Where do we decide to invest our time and energy?
This question has been one that I’ve anchored to quite often for the past few years. We get pulled in an endless number of directions. Career, family, spirituality, friends, hobbies, community, health and wellness, and the list goes on and on.
As I’ve reflected more by using this question of investing time and energy, it’s helped connect me to understand more about how I see the world around me today.
That’s a big concept so let’s break it down to how we invested our time and energy today.
A friend is going through a really tough time. Do I invest my time and energy with them? If I choose to lean in, I may see their situation and struggle in a way that expands my perspective. I may find I have more appreciation or may find I connect with them on a completely different level.
In the morning I wake up early and take the time to cook a healthy breakfast and pack a nutritious lunch. At work I carve out some time in my schedule to workout at the local gym. My investment of time and energy in meal preparation and working out provides a world I see myself as healthy and full of energy.
On the flip side, what if we choose to invest our time and energy in things we know will hold us back? What if I was afraid to lean in and help a friend because I was unsure of how I could help. Instead, what if I chose to spend time with others that create negativity and drama that I fall into the trap of participating in? Instead of supporting a friend I let comfort bring me to drama I don’t need in my life.
What if the time I spent in the morning was scrolling through social media and getting caught up in the negativity and frustration instead of cooking and meal prepping? What if instead of a workout you chose to go out to eat and indulge in a cheeseburger with all the yummy toppings?
How different do we see our worlds based on each path of decisions? Sure, maybe after one day it’s really not a big difference. But what happens after a month? After a year?
We can start to see how the decisions we make to invest our time and energy play a huge role in the world we choose to find. There will always be reasons to be frustrated and negative so if this gets our time and energy, what type of world will we choose to find?
If we keep our focus of aligning our time and energy with our authentic priorities, now what type of world will we choose to find? Will we be closer to the career we want, relationships we strive for, health and wellness for our longevity, community we’re proud to serve?
Where we invest our time and energy in one day may not have much of an impact. But when we start adding up our decisions day after day, we start to see why we see the world the way we do. We start to understand the world that we’ve made the choice to find.
If the world we’ve found today doesn’t align with where we think we should be, it’s rarely one decision of how we invest our time and energy. Typically, it’s the decisions we’ve made over time that create the world we see today.
The way we change the world we see today will not be one giant leap in a different direction. Instead, it will start with one day shifting how we invest our time and energy. Then another day. And another day.
The most empowering thing about it is that we have control. Not complete control, but we have control where we invest our time and energy. Now it’s a matter of time and energy aligning with our authentic priorities.
Take your step: start with the mental side and for today, how do you want to invest your time and energy? How would your investment align with how you authentically want to grow? Just focus on today and what today would look like if you chose to invest your time in energy in what you prioritize.