Would you pay someone to make you unhappy?
Have you ever thought about, how much time you spend on doing things you don’t like? And is it worth wasting your time on?
Every day we wake up, go to work or school or maybe do neither of those and stay home and sit at the computer. Then the day goes by, you go to bed in the evening and fall asleep. A day came and went and you will never get that time back. Did you spent it on doing stuff you enjoy?
Time, for us, is a non-renewable resource. When you’re born, you’re basically handed a big bag full of time and it’s up to you how to use it. But you must take into account, that already 1/3 of the time in your bag will be spent on sleeping, so that leaves you with 2/3.
Now we can roughly estimate according to the worldwide average life expectancy, that your bag will have about 70 years in it at birth. Of course everyone’s bag is different, this number is just the average.
How do we use our time?
Time is kind of like currency. You work 8 hours a day, that means you give 8 hours from your bag in exchange for money. What will you do with that money? Will you spend it on food, clothes, cigarettes, alcohol or some other stuff? That’s up to you. But when you spend that money, you should remember that you exhanged it for a bit of the time you have here on Earth.
What about the things you do in your free time? Does going out drinking or sitting at home and doing nothing or spending time on your hobbies feel fulfilling to you? There is no right answer. That’s up to you! If you enjoy how you invest your time and you don’t bother anyone with it, then it doesn’t really matter what you do. There is a small “but” though.
Some of the activities you take part in, don’t just take the time you invest right now, but also some of it from your future. For example unhealthy activities, like smoking and drinking, which shorten your life and might hinder your quality of life in the future. So this is the place, where one should consider if the trade is still fair.
Maybe some of you are thinking right now, what’s the point of talking about it. Everybody knows that you’re responsible for your life choices. Yes, but I believe you can make better decisions, when you consider your time as something you give away and never get back. People feel too often, that they’re invicible and live forever. Once you come to terms with yourself and the time you have, then I think it will make your decisions easier and help you see if what you’re doing is actually profitable for you.
Let’s bring another example. Let’s say you’re going to do something with you significant other (meet the parents, go to an event etc.), but you know you’re not going miserable there. If you love the other person and know that it’s important to them, you will go, but might see it as a waste of time. But is it?
If you’re in this kind of a situation, then going along with your significant other might seem like a waste. Let’s say you don’t go. The other person will be unhappy and if something like that happens again, it might lead to an argument or problems in you relationship. So that’s when you see what the actual price was for the amount of time. In such a case a small portsion of time was invested to gain more happiness in the future.
The previous example works if you’re happy in the relationship. If you’re unhappy then pretty much everything you do in that relationship is a waste of time. I know that sounds harsh, but that will be the case usually. Of course you shouldn’t take this as a relationship advice, because I made a generalisation and every couple is unique in their own way. So you shouldn’t just break up, because you feel unhappy right now. You should also see if you can fix the situation so that you would be happy in the future.
What I’m trying to say here is that you should treasure the time you have. Everything you do will be exchanging your time for an activity or thing. Make sure that whatever you get in return for your time is worth it. Don’t get ripped off!
