We often fail to see what is most important, even when it’s right there in front of us.

This currency I speak of is unlike any other currency on earth. It is universal, a global currency if you like. Its value is retained regardless of what state borders you find yourself in. It is a finite deflationary currency that can be traded for literally any other asset. It is more precious than gold, silver and bitcoin. Each one of us is born with an unknown supply of it and for those with less, this currency becomes even more valuable.

Time is of the Essence

Time, yes, TIME!

There is but one thing in this reality we can be sure of: our time here is limited and with each waking second we are one second closer to the end of this experience. Our time is finite, its exact quantity unknown until you’ve spent the last drop of it.

The exact value of your time only you can determine, it is as valuable as you decide it to be.

The Hustle Epidemic

In recent years, we have seen a growing trend of this idea that the key to wealth and prosperity is to sacrifice as much time as possible in the hustle. To spend every waking hour committed to your work. We see one social media influencer and Youtuber after another tell us we need to live for the hustle in order to be successful. While there is an element of hustle in everyone’s success, hustle and success itself are being largely misunderstood.

Remember, your time is precious, the most precious thing you have. So before you spend 10 whole years of this ever declining currency away on college, 9 to 5 jobs, night jobs, 5 different side hustles, all in an attempt to make the ‘big time’, ask yourself whether it’s a good trade, seriously, is it?

A Fair Trade?

Now it maybe you enjoy the hustle. If you can’t think of anything else you’d rather be doing, then dedicating your time solely to trying to ‘make the big time’, then go ahead. It’s a fair trade, I guess. But more often than not, we lose track of what we are truly looking for. We forget exactly what it is that we are trading our time for.

So, try to look at your time differently. In the past few years, I’ve begun to value all my expenses in time. I’d love a new laptop, I’m an irrational tech geek, I cannot explain why or even begin to justify it, I just am – however, six years later I am still using the same perfectly good laptop, why? Because I priced a new laptop purchase in time, my time. Am I willing to trade x amount of my time for a new laptop that I don’t really need?

I often get asked why I don’t fix my own cars when they breakdown (which I occasionally do in emergencies). The reason I always give is this: it’s a poor trade of my time. While I am a perfectly competent engineer, I don’t enjoy fixing cars and my time is worth more spent elsewhere. While I could spend 4 hours of my time underneath my car cursing, I could pay a mechanic £80 to do it for me, spend an hour doing my own work, something I enjoy more, and uses up less of my time, to cover the mechanic costs . It’s a fair trade, in fact, it’s a very good trade. I literally bought myself some time and fiat currency to do something else I’d rather do!

I literally price everything in my time, whether it be clothing, subscriptions, laptops or food. How much of my time is required to pay for this cappuccino? Then when you begin to compound these often unnecessary and spontaneous purchases and convert them into the currency of time, it really does begin to make you think hard about whether it’s a good trade or not, typically it isn’t.

Life Before Death

When your time runs out, death comes. Every moment before that point is precious, unique and irreplaceable. No moment of your time can be recovered if it is lost or wasted on poor exchanges. In order to spend it wisely, you must understand yourself and what you most desire. What would you most like to spend your time doing? Seeing and spending time with those you love? Travelling the World and experiencing wild and wonderful new people and cultures? Helping people who are in need? A combination of all these things?

Write a list of all these things that you feel are most worthy of your time, things you’d be more than happy to trade your time with. Once you have a list of what is most important to you, you can see just how much of your time is being wasted on things that are of no importance to you. Did you really need that new 72″ LCD Television? Netflix? That perfect 5 bedroom house in the posh part of town? Are they necessary? Are you sacrificing the things you truly desire for things you ‘think’ makes you happy?

You see, much of what we think makes us happy is nothing at all to do with our genuine desires, but rather, what has been spoon fed to us by societal expectations, our peers, multi-billion dollar corporations with multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns and the state education system. Our true happiness is more often than not, less to do with material things and more to do with each other, nature, love and the all-encompassing magic of life itself.

If you’ve read this far, I’ve got bad news for you, you are a little poorer now than you were when you started. But fear not, I’m almost done!

Invest Your Time Wisely

As with anything of value, your time itself can be invested. Before you can be sure how best to invest your time however, you will need to carefully consider (as I mentioned earlier) what is important to you, what are your desires?

Once you have a list, you can begin building a plan on how best to invest your time in order to achieve these desires. This will be quite different for everyone, but then again, if we are all honest with ourselves, maybe not so different.

For me, mine and my family’s freedom is of utmost priority. We want to be able to live as freely as possible. Answering to no one and having the ability to choose how we spend our time and with whom. I will trade my time for fiat money if the exchange rate is right, relative to any enjoyment I may get from the time exchanged. As I get older, my time is becoming more valuable every day, hence the days of me exchanging one hour of my time for £15 are long behind me, hell, £30 for an hour of my time would be an act of desperation on my part.

What do you think your time is worth? Consider it. For many out there in their 9 to 5 jobs, pushing paper and tapping keyboards, they are being taken advantage of, handing over their finite precious time for a tiny amount of an ever-expanding inflationary fiat currency. You need to feed your children, pay the mortgage and bills, fix your car and so forth. I get it – trust me; I do. But there is another way, if you truly want it, if you are willing to just spend a little of your precious time on obtaining the right knowledge to help you make better choices, if you are willing to realise your kids love you and are happy, if not happier even if you sell that fucking great house with the spare bedroom you don’t need and three en-suite bathrooms – seriously, you don’t need it, the happiness it brought you was over a long time ago. Was it worth your time?

Time is the ultimate currency and I feel privileged to those of you who finished this. Thank you for your time!