Tag: Time

3 Great books you should read now.

I set a goal this year of reading 24 new books. As we are nearing Memorial Day Weekend I am already on pace to read nearly 40 books. Half of those books are physical books, half are audiobooks, and unlike in past years, none are coloring books.

Like a wiley old prospector, I have struck gold with my recent book choices. I have discovered valuable reads exposing me to new ideas that I can use to live a better life. Interestingly, my last 3 books have all been based on the concept of time. Like Morris Day’s band.

When by Daniel Pink

I would read anything written by Daniel Pink. Even his grocery shopping list. He offers great insights into how humans operate. When is no exception. In this fascinating deep dive on timing Pink (the author, not the aerobatic rockstar) exposes the importance of when things happen. He reveals the well-documented worst part of the day for humans, so you will know the worst time to have surgery or defuse a bomb. He shares the peak times for divorce filings, and why. He reveals when you are most likely to run your first marathon. There is even a tutorial on the most effective timing for naps and how long it takes coffee to kick in. I learned about the life-long impact of starting your career during a recession, and how to restart anything when you are struggling. Plus, he shares the interesting effect of midpoints. You also learn what the ideal score is for your favorite team at halftime. There are a lot of great nuggets in this book. I encourage you to read it next.

A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy

This book is crammed with 366 days worth of profound wisdom. Tolstoy collected valuable insights, quotes, and verses from throughout his life to share in this amazing tome. There is one page dedicated to each day of the year, including February 29th. With each page you read you feel as if you are being mentored by a wise old sage. Like Yoda. Only taller. And Tolstoy’s words are all in the right order. The book’s brief sentences and paragraphs of wisdom are dense with life lessons and truisms from great philosophers, leaders, authors, poets and religious books. Each day follows a singular theme. This is a great nightstand book, if you have a nightstand. If you are not typically a reader but wish you were, this book allows you to get your recommended daily allowance of new wisdom in a single nutrient-dense page.

Die With Zero by Bill Perkins

This book is not about Coke Zero. It’s a thought-provoking book on the relationship between time and money. Perkins’ basic philosophy is that we should hit the grave with no money in our bank account or in the coffee cans buried in the backyard. (Those stupid K-Cups are no good for burying money.) Instead, we should spend our money, while alive on experiences that make our lives richer. These experiences turn into memories. And memories are the real wealth of life that money can help you buy. Perkins believes that any time you spend working to earn money past the amount you can spend in your lifetime is wasting your life on work. It’s a fascinating and compelling philosophy. Two of the great takeaways from the book are that you shouldn’t save your money just in case you need long-term medical care at the end and that beyond a certain age you will have a hard time spending your money because your physical ability to do things that cost money diminish with age. Read this book while you still can.

Kris Barger loves gifting this book to grads and showing off how many books she can hold at once.

Bonus Book

If you have a high school or college graduate in your life, consider giving them my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? It offers 80 Important life lessons the universe is trying to share with you. Each chapter is short, funny and packed with wisdom. Like my Mom. The book has been a very popular graduation gift since it was first published. If you live near Milwaukee or plan ahead a little I am happy to sign the book for you.

Key Takeaway

Read great books. Build your personal library. It is the best and easiest way to gain wisdom, insights and perspective that will improve your life.

Why you should think of time as material to make an amazing life.

Earlier this week I got a text from a friend who read my blog post Getting the vaccine = Getting together =Getting back to normal. The text said, ‘It looks like you had an eventful day.’ Indeed, my Wednesday was eventful. All by design. So I responded, ‘I did! I’m trying to create an eventful life!’

Making It Happen.

It is easy to want an eventful life. Or an adventurous life. Or a life worth turning into a book, movie, urban legend, or highway-side historical marker. But the only way to make that happen is to make it happen. Kinda like the only way to invent Facebook is to invent Facebook. #FrickenWinklevosses 

The Material

While fine artists work with materials like paint, pencil, metal, and clay, there is another more valuable material we can all use to create art every day. And it’s right there on your watch, on your calendar, and in the sands rushing through your hourglass. And if you are Mick Jagger, it is right there on your side. (Yes it is.)

Time

Time is the greatest artistic medium of all. You can use time to create memorable moments, minutes and hours. You can create a beautiful day, a wonderful week, or an amazing year. By using your time well you can create your own beautiful, memorable, adventurous, eventful life.

You can use time to build a career, create a community or have a positive impact on all of the nouns around you. #PeoplePlacesAndThings You can build a business, develop relationships, create memories, or write a book. Heck, you can even write a blog post reminding people that they can do all the things they ever wanted to do if they simply use the time they already have.

Key Takeaway

Time is the material beautiful lives are made of. Every day at midnight you get a fresh delivery of 1,440 minutes to work with. Don’t waste them. Instead, make a plan for them. Create all you can with them. Remember, time is the raw material from which all great things are born. What you do with your time is the greatest decision you will ever make. Choose wisely.

Thank you for spending some of your time with me.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

How much are your priorities worth to you?

Yesterday I was in Atlanta on a business trip. I had been there since Thursday. My return flight was scheduled to be the last flight back to Milwaukee on Saturday night. Pre-Covid, when I used to fly with a naked face, I took that 2-hour 10:30 pm flight all the time. Because it allowed me to get a full day of work in before hitting the airport. But yesterday I finished early and was thrilled to be able to try to catch an earlier flight from ATL to MKE. 

The Fee

I got to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 3 pm, and went to a Delta kiosk (unpaid endorsement) to try to change flights. Because when I tried to call to change flights the phone system told me there was a 2-hour wait time. Which I thought was phoney baloney. But after just a few taps at the kiosk (tap tap tap in) an option to take an earlier flight at 4:30 pm appeared. However, it also came with a $75 change fee. 

I considered the fee for a moment. And I did the following math:

For $75…

I get home at 6:00 pm CT. Not Midnight.

+ I get to see my kids today.

+ I get to run in the house screaming MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

+ I get to have dinner with my family.

+ I can go for an evening walk with my wife.

+ I can watch the sunset over the pond in my backyard.

+ I can participate in family game night.

+ I can toss a lacrosse ball with my son Magnus.

+ I can work on some discus technique in the backyard with my daughter Ava.

+ I can look for the new baby geese that just hatched in the nest in our backyard.

+ I can tuck my 3 kids into bed.

+ I can have a glass of red wine with my wife Dawn. (I can, but I won’t because I have the palate of a 6-year old and think alcohol tastes ucky.)

+ I can watch Netflix and chill with my wife Dawn. (Or I can watch a repeat SNL and probably no chill.)

_______________________________________

I could do ALL of these things for $75.

In that moment, I had the clarity and insight to realize that there will come a day at the end of my days when I would spend everything I had for that opportunity. I swiped my credit card and quickly snatched up one of the greatest bargains life had ever offered me.

Thank You

Thank you Delta for getting me home early last night. I did everything on the list. Plus it was 88 degrees in Milwaukee, which is unseasonably awesome in Brew City. Game Night was Klask. Dinner was Culver’s Butter Burgers on our back patio. And I didn’t take a moment for granted.

Key Takeaway

Time is the most valuable commodity on Earth. Enjoy every moment you get. Steal it if you have to. If you ever find it on sale somewhere, don’t think twice about paying for it. You’ll never regret more time spent on or with your top priorities. 

*If you know someone who would benefit from this message, please share it with them.

What not to do with your extra time right now.

When I was in 6th grade I went to the Lake of The Ozarks in Missouri. It was long before Jason Bateman made it look both scary and binge-able. I lived in Columbia, Missouri at the time, and my friend Matt had a family lake house in the LOTO. Matt and his family invited me to come down to the lake for a summer weekend. Which at the time felt as big and exciting as going to Cancun. Except I could speak the language, and drink the water.

I remember 4 things from that weekend:

  1. ‘Glory Days’ by Bruce Springsteen was brand new and we listened to that song over and over all weekend long. I had a sneaking suspicion that the Boss Man was trying to tell me that my glory days as a 12-year old kid would soon pass me by.
  2. I saw a monster truck in the middle of the lake. The giant tires held so much air that the truck floated. It was tooling around the lake just like a boat. Except it was a monster truck. That was some real hillbilly shiznit.
  3. My friend’s sister Lisa and her friend Brooke asked me if I would jump in the lake and fetch the inner tube that was floating away from the dock. I gladly dove in, swam to the tube, and brought it back to the dock. When I climbed out of the water feeling 6th grade-heroic, they expressed their extreme gratitude. Then they added, ‘We didn’t want to go get it because we just saw a huge water moccasin swim under the dock.’

Number 4 On Cove 4

But it was the 4th memory from that trip that I have thought about most often over the past 3 decades.

One day me, Matt, Lisa, Brooke and several older kids went out on the family’s water ski boat. After all the older kids had skied, Matt’s cousin, who was in his early 20s, asked if I wanted to go waterskiing. I said no. I explained that I had never gone before and that I didn’t want to waste everyone else’s time.

He responded by saying, ‘Hey man, don’t worry about that. We’re just out here killing time.’ He said it as if killing time was a good thing. A necessary thing to do to get rid of all this pesky time we all have to deal with.

I understood what he meant. But I couldn’t get past what he actually said. Killing time seemed crazy to me, even then. Killing time sounded as rational as burning money. Or eating veal.

Time For Time

Today, during the global lockdown created by the COVID-19 crisis, you may find yourself with a surplus of time. And you could be tempted to just kill it. But don’t. Don’t waste it. And don’t pass it either.

Time Scarcity

Time is the scarcest of all resources. In fact, one of the most impactful things I’ve read over the past 2 months was So Much Quarantine. So Little Time. by my friend Drew Hawkins. He details how he and his wife are extremely time-challenged right now as they both work from home, while simultaneously caring for their 1 and 3-year old children. They are spinning plates like a carnival act. For Drew and Megan free time is harder to find than live sports. Almost all of their time is multi-tasking. And that time is working as hard as any time ever has in the history of time.

Key Takeaway

If you are lucky enough to have time right now, for Drew and Megan’s sake, don’t kill it. Cherish it. Use it. Employ it. Value it. Make the most of it. Time is a gift. It’s the most valuable thing you will ever have. Except for maybe toilet paper.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.