Trading Time and Creative Energy With Corporate America
Three powerful ways to trade your time wisely
“The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness, and knows… that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.” — Kahlil Gibran
Life is full of energy exchanges. We trade our money, attention, and sometimes even our health and well-being for more time, more success, and more worldly possessions.
Many of us move through life in constant motion, never stopping to reflect on where that motion is taking us—if it’s helping or hindering us. If the trades that we make daily are letting us live our best lives. Or if the trades are giving us more quality time with those that we care about the most.
The trades that we make in life can take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally.
It was Seneca, who thousands of seasons ago asserted in his Stoic’s guide to living with presence that “nothing is ours, except time.”
And as summer blooms with its lushness and balmy weather, punctuated by rainstorms, it is never more clear that our time is limited.
And yet there is something odd about this notion of time as property.
We are asked to “give it time”.
But how do we give or take that fine-grained sand that slips through our fingers at the moment that we try to hold it? Maybe time is not so much the substance in the hand as the substance of the hand.
How time influences our lives
I recently read and saw the film adaptation of The Prophet, by Kahlil Gilbran. It’s one of those rare works that changes you immediately and gently challenges your view of time.
Gilbran’s abiding wisdom is still available to us, many decades later:
He says, “You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable. You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons. Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness, And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream. And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space. And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless? But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.”
So how can we embrace time and be conscious of its effects on our lives, relationships, and psyches?
Trading time and creative energy with corporate America
Like many of us, I was taught that corporate America was where real success happened. Being a farmer, animal rehabilitator, naturalist, or gardner had no value compared to the promise of status, money, and prestige.
So I sought this out, went to college, incurred debt that would take me twenty years to pay off, and moved to the city.
But a curious thing happened along the way.
Yes, it was nice to have money, and it was nice to have a prestigious job title, but with each passing year came more responsibility, more work, more stress, more office politics, and much worse health.
Every victory, every pay raise, barely kept me afloat, and it wasn’t long before I realized that I had traded time for meaning, health, and well-being.
I observed how nothing ever seemed to be enough. I’d walk home every evening, so exhausted that I couldn’t even think, make dinner, take the dog out, prepare for the next day, go to sleep and do it all again, rising at 5 a.m. to make the 5:40 a.m. train for my 6 a.m. shift.
I started to notice that my discontent came from ignoring my own aspirations and dreams. “You need to work harder,” others said. “It’s supposed to be tough.”
And while a great many things in life are tough, such as rehabilitating Pitbulls or even myself, when it’s not your dream, the struggle has no meaning.
This was an important realization and one that led me out of corporate America after 15 years. I’ve never looked back.
That doesn’t mean that it’s been easy. Far from it.
Sometimes I miss having free healthcare, and a matched retirement account, but the benefits far outweigh the societal expectations that we’re supposed to hustle in the corporate world, spend a few decades there, and then retire and “find ourselves” as our time begins to draw to a close.
I would count the years to retirement and think that there was no way that I could work in that industry for that long.
So I made a decision to pursue my dreams, and it took me at least a decade to get there, writing and rescuing, and being in charge of my own time.
This time hasn’t been perfect, but it is my own.
I’ve had times where I had to be very persistent to get paid for my freelance work, times filled with health challenges, but also times filled with rich, rewarding work that makes the world a better place, pays the bills, and leaves time to read books, learn, develop, grow, and discover.
Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with working for others or in the corporate environment.
It just depends on how we find meaning, who we want to serve, and what we want to trade our time and energy for.
Find what works for you and pursue it wholeheartedly. There are many ways for us to spend our time.
Lessons Learned
We always need to make trades with our time and energy, but we can do it in a balanced way.
Right now, I do physical therapy, care for a high-needs child, rehabilitate and care for three rescues, write on Medium, and also own a freelance writing business.
These are all things that I have chosen, and I think that makes all of the difference.
When we are trading our time and energy and life for something, we want it to matter.
We want it to inspire us, to fill us with passion and motivation — maybe not all of the time, but at least most of the time.
Your trades can shift. And it might work for you to find a corporate job (they do have their time and place) where a paycheck comes every few weeks, with a promise of retirement and pension in exchange for your time.
There can be comfort in this, and that’s perfectly okay; how we trade our time is a very personal choice based on situation and experience.
As long as we are happy with the trades that we are making, all is well.
What’s important is that we be keenly aware of these trades.
Questions to ponder when considering trading time and energy
To keep track of the trades that we are making and their influence on our overall well-being, we can ask ourselves the following questions:
Are the trades that we are making aligned with our personal ethics?
Are the trades that we choose worth our time and energy?
Are our trades helping us get us closer to our aspirations?
Are our trades beneficial to our relationships? Are we present and available for the people in our lives?
Are our trades increasing our quality of life?
If they are not, then perhaps we should consider changing how we trade our time.
Here are three ways to trade your time wisely:
1. Shift your mindset.
We need to release society’s paradigm that in order to make money, we must sacrifice our time. Try letting go, and see your mind open to possibilities that you never knew existed.
Think about what value you can create for other people, and how you can deliver that value. What assets, skills, knowledge, connections, or ideas do you have that people value? Recognize your strengths and competency, then go all-in.
2. Place a high value on your time.
If you’re freelancing or providing professional services for your time, multiply your time by 10. Instead of working with 15 clients that are going to pay you $10 per hour, find three that will pay you $100 — then focus on those clients and let go of the rest.
This takes energy of course, but the idea is to stay focused on the few that provide the most quality work.
That way, you’ll be working fewer hours for the same, if not more income.
3. Use your creativity to develop something of value.
To stop trading time for money, create something that you can sell and deliver without having to be there. A practical way to do this is to create an online product, such as an e-book, training membership program, or phone app. You can also sell physical products online, depending on your unique creation.
Final thoughts:
Make sure to reward yourself for your hard work. What’s the point of having more time if we’re not able to enjoy it?
Spend time with your loved ones, learn something new, or travel the world. We must be able to visualize these rewards in order to associate having more time as a positive result.
Take time to recharge, reconnect, and do more of what you love.
Time is only worth having if you spend its worth.
Because in the end, it’s our relationships with others and ourselves that creates inherent value and leads to a life well-lived.
“Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”—Jorge Luis Borges
With love and gratitude, Aurora
