But many of you are billionaires.
If you are younger than 45 years old, then you have easily more than 1.3 billion seconds left.
In my case, I recently dropped below that 1 billion mark. ๐ญ๐ญ
My time wealth keeps on shrinking while writing these words.
Yours does shrink too. But chances are high that you have more time-wealth than me.
No, I am not jealous at all.
โถ๏ธ So what is a time billionaire?
Graham Duncan – Co-founder of East Rock Capital – coined the term โtime billionaireโ to refer to someone with over 1 billion seconds remaining in their life.
On an episode of the Tim Ferris show podcast, he said, “We’re so obsessed as a culture with money & we deify dollar billionaires in that way & I was thinking of time billionaires that when I see 20-year-olds, the thought I had was that they probably have 2 billion seconds left, but they aren’t relating to themselves as time billionaires.
When you’re young, you’re a time billionaire. Literally rich with time. At age 20, you have about 2 billion seconds left, assuming you live to 80.
By 50, just 1 billion seconds remain.
๐จ๐๐๐ฎ๐น๐น๐, ๐๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ป ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ต ๐ถ๐ป $.
If you went to Warren Buffett & asked him whether he’d trade a billion dollars for a billion seconds, he’d take the time over the money.
Would you trade lives with Warren Buffett?
He has a net worth of approximately US$150 billion, access to anyone in the world & spends his days reading & learning.
That all sounds great.
And yet I’m willing to bet that very few of you would agree to trade lives with him.
Why not?
Warren Buffett is 95 years old.
It doesn’t matter how much money, fame or access he has; you probably wouldn’t agree to trade your remaining time for his.
Or would you?ย ย ๐ค
This brings a paradox to what I call the paradox of time:
๐ฌ๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ผ๐๐๐น๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ถ๐บ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ด๐๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น๐ & ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ผ๐๐๐น๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ.
In his โOn the Shortness of Lifeโ, Seneca wrote: “We are not given a short life, but we make it short & we are not ill supplied but wasteful of it.”
You know how important your time is, yet you ignore its passage & engage in low-value activities that pull you away from the things that really matter.
So whatโs my point?
My little goal is to bring to the surface the awareness of the precious nature of the time you do have.
Without this awareness, you will never value time enough until suddenly, at the very end, it will become all that you value.
Conscious awareness is a necessary first step, but awareness without attention is incomplete.
If you want to change your life, you must change your attention.
What are YOU doing with your billions?
Have a rejuvenating weekend ahead.
~~~~~
Sorry for stealing so many of your seconds.
I hope it was worth it. Please let me know in the comments๐๐๐