1 days, 24 hours, 1440 minutes, and 86,400 seconds. All of us — the rich, the middle class and the poor, have the exact same amount of time to use, not 1 milisecond more or less. Yet, what separates us from being successful? It’s how we USE the time. Have you ever wondered what you’ve been doing in your life? Or what you could be doing today that separates you from the rest of the crowd? Right, look at successful people like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Were they born to be successful? Hardly. Instead, they spent all their time doing things they thought meaningful. Did they take a break sometimes? Yeah sure. Take Buffett for example, he plays bridge every week. But he also reads company annual reports every day! See, that’s the difference between the great people from the rest.

With regards to 9-to-5 jobs, notice that everyone works at different speed, so an 8-hour workday might seem too long or too short for the person next to you. It’s amazing how you can finish a task in 2 hours if the deadline’s an hour later and how you will finish it in 6 hours if the deadline’s few days later, with the same quality sometimes. Your mind starts to wander about, or you might even check Facebook every 30 minutes because you have so much time to do it! But, if a person is effective and productive, he or she would treat the task as if the task is due the next hour and finish it as soon as possible, without sacrificing quality. Right, the person would have more downtime once the task is completed, but that gives him or her the opportunity to take on more projects. And that’s what separates the great from the crowd.

I’m sure you know what you could do right now to be a better person tomorrow. No? Think again. Can you spend a little bit more time on exercising? Can you give a few more smiles to the people you meet? Can you do a little bit more to prepare for your presentation tomorrow? Small things like that make the difference. Someone said that being great is about doing every small thing in a great way. That’s so true! You don’t have to wait for the big thing to come in order to be great. Start doing things that you’ve been doing with more energy and enthusiasm. Spend a little more time in checking your work to improve the quality. Study for 30 more minutes on your finals (although summer break is here!). See, you can always do everything better, you only settled for less in the past.

Bottom line: Time is your greatest asset. It’s worth more than your cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estates. Without time, or longevity in this sense, you won’t be able to enjoy your fortune. Or you could be spending all your active time (when you’re awake) pursuing wealth even though you don’t enjoy the process per se, you’re not wealthy – you might be becoming a slave to money. Read my post on money if you’re interested to find out more. You need time to do all the things that you love to do. You need time to build your tangible assets (how can you learn how to invest if you have to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day with minimal breaks?). Most importantly, you need time to be with your family and friends. Use time to your advantage and be the person you’ve always wanted to be.

As Zig Ziglar said, “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” So, beginning from today, stop wasting time on unnecessary activities. Focus on your dream and passion!

Takeaways:
1) Everybody has 24 hours a day. Take advantage of it to separate yourself from the crowd.
2) Find ways to fill your time more productively.

(Thanks to “apesara” on Flickr for the great picture)

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