Making the Most of My Time

The last couple of years, I've experimented with creating an app, and learning about earning money online.  I've spent a lot of time doing that.  Time not with my family. Some of it was good, and suits me, but it is still time.  And, it turns out, I don't quite have the skills in sales and marketing to make enough out of that time to earn my way out of my nine-to-five job.  At least not yet.

So, I've spent the last few months learning a couple of  new things.  I'm learning marketing, and a few sales techniques.  This is more time.  Is it going to be worth it?  My kids are getting older, day by day, and I feel no closer to being able to spend more time with them.  

But, I looked around the other weekend, and well... realized that I didn't know how to play anymore.  My son had his toys spread across his room in a giant display – may be a war campaign or something – and I retreated to the office to work on something. Working on a plan to create more income so I can have more time... and instead of taking the time to play, I lost it.

Just finished watching Christopher Robin, and I think I cried most of the way through it.  I feel a little bit like Christopher Robin in the beginning of the movie.  If you haven't watched it, it's available on Netflix now.  I started it with my son, but it was a little slow and sad at the beginning for him, so I finished it without him.  I think I was a little afraid of watching this movie, knowing where my head is at.  The story starts with Christopher Robin as a boy, playing with Pooh and his pals in the Hundred Acre Woods, and flips through time fast as Christopher grows up, gets married, and has a daughter.  We spend a few moments with him in his job as he grapples with trying to save the employees in his department from being downsized, and then the heartbreaking moment with his family at the end of the day when he can't go away with them for the weekend as he tries to solve this problem.  After they leave, a little bit of magic occurs, and that's when his journey begins.  

I don't want to spoil it here, but it's exactly like crawling back from what I was talking about in the previous paragraph.  I think we, as adults, struggle to remember what it was like as a child – to dream, to imagine, to play just for the pure joy of it.  I struggle with this all the time – wanting to maximize my time, and then just ending up exhausted at the end of the day, not able to think at all.  I need to slow down and enjoy the little things in life, like the fun in playing with a baloon.  Our children can teach us this – remind us – if we're willing to pay attention.  

Doing nothing often leads to the very best something. I need to do more nothings.  I'm only on this earth for so long, and I want to make the most of it.