Time is money. Typically, this well know turn of phrase, connotes a meaning in everyday conversations that time is precious and you want the person you’re talking to (and who is wasting it) to stop or go away. But what the great man whose face adorns the hundred-dollar bill actually meant, was that each choice you make has its costs. And that delays, or a choice not to take a certain action, usually leads to a decrease in output. At the time he said it, he was talking about the monetary cost of laziness. For example, if you had the opportunity to do something that could earn you megabucks but you chose to pursue an alternative route that brought you recreational relaxation but not riches. Putting it simply, you snooze, you lose.
This quote got my mind all razzle dazzled as I thought about how relevant this is to the most common question that I get asked about my practice of meditating twice daily which is “How on earth do you find the time?”. Each time I get asked, a reverse question often silently comes up in my mind which is “What do you think would be the cost to me of not finding the time?”. What is the life opportunity that knocks if I choose to spend the time to meditate twice daily? And conversely, what is it that I would have to give up if I was to choose to spend my time doing something else?
For me personally, that opportunity cost of not finding the time to meditate is mega massive. In fact, I am pretty confident that the riches I stand to lose if I didn’t meditate twice daily would make a Wall Street broker weak at the knees. Any wise investor in the commodity of time would surely agree that the return on investment of twenty minutes taken twice a day to meditate was evident in the reduction of the chance of disease in my body due to the release of the pressure valve off my nervous system from all of life’s stressors? Or that the life gain of no longer feeling depressed and unhappy every day due to the stress and pressure in my workplace was not worth those forty minutes a day?
I am not quite sure I would get the same assessment of high returns for my time investment strategy if I suggested to invest those forty minutes in a good long Instagram scroll or another Netflix binge (which, btw I do far too often also). The earnings for those little outlays of time would be most unlikely to yield a dividend of a mind so rested, sharp and clear that my productivity in life would actually increase. Or one that saw my relationships with friends, family and loved ones less friction filled and more loving now, would it?
It may not be meditation you are wanting to find time for. But this concept is equally applicable to anything you find yourself wanting to do but also concluding that you just have no time for. Next time you find yourself in that little life quandary, how about you channel your inner Benjamin Franklin. Ask yourself what the opportunity cost to your life would be if you chose instead to spend your time on something else, something far less likely to bring you the same riches.
I’ve heard it said that one who says they have no time for something is really saying it just is not a priority. But I guess the tumultuous fall from healthy grace town down to cancer diagnosis city was a huge motivator to prioritise the very thing that could help me walk with more courage, calm and clarity through the darker alleys of that metropolis. If time really is money, then show me the monnnnnnnney baby. Shower it all over me so that I can spend it making damn sure it’s not going to be more expensive for me not to use it wisely.
Little afterthought: The benefits of meditation to my life (or what I stand to lose if I didn’t meditate) are no doubt a key motivator for me to find the time. But keep a look out on my instagram in the link below for some more practical tips on how, once you have decided that not to would be too costly, to make that allocation of time easier when life seems to take over.
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