My posting here has been scarce lately, mainly because I don't want to show my face until I have updates for my progress thread. However, I do occasionally check in to read posts and chat with one of the members on here and a recent discussion we had made me remember a moment I wanted to share with everyone. This may help some or it may just echo what's already known by others.
Through our recent discussion, one of the members here had made mention of a guy in his area using a device to search for gold. It reminded me a lot of the saying(s) regarding searching for gold (instead of digging for gold with everyone else, sell shovels/pans/etc) and also made me wonder about the guy doing the searching - I wonder if he found any gold. . . I wonder how long he's been searching. . . Realistically, I'm sure he hasn't. Meanwhile, the guys who created the machine sure have.
Then, it reminded me of a situation I witnessed first hand, last year.
As I was working at a shitty used-car sales job, I had a customer approach and sit at my desk. He was a tall & lanky, withered old man I recall to be in his 70's who went by Lewis. After some discussion, he made mention of his poor choices and resulting bad credit, thus his current situation of seeking special financing. His income was that of a minor pension and social security and he revealed his main hobby and expense to be playing the lottery as he removed a stack of lottery tickets from a plastic bag along with a notepad containing page after page of numbers scribbled and scratched out.
While I worked on his application I took a peek to what he was doing and noticed he was using his cell phone to check the draw frequency of all the numbers to find the best possible combination to increase his chances of winning that jackpot. Curious, I asked him about his lottery playing history and whether he had ever hit a major winning or not. Not to my surprise, he'd been playing for at least a decade and has won "a couple hundred here and there", and in regards to winning millions he stated "I know I'll win it eventually!"
Keep in mind: this was before I read TMF and it still scared the shit out of me. I don't think I need to go into much detail about utilization of time (what else he could have invested in, etc.) but I will explain what brought me the most dread. It was one word - eventually.
I have a huge, HUGE obsession with time, or rather, preservation of it and recently it has begun to plague me with anxiety here and there. Every time I'm sitting or standing idle I have to look at my watch and observe it's hands slice away those seconds which will never again be regained. What can I do NOW???
The problem I have with eventually is it may never come. Will he ever experience that event? Will he even be able to enjoy it? I don't have to echo TMF too much here for everyone to understand where I'm coming from.
My obsession has actually helped me make better, more efficient choices and has also made the choices of others stand out a LOT more. (example - a guy I worked with was picking up a car from a sister-store, decided to wait 15+ minutes in line to use their car wash instead of driving 5 minutes back to use ours which would have taken him only an additional 5 minutes to do. Yes, it's only 5 minutes, yet it adds up quick.)
The point here is the importance of time investment (I know MJ expands on this A LOT). After meeting Lewis, I never thought about him again until the recent discussion I had on here, and I couldn't hope but help it was worth it for him. I'm assuming, for him, his years were worth those $1 lottery tickets. I always have to ask myself what my time is worth. Is losing it worth sitting around doing nothing? Is it worth putting off progress today for tomorrow? Honestly, no. No it isn't.
Speaking of time, I may have just wasted 10 minutes of it posting this. However, if this helps at least ONE person, I would consider it time well spent. Remember - be careful what you invest your time in; wasted time is worse than wasted money.
/mindless rambling
Through our recent discussion, one of the members here had made mention of a guy in his area using a device to search for gold. It reminded me a lot of the saying(s) regarding searching for gold (instead of digging for gold with everyone else, sell shovels/pans/etc) and also made me wonder about the guy doing the searching - I wonder if he found any gold. . . I wonder how long he's been searching. . . Realistically, I'm sure he hasn't. Meanwhile, the guys who created the machine sure have.
Then, it reminded me of a situation I witnessed first hand, last year.
As I was working at a shitty used-car sales job, I had a customer approach and sit at my desk. He was a tall & lanky, withered old man I recall to be in his 70's who went by Lewis. After some discussion, he made mention of his poor choices and resulting bad credit, thus his current situation of seeking special financing. His income was that of a minor pension and social security and he revealed his main hobby and expense to be playing the lottery as he removed a stack of lottery tickets from a plastic bag along with a notepad containing page after page of numbers scribbled and scratched out.
While I worked on his application I took a peek to what he was doing and noticed he was using his cell phone to check the draw frequency of all the numbers to find the best possible combination to increase his chances of winning that jackpot. Curious, I asked him about his lottery playing history and whether he had ever hit a major winning or not. Not to my surprise, he'd been playing for at least a decade and has won "a couple hundred here and there", and in regards to winning millions he stated "I know I'll win it eventually!"
Keep in mind: this was before I read TMF and it still scared the shit out of me. I don't think I need to go into much detail about utilization of time (what else he could have invested in, etc.) but I will explain what brought me the most dread. It was one word - eventually.
I have a huge, HUGE obsession with time, or rather, preservation of it and recently it has begun to plague me with anxiety here and there. Every time I'm sitting or standing idle I have to look at my watch and observe it's hands slice away those seconds which will never again be regained. What can I do NOW???
The problem I have with eventually is it may never come. Will he ever experience that event? Will he even be able to enjoy it? I don't have to echo TMF too much here for everyone to understand where I'm coming from.
My obsession has actually helped me make better, more efficient choices and has also made the choices of others stand out a LOT more. (example - a guy I worked with was picking up a car from a sister-store, decided to wait 15+ minutes in line to use their car wash instead of driving 5 minutes back to use ours which would have taken him only an additional 5 minutes to do. Yes, it's only 5 minutes, yet it adds up quick.)
The point here is the importance of time investment (I know MJ expands on this A LOT). After meeting Lewis, I never thought about him again until the recent discussion I had on here, and I couldn't hope but help it was worth it for him. I'm assuming, for him, his years were worth those $1 lottery tickets. I always have to ask myself what my time is worth. Is losing it worth sitting around doing nothing? Is it worth putting off progress today for tomorrow? Honestly, no. No it isn't.
Speaking of time, I may have just wasted 10 minutes of it posting this. However, if this helps at least ONE person, I would consider it time well spent. Remember - be careful what you invest your time in; wasted time is worse than wasted money.
/mindless rambling
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