When people ask me what I like to do in my free time, my response is that I don’t believe there is such a thing as “free” time. The vacations I take, the life-planning time I reserve, the days I spend with my family—I paid for those. I paid for them by optimizing the time I put in on my business.

At the same time, from my perspective, there is no “penance” time either, because I value the time I spend on my work too. I think we rob ourselves of a considerable portion of our lives when we make such value distinctions between work and personal time. It’s all life, and it should all be rich and meaningful.

And as much as we like to say that the important things in life are not about money, the fact is money and time are inextricably linked, and they go a long way in determining the quality of our lives. Time and money determine the choices we have in life—and we have choices in how we make the most of our time and money.

So what is the answer? How do we optimize the value of our time? How do we get to spend it in a way that enriches us, and that allows us to do the things that give our lives meaning? The solution, I believe, is to let the answer be the answer. Start with your ideal life in mind, and use that answer of what you think life is about to drive your mission and your goals and your daily behaviors. Make that answer your beacon.

This may sound obvious, but the reality is that too many of us are so busy serving our to-do lists, and dealing with disturbances that arise in and out of the practice, that we  let “life” take over our lives.  We are happy to spend our time and money satisfying today’s requirements, and if anything’s left over, then maybe we’ll think about applying some to the dream.

That’s backwards. What you need to do is establish the life you want, and how to achieve it, in concrete terms—and that really comes down to figuring out three numbers.

  • First of all, there’s your economic freedom number. Once you know exactly what you’re going to need for your retirement and for long-term obligations like kids’ education—and most importantly, once you know you’re on track to achieving it—you will enjoy a peace of mind that goes a long way to increasing your enjoyment of the journey. And the faster you move toward attaining these long-term goals, the more choices open up for how you can spend your time and money.
  • Then there is your “ideal life today” number. What would it take to make a significant difference in how you feel about life right now? You’d probably be surprised at how even incremental changes can have a life-altering impact. It could be that $20,000 more a year, or four more weeks of vacation time could be all it takes to make your good life a great life—the kind of life where you think: “I don’t ever want to stop working,” because you’ve found the formula that works for you.
  • That just leaves the magic number: the hourly value of time you need to achieve to make your long-term economic freedom and ideal life today a reality. Every dream life and dream practice, no matter how ambitious or how modest, can be reduced to this key “what it will take” number.

And that’s what makes it powerful. Achieving a goal of a 10 percent increase in production is meaningless unless you can put it in the context of a comprehensive life plan. This number isn’t just a number. It represents the life you want. Find out what yours is and make it your lodestar. If you are a subscriber to Spear, you’ll find more guidance on this subject, complete with simple online calculators, here.

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