Time is the greatest asset that we have and it is ever flowing.
It does not and will never stop for anyone, once this moment passes you will never experience it ever again in your lifetime.
The time that you have on this planet is all yours to command, and you may spend it as you wish to. You can either invest it or you can waste it.
It will always be one or the other.
At each moment in time, we are constantly making decisions. Your life is a reflection of the countless decisions you have made over the course of your life.
Some of the decisions have been small and have probably ended up being pretty irrelevant, and others have really had an impact your life.
In the heat of the moment, at times, it is hard to tell which decision is worthwhile and which ones are totally irrelevant. Almost everything seems like a big deal.
Have you ever found yourself worried to death over a decision you had to make or over something someone said, only to find yourself laughing at the state you were in, in that moment after a period of time?
So how then can you know which decisions are important and meaningful to you? How do you know which decisions will pertain to the achievement of your goals?
Why not perform a litmus test to keep you focused on the important things in your life.
Have you heard of the 5-Year rule?
Ask yourself:
Will it matter in Five years?
That single question has a fantastic way of putting things into perspective.
Here is an example. If you missed the latest episode of your favourite series to work on your company website, will that episode matter in five years?
No.
Will that company website matter in five years?
Yes. Probably.
When something happens that makes you upset or has you struggling, ask yourself that question, and you will find that most of the time the answer to the thing we want to do will be no.
Usually the easy small decisions, that we spend so much time on, will not matter in five years.
The harder decisions that we have to make, the ones that require a huge amount of effort on our part, usually do.
This way of looking at life doesn’t make problems go away, but it helps ground and guide you to do the most important things in your life.
It will give you the permission to not waste your time on the petty things, and it will remind you to take more seriously the direction of your life.
So what are you going to pour your energy into instead? What will you bleed on for the next five years?
Your health?
Your Family?
Your dreams for the future?
Most likely these are some of the things that will still matter in five years, ten years or even twenty years.
Focus your attention on the things that will matter in five years – not the tiny ups and downs of your day that you’ll have forgotten about in a week or two.
What will really matter to you in five years? Do you agree with this approach?
Thanks for reading.