How Much Time Is It Worth?

Stoic Quote of the Week

The mind must be given relaxation? it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced? for they will quickly lose their fertility if never given a break? so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind.

-Seneca

What I learned this week:

I hope you took some time over this past long weekend of the 4th of July to relax. If your family is like ours, sometimes that is hard to do because the extra time off means extra time together, a birthday party, and a parade for us, to name two. But that is what I want: time with family, which is our most precious time. Whether with my friends, parents, kids, grandkids, or all the above, that time is some of the most precious time we can have because it is fleeting and limited. I will never turn down those opportunities. If you do a little math, you will quickly realize that those 3 hours aren’t much when it comes to our lifetime. Those three hours are 0.03% of the time available to you in a year. I want you to do the math; how of those three-hour opportunities happen in a year? Let’s say 10, which is quite a few family gatherings, that is just 0.3% of the year. What if you got together every week? 1.7% of your time! Good grief! That’s nothing. This isn’t about the end of times and how you are missing out. This is awareness, to be conscious of your time, and how you spend it. Spending it with the people that matter most to you must be a priority in your life. If that doesn’t create a math and time burden in your thought process, here is the other piece I want you to consider. In order to truly spend time with those people, you must spend some time with yourself, in your thoughts, and away from the hustle and bustle. This time with yourself is self-maintenance that will enable you to be better at spending time with others. Givers tend to give of themselves until it hurts and never take the time needed for self-care and maintenance. Givers burn out if they don’t take care of themselves. The irony of this problem is that now the giver can no longer give. Here’s a little math for you, 1 hour a week of self-maintenance costs you 0.5% of your time over a year! How can you not take ? of a percent for yourself? Is a year too much? How about one week? One hour/week for self-care and maintenance. How could you not do that? You owe it to the people around you and yourself. Call me if you want to learn one technique I use to ensure that I manage my time to be present and maintain myself.

Planning thought of the week:

One of the biggest problems I’ve seen in my clients’ deliberate planning processes is how they handle assumptions. Assumptions are a double-edged sword that many people don’t understand or, in some cases, even consider. You must include assumptions in your plan because you don’t have all the answers about what will happen. Assumptions must also be included in your risk assessment because what happens if your assumption is wrong? One more thing about assumptions, don’t assume away the problem. For instance, don’t assume that you will make 100 sales this month and build a plan around that. How you make 100 sales this month should be the plan!

Business idea I heard about or thought of:

Have you noticed a trend on social media and podcast channels? I have. It is the monetization of everything. Everything from special content on Instagram to newsletters. I’m not talking about the normal advertising we’re all used to on these platforms. This is paid firewall access information, and I love it. If you create something of value, why shouldn’t you be paid? Ford makes an F150 that people pay $60K to own. People pay for books and to attend conferences. People are sharing what they know about, and those people see the value of that information and are willing to pay for it. There is a platform called Substack that allows newsletter writers to create a paid subscription version and monetize their content. Vimeo has been doing it for years. YouTube does it in a less direct way because they pay the creator through advertising. We are monetizing our podcast, The Cam & Otis Show, with advertisers. I’m considering monetizing this newsletter, either with advertisers or through paid subscription. I’d love to know what you think about this subject. Thanks to my friend Michael Pennica for the thought discussion last week over lunch.

Veteran opportunity of the week:

The big two-five-zero is just around the corner for the good ol’USA. Congress has established The Independence Day, America250 organization to collect stories from veterans to share how we made and sustained this great nation. Check it out and share your story. Here’s the link to learn more. America250

Someone I met this week:

Veterans are the same no matter which service or country we served. We all have the same sense of humor, sorry civie friends. At the Fourth of July parade, I met one of my good friend’s (Frank) former neighbors from their time in NATO together. I thought there was no better time to meet a Brit and have a laugh than on Independence Day. Tom was up for it and, truthfully, quite the convert, probably because he married a Scot, and the Scots have a bit of that independence streak in them also. It also helped that Tom was a career Infantryman. There is something about spending your development years of adulthood under a rucksack that creates a certain sense of humor and humility. Thanks, Frank, for introducing me to Tom. And thanks, Tom, for the good humor and jokes about treason and life under a ruck.

Link to current The Cam & Otis Show podcast episode Mark Slabaugh - Slabaugh Coaching | Cam & Otis Show Ep.?#267.

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