Barry.
Time is the single most important commodity that we’ll ever have in our lifetime. You can earn back wasted money, but you can’t do the same with time. I sure hope that this concept will reach out to more people as my website grows.
Feel free to browse through my blogs for online business tools and ideas. If you need any help getting started, just send me a private message at Wealthy Affiliate.
Hey Cathy,
I enjoyed reading this post. Isn’t this the most obvious thing but also the most overlooked one.
We spend all the time earning a “living” but are we actually living our lives the way we want to?
Most people incorrectly say time is money when the truth is time is much more valuable than money. You can earn back the money but not the time spent.
Hi Josh,
‘Earning a living’ is what modern labor teaches us and realizing that ‘time is much more valuable than money’ is the outcome of this circumstances. I guess it’s necessary that we learn things the hard way before we can really appreciate what we have.
I love the main idea of your website.
I myself constantly strategize to live a balanced life with not rushing and keeping myself so busy till I’m super stressed out. I am fortunate enough to discover online marketing and I am still seeking for ways to make incomes through other means that will be suitable for my lifestyle so I won’t have to live my life just going to work, make some money, and come home everyday.
It’s awesome to find so many like minded people with similar experiences through this. And gives me hope who’s gone through similar obstacles and made something positive out of it!
Welcome to my blog, Joon.
Nothing good comes out from a stressful life so I applaud you for taking the courage to change your life towards a positive direction. Creating an online business can help you attain time freedom, but it’s not something that can happen overnight.
The training programs at Wealthy Affiliate will give you some good foundation, tools and resources to get started. I am sure you have plenty of ideas in your mind right now so go for it. If you ever need any help, feel free to message me at the forum area.
Hey Cathy,
Your whole website is amazing and so informative – but this page really hit home with me. Everything hit home big time, but especially when you say “As I begin to expand the list of my time freedom, I could see myself giving more priorities for my personal well being and happiness.” — I know that when I was working 60+ hours a week, I barely had time to eat let alone be good to myself and take care of my body, mind and soul!
Time freedom means so much more than being able to do what you want – it means being able to worry about the important things in life – family, love and yourself! LOVE your site! Keep up the good work! 🙂
Anja
Welcome to my blog, Anja.
I could see the similarities that we share and I encourage you to move forward with action to achieve your own time freedom. Do keep me posted on your progress. Wishing you lots of success.
Cathy,
What you are saying is so true on so many levels! I spend so much of my time at work and trying to make our living situation better. The problem is even with all this overtime work ends still don’t meet and all the precious time spent with my family is gone.
I am starting to explore new choices for myself and my family. Thank you so much for this post! It has put a lot of things into perspective for me!
Hey Lisa,
You certainly deserve your own time freedom. My advice is write down your goals and constantly work towards it. You are young and creative and there are so much opportunities waiting for you out there. So keep moving forward.
Hey Cathy,
What you are saying is so right! I can’t think of anything worse than spending your time working in a job you don’t want to be in! It leads to poor health, no wealth (as you spend it trying to forget your job) and not time to do what you really want to do!
Hey Radheya,
Thanks for stopping by. Time is our most valuable and most forgotten asset. I am trying to convince as many readers as I can through this blog that they too can achieve their own time freedom.
This really reminds me of myself. Whenever my friends ask me out, I always decline. I really need to start making time for myself to have fun. Great article, Cathy 😀
Yup, that’s what they say. Telling yourself that you are busy all the time is a perpetuating excuse. There’s no solution to it until you realize that the only time you have is now – or never. I hope you’ll start making more time for yourself and your friends Riaz.
Great reminder. I tend to get caught up with the things I need to do and forget about the things that I want to do. I’m willing to work hard and delay gratification – am an expert with that. I always seems like I’m busy “doing” rather than “being”. I need to establish a habit to do this. Thanks
You are welcome Cindy. In the past, I work hard and reward myself with instant gratification. And then I realized – things that come easily, disappear quickly too. Nowadays, I work smart and reward myself with delay gratification. For some reason, the excitement lingers longer and makes my work more meaningful. It’s good to be reminded that we have this treasure called time.
Taking time with people and for people is the most rewarding action I choose to make everyday. I believe as intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs our social networking or meeting someone new at a time or place, connecting with them, all is part of changing lives. Ours and theirs. What we share is priceless – friendship.
Changing someone’s life is something we do everyday, either unconsciously or devotedly. I can only think of using my time to change life positively for the people around me and especially for myself. Took a while to realize I haven’t done something good for myself in a long time. This year, I hope to devote more to my time freedom.
Hi Cathy,
Great post and so true, I made these as my New Years Resolutions for 2014:
> Live in the moment, don’t stress about the past or panic about the future, you can only control the now.
> Spend more time with the family.
> Live in an attitude of gratitude, we all have things to be thankful for.
Time is a gift, use it wisely.
Thank you Marc. Time is precious and we don’t realize that way until it has been taken away from us. No amount of money can buy time. May you find time to fulfill your resolutions. All the best.