What is Your Time Worth? Here’s a List of Things to Ponder.
Here’s a quote I came up with. Please share it where it seems applicable, and please mention me when you do; I’d really appreciate that.
“We all have two main choices to make with the same 1,440 minutes we all share in a day. We can either spend our time or we can invest our time… choose wisely before it runs out.” ~ Bhai Garcia.
Soooo, what is your time worth?
$15 an hour?
Are you working from home, breaking your back with a minimum wage job, stressing out over a big project that could lead to big deals, bumming it out on your friend’s couch or mother’s basement, or are you a homemaker?
Are you worth $25 an hour?
Maybe you’re in IT by profession like me and can go on a remote job which can net you anywhere between $60k a year all the way to $180k+!
Are you hourly, get paid by accomplishments, seek opportunities, or in sales?
Every single person out there will most likely attribute their time to a dollar amount… typically an amount of money that they usually make at their latest jobs, which are usually hourly. And for the sake of this article, I’ll mostly speak in terms of hourly wages.
When I was in my early twenties, working with people that were 10-20 years older than me, we all aspired to move up but were all complacent enough to wait. And wAit… and “W-aiT”… and w+ai-t some more. And we all got so used to waiting, that years could pass before we’d stand up and make the decision to either show we are worthy for more or move onto something else where we may be valued.
I used to work for a company in Miami called BFI, right out of high school. Luckily it was a desk job, but it was a recycling company. I worked in an office where the back wall shared the same wall where raw garbage was placed. I was the scale operator in that office weighing the trucks that came in with their commodities like cardboard, garbage, plastics, glass, etc. It was a stinky place to work and the flies in the summer could block out the sun. I made $10 an hour straight out of high school during a time that those funds could last longer than what it does today.
Was I happy about it? Maybe for the first couple of weeks as I felt like an adult coming out to society with new responsibilities. But why did my mom help me get this job through a friend that she worked with at the bank? Why didn’t she try to help me get in touch with a millionaire that could show me the ropes and become a millionaire myself? Why didn’t she help me get a job at the bank where she worked or any number of places that could be considered?
There are several answers to those questions… some include: she never knew a millionaire to introduce me to in the first place. She thought I would have to start from the bottom like everyone. There was a certain mindset, and she didn’t know otherwise.
The questions and answers here can be extensive… but now… ask yourself the following questions. No judgements here, just be honest with yourself.
What did you do after getting out of high school?
Did you finish high school?
What jobs did you get to date?
What training did you get? College, certificates, hands-on, university?
What did your family teach you as a child when it came to money or was it a taboo subject?
What did your family teach you when it came to jobs and responsibilities as you got older?
Did they ever get around to telling you what the real world was about?
Was education the only thing that would become your salvation from poverty?
Did your degree get you the dream job you wanted… or even a job related to that degree?
Yeah… a lot of us started from the bottom or even lower. Some of us may have had more progressive thinking families… but few of us have been blessed to be a part of a family that realizes that from a very early age, a child needs to know their worth and how to attain success. The sense of love and family and togetherness etc. is not the point in this article… that will usually shine through in a family.
Have you read the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki? If you haven’t, then as an entrepreneur (I’d still recommend it regardless of your life plans), you’d be doing yourself the ultimate disservice by not getting his book by the end of reading this post.
It is exceptional and eye-opening… it is a life experience that every entrepreneur wishes they could have gone through. If you feel your time is worth anything, then you should get that book.
You see… from the time that we are children (please hear me out and don’t take this the wrong way), most of us are taught to waste time in different ways. Obviously, not on purpose… but when a family is generally unable to attain major success, then it means they lack an understanding of how to gain those successes in life… what will that family teach the children?
When a family is poverty stricken for decades or even for generations, and is unable to get their family out of this poor situation, then what type of advice can the elders of the family give the children from an early age? What lessons can a child absorb in their family other than the constant battles and side-hustles to make ends meet? A poor family’s plight will remain for each generation until someone breaks those chains and makes a change. But how often does that happen?
Dr. Bruce Lipton is a pretty awesome guy, you should look up some of his work. Out of many of the fascinating subjects he’s spoken about, there is something that fits here in what I am saying. He explains that children, from birth to the age of 7, their brains are in a stage of hypnosis just downloading how the world works, and how humans interact with the world. He says that the brain is acting at a lower frequency, using theta waves – you might be familiar with the term. This is the period of time that we know children are like “sponges”. A relative says a bad word and the 5-year-old child repeats it for the next five days. Not because he likes the word, but because at a subconscious level, he knows he needs to practice it – regardless of the meaning.
What else do you notice? A child will watch every single thing you do. The way you speak, how you interact with others, and the child learns the many hundreds of thousands of tiny rules that lead a person to be a functional part of society. Like not screaming all day, people don’t bite others so I shouldn’t do it either, stand up straight, etc. In essence, the child’s brain is being programmed so that by around age 8, he can start functioning in society and take on responsibilities. Of course, he’ll always want play time, but give him a task and he’ll work on it.
It is in this way that we can consider why poor people stay poor and rich people stay rich. Robert Kiyosaki explains in his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” that someone from a poor family can struggle all his life due to the programming he had as a child no matter how hard he tries to change things, because his habits and programming will always kick in. Basically, the poor family may have instilled mantras like “life is a struggle”, “you can’t afford that”, “things are hard”, “be happy with the miserable job you got because you could end up jobless too”. Essentially, it’s lifelong sabotage at a subconscious level.
Then you can have someone from a rich family be a total idiot and remain rich all his life! Let’s exclude the possibility of a family inheritance. He may not remain rich because of any critical thinking he may have done; but in fact, the habits that generate wealth were instilled as a child. Meaning, that rich idiot is simply making the right moves, unconsciously due to the programming from childhood. The mantras that may be heard in that family could range from “Don’t say you can’t afford it, figure out how to afford it”, “Wake up before everyone else and accomplish goals while others are still sleeping”, “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success” – Kiyosaki said that last one. Essentially, it’s lifelong success at a subconscious level.
Dr. Bruce Lipton explains that the Jesuits from over 400 years ago have been saying
“Allow me to teach a child until age seven, and I will show you the man”.
Because they knew that the first 7 years of life is the program period. And 95% of the rest of that child’s life will be determined by what was programmed.
Take a moment to let all of that sink in. Don't read further yet... Wait about 30-60 seconds as you reminisce, as you absorb those concepts. Now ask yourself... What mantras have you been living by? What programming did you get?
Every person can feel differently about their own definition of success, and they should! But as that definition of success is considered, it should be placed right beside my original question… what is your time worth?
By now you must have an estimate, right? Has that number increased as you’ve read this article? Is it $100 per hour? Is it $500 per hour?
Dr. Jordan Peterson once asked his students, “how much time do you waste in a day”. The answer was approximately 4-6 hours, typically through some type of electronic device that provides entertainment, but there were other ways including inefficient studying.
He went on to quantify that… I’ll do the same.
So, let’s just average that out for simplicity. At about 25 hours a week, you’ll end up with 100 hours a month! Your average job requires 8 hours a day which is 40 hours a week and that’s 160 hours a month… that’s a 60-hour difference! Let’s not talk about how much time we waste at work, lol! Well, nonetheless, that wasted time equates to about half a year of work weeks.
Your time is very valuable, so I will give a major underestimate of what someone may say their time is worth (especially after reading this article). Let’s say that your time is worth $30 an hour. This is a price tag that even today in the year 2021 keeps us in poverty. Considering 25 hours a week worth of wasted time, which is 100 hours a month, which is 1,200 hours of wasted time a year… that comes up to a grand total of $36,000 a year! There are families out there right now that live on this salary! Add deferred wages and you might reach $50k!
Did you find your time to be more worthy than $30 per hour? If you are worth $100 per hour, keeping the same formula of 1,200 hours per year of wasted time equates to $120,000 of wasted income per year! Sad, isn’t it?
In essence, we have all wasted time at some point. I don’t mean that any of us are wasting time on any paths of success we have chosen… no, no. I am talking about the small bits of time here and there that can be productive! Even daydreaming can be productive depending on your path, goals, or milestones.
An artist daydreams, a manager plans, an athlete stretches, a scientist hypothesizes.
These actions or inactions may not seem to lead anywhere physically, but they are a part of the process and can help make strides rather than baby steps. Remember, a ship that leaves the harbor without a destination will simply go where the waves take it.
Consider what you may or may not have done that does not lead to the attainment of any of your goals. That when you are finished with that act, you feel bad about doing it because you realized your time is worth something and you could have done something productive.
Easily… EASILY… many people reading this right now may have a ritual of watching TV or Netflix or Amazon Prime, the news, etc. for a couple of hours a day. Maybe some people can binge watch episodes of the TV show Friends once a year. Maybe you look through Facebook and Twitter, or Instagram and Pinterest… watching videos, liking photos, getting new ideas that you never act on, etc. Don’t get me wrong, keep in touch with others, but don’t dawdle.
I mean… reeeaaalllly, be honest here… how much time throughout the day do you spend where you are not following steps and milestones to achieve a goal? It’s mind boggling how much time can pass before we become conscious of unattended responsibilities.
Here’s a solution that Dr. Bruce Lipton suggests:
First Step: Recognize where you struggle.
You may struggle hard to accomplish some goals because the programming you have does not support those goals, no matter how much you want it. Thus, you’ll have to work much harder than the person who was brought up with the correct programming.
Second Step: Put new programs into your subconscious mind.
The conscious mind is creative and can learn in many ways. First figure out the ways you learn best. Hands on experience, classroom setting, studying in a crowded Starbucks, etc. Now, you will consciously learn the programs, but subconsciously, you are still programmed with the old ways. Well, how do you program your mind after age 7? Repetition and Practice. Ever heard of Fake it ‘till you make it? Yeah… do that until it becomes second nature.
Seems simple, huh? In all honesty, it’s not. Consider your current age as you read this. Are you 22? 45? 16? Subtract 7 years from your current age. That’s how long you have been “practicing” the programming you learned as a child. Granted, you will learn many new programs over time as you try and practice new things.
What I’ve suggested is not impossible. But if you are not genuine with yourself, if you are not willing to put in the work to change decades worth of practiced programming, then it is improbable that you’ll stumble upon the success you dream of.
Here are some names to research for inspiration and new thoughts:
Dr. Bruce Lipton
Will Smith (yes, he’s got a lot of amazing stuff out there – especially on YouTube)
Dr. Jordan Peterson (don’t mind his haters. They’ve all been shot down with logic every time)
Robert Kiyosaki
I look forward to hearing about your thoughts and successes. Be safe, be kind, and take care.