Redeeming Your Time

Okay, for all you young women out there reading this, I’m about to really date myself. But here goes.

Who can remember the days when we redeemed our glass soft drink bottles at the store for cash?

I do, I do!

I grew up on a farm out in the country . . . apparently a long, long time ago . . . and we were a good ten miles from the city limits . . . even farther from town. But at the center of our little farming community we had Colyer & Inscore General Merchandise, known simply and affectionately as The Store. And I remember well into my adulthood putting our glass Pepsi bottles back into the cardboard cartons and stashing them on the back porch, until it we found the time to take them to the store and cash them in.

It was common practice. On the long planked porch that stretched the length of the storefront any number of wooden crates stood ready to receive the returned bottles. You could find them leaned against the back wall, or stacked neatly in one corner, or sometimes even snuck up under someone’s axle that had been jacked up by some mischievous boys just enough to prevent the tires from touching down. The wooden boxes, sized to hold a couple dozen, had lots of unofficial uses, but they were constant reminders to return the bottles when we finished with the contents. I don’t think I ever heard the word redeem used to describe it, but, of course, that’s what we were doing.

Someone else talked about redeeming. The Apostle Paul, in his letters to the Ephesians, urged them to redeem their time: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16 KJV

Other translations of the phrase, “redeem the time,” use even more enlightening words: make good use of time, make the best use of the time, make the most of your time, make the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], make the most of every opportunity, make every minute count.

It’s pretty easy to see why we redeemed our glass soft drink bottles. There was a cash reward. But why should we care about redeeming our time?

I’ll let The Message version’s paraphrase of this passage from Paul’s letter answer that question.

"Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are… Rip the cover off those frauds…Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins…watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get…”

Is there a reward for redeeming our time? You better believe there is, the same way there’s a consequence if we don’t.

There was no consequence associated with never returning our soda bottles. Well, there were the longer and broader consequences: those bottles ended up in the garbage and eventually filled up the ground somewhere, instead of filling up our pockets with change. Still, the bottle police didn’t come haul us in for our lax redemption practices.

No one will ever drag us in front of a judge for how we redeem our time either. But the consequence of not redeeming our time? It screams at me from that passage in The Message: waste, useless, barren, sham, and fraud. If we’re not redeeming our time —investing it—in the things that matter, we’re already dead in our coffins. We’re fooling ourselves into thinking that we’re living, when all the while, we haven’t redeemed even a small percentage of the time we have.

How do we redeem our time? The same way we redeemed those drink bottles . . . we take the time to do it. We make it a priority to spend time identifying our priorities, analyzing our habits, learning our weaknesses and ways to manage ourselves better, and intentionally planning how we’re going to go about redeeming our time tomorrow . . . next week . . . next month . . . next year.

Redeeming our time doesn’t just happen accidently. It takes intentional effort. So I’m devoting the month of August to intentionally helping you learn about and become intentional about redeeming your time . . . making the very most of the time you’re given. . . making every minute count. And, only during the month of August, I’ll be discounting this program between 25-50% below normal prices.

I hope I’ll see you in one of my upcoming Time Mastery sessions:

KNOXVILLE, TN

August 27, 8:00AM-12:00PM, UT Federal Credit Union, White Ave., Knoxville, TN

Register Now – Make Time! – Email info@rjsleadershipcoaching.com

OTHER TENNESSEE LOCATIONS:

August 30, 8:00AM-12:00PM, LOCATION & CLASS PENDING REGISTRATIONS, Sevierville, TN

August 31, 8:00AM-12:00PM, LOCATION & CLASS PENDING REGISTRATIONS, Athens, TN

Register now, if you want this class offered in the Sevierville or Athens area. Email TODAY at: info@rjsleadershipcoaching.com

If you’d like to arrange a public offering in your area, or an in-house session for you and your staff, contact me today. Group discounts are available.

The Sum Total of a Successful Life

Let's face it. We live in a world today where, despite the recent economic recession, our mantra is "If a little is good, then more is better!" In our society, we're really good at performing the addition and multiplication involved in that equation, without a great deal of regard for naysayers who, these days, recommend a little subtraction. And all this "math talk" leaves me wondering, is it possible to calculate the sum total of a life?

This was a question that hit me squarely, when I recently attended my friend and former colleague, Mike's, funeral. At the corporation where I'd previously worked for just shy of 25 years, Mike was a successful advertising executive. His untimely death at the young age of 57 was a shock to everyone in his wide circle of influence. Yet, strangely, I believe I was possibly more stunned when I entered the chapel for his funeral. There in the front of the massive marble, stone and wood structure, on a tiny table, sat an even smaller urn. Juxtapositioned to Mike's very large life, it stopped me in my tracks. That's it? I wondered . . . a man who lived as full a life as Mike - NCAA championship swimmer, Division 1 university football cheerleader, graduate of the most prestigious journalism school in the country, creater of award-winning ad campaigns for an international Fortune 500 corporation, on a first-name basis with leaders of the largest advertising firms on Madison Avenue - and this is the sum total of all that . . . a little pile of ashes in an urn smaller than a half gallon of milk?!

I suppose, as a Leadership Coach, I'm naturally haunted by such questions anyway. When our time is over, no matter how short or long it may be, how can we calculate the sum total of our life? What are the factors in such an equation? Can it be as simple as A+B=C? If so, what are A and B? And, if we figure out a cipher for calculating success after the fact, could we then use that insight to predict success? Could we calculate the probability of success, based on current actions and circumstances? Could we even use this insight to change the course of a life to ensure the best possible outcome?

These are the topics and questions I'm going to be blogging about in the coming weeks. I sincerely hope you'll join in this discussion. I really need to know what you think and hear what you have to say on this subject, so that I can be the best coach I can be. Your insights will be multiplied into help for so many others!

Please comment, follow this discussion, and check back in a few days to read my new posts. Thanks!