Time Well Spent: How to Prioritize Your Life for Maximum Impact

If someone walked up to you and looked at you and said, what is the most valuable asset that you possess? What would you say? Would you say it was your health? Would you say it was your husband, your wife, your children? Maybe you'd say it was your car, your house? You know, there's something that you have to have in every one of those situations that's even more valuable and that's time. Today we're going to be talking about the aspect of time, how to prioritize it, how to use it, and the value of it in your own personal life.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rohm, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good, spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rome.

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rome. Today, in our wisdom journey, as we travel down this road of life together, we're going to be talking about what I consider to be one of, if not the most valuable assets that you possess. And it's your time. I know that goes without saying and sometimes it's real easy to say, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that time is important and you need to know how to prioritize your time and you need to know how to spend it. Because as someone has wisely noted, you can't go down to the time store and buy more time if you lose money. Well, you can make some more money, you can earn some more money down the road, maybe recover what you've lost. But if you lose time, you can't go down to the store and buy more time to replace what you've lost. It is a matter of importance and a matter of priority. So as we're talking today, I want to say a couple of things to you that I hope will be sort of idea catchers in your mind that will give you some perspective and help you to see the issue of time as I do. So I'm going to say a number to you and I want you to think about it. 75. 75. What does that mean to you? Well, hopefully you're shrugging your shoulders and saying, well, I don't know what you're talking about.

75 what? Well, what about 75 years? That's three quarters of a century. That's a pretty good amount of time, isn't it?

Or how about 75 months?

That's six. Over six years.

You can do a lot in six years.

You can graduate from college, get a master's degree. What about 75 weeks? Well, that's about A year and a half. You can do a lot in a year and a half. That's a pretty good amount of time. What about 75 days? Well, that's just two and a half months. That kind of makes it look a little shorter, doesn't it? If you think about 75 days, wow, that goes by pretty quickly. And what about 75 minutes? That's just an hour and a quarter. I mean, we go through that many, many times every day. Or what about just 75 seconds? Well, that's just one and a quarter minutes. So you see, there's a priority or a perspective that we look at when we think about how time breaks down. Now if you were to consider the fact that you have 75 summers with your family or 75 summers to travel and to go see places and do things with people you know and love, you see how that puts a relationship into the itemization of time. Time is a great, great commodity because it teaches us how to measure things that make sense. We many times trade our time for money. It's called a job. I jokingly say many of you have heard about the man in the Bible who had more trouble than anyone who ever lived. His name was spelled J O, B. We call him Job. But they na, they named what everybody does after him for a living every day after him. We call it a job. That's just a little bit of a smiler there for your face to be thinking of. Wow, that is true. We call the hard work that we do everything after the man who faced more trouble, trials, tribulations and challenges than anyone else. You know, your greatest asset is your earning ability. All of us have to have the ability to earn, earn a living or do things every day. Whether it's go to school, whether it's clean the house, whether it's do things in our yard. We all have the ability with the asset of our time to make things happen, to be involved in sports, clubs, extracurricular activities. But someone once said to me years and years ago, your greatest resource is your time. Now that's powerful. Because if I don't know what my greatest resource is, I may waste it. I may not use it wisely. I want to talk to you just. I'm going to give you a few quotes here that have meant a lot to me, that I've jotted down in.

Some places that I read often to remind me that my days are numbered. I will not live forever. I have a limited or a specific amount of time on this earth and so do you. The earlier we come to that realization, the better off we're going to be. I once heard the poem, when I.

Was a child, I laughed and wept.

Time crept when I became a full grown man. Time ran when older Still I daily grew. Time flew Soon I'll find while traveling on time gone. It's a commodity that we use. It's part of our daily makeup. Well, here are a few quotes. Let me share these with you and then make a comment about them. These are powerful. These are strong. You may not agree with every one.

Of them, but at least consider them.

Because they have helped me in my journey of trying to become a wise person. Here's the first quote. I have never seen a wealthy man who wasn't time conscious. I have never seen a poor man who was.

You know, you think about that for a minute.

People who are wealthy or people who have accumulated things in their life have done it in the same amount of time. Who are other people who are dead broke.

What happened?

They used their time wisely. Their time became something that they were conscious of, and they used it wisely every day. Now, this, you're going to love this one. My father taught me this one. My father used to look at me when I was growing up and he would chop his neck like this. He would just take his hand like he was chopping his neck. I cannot tell you how many times I saw my father look at me. And he just chopped it.

One day I thought he was going.

To chop my head off.

I really didn't know what he was doing. But one day I asked him, I said, daddy, what, what, what, what does that mean? He looked at me, he said, robert, from a. From your neck up, that's where real success is found. From your neck down, you can find somebody who'll do whatever you need done. Cut the grass, rake the leaves, pick up the limbs.

You can find somebody who used to say, for a dollar a day, maybe a little bit more now, but for.

A dollar today, you can find somebody who needs some money to work for you. But from your neck up, what are you looking at? What are you thinking about in your mind? What are you listening to? What are you talking about? What do you. You see, that's what makes a person successful. Because they're using their time in their thinking, in their seeing, in their hearing, in their talking. That helped me my whole life realizing, from your neck up, pay attention. That's where time becomes your most valuable commodity. Because we all have 24 hours.

You've heard this.

The President, United States, and you both have one thing in common, you have 24 hours in a day, and it's what you do with your time. I realize that I'm not obsessive compulsive that I have to be doing something every second of every day. But I am very, very time aware that the clock's ticking. And what I do with my time will either make or break my life. Here's another quote that I find to be very interesting. Many of you remember Coach Bear Bryant, the head coach at the University of Alabama, who pretty much set the tone as being the premier college football coach. I suppose Vince Lombardi was the premier professional coach with the Green Bay packers, but Bear Bryant at Alabama back in the 60s, oh my goodness. And said they won the national championship. I remember in the 60s, Alabama won the national championship three times. At the end of the 60s, end of that decade, A reporter said, coach Brian, you've won the national championship three times in this decade. What more could you want? He looked at the reporter and said, I want to win it every year. It was so much of like, what are you talking about? Three times? That's not much. He was very, very time conscious.

He said, I never lost a football game, but the clock ran out on me a few times. You see, he knew if we could play this game long enough, I will win. We will wear you down. But he also knew sometimes the clock runs out and the game is over. Even though the scoreboard has you having less points than your opponent. I love that because it helps me to see if you strike a thorn or rose Keep a going if it hails or if it snows Keep a going Ain't no use to sit and whine when the fish ain't on your line Bait your hook Keep on trying Keep a going See? Use your time wisely. Keep trying, Keep moving ahead. Here's a great quote. Take care of the minutes for the hours will take care of themselves.

Does that make sense?

Does it help you to see that you might not know what you can do all day long, but what are you doing for the next hour? Do you have homework that you need to do? Does the grass need to be cut? Do you need to call a friend and encourage them? Do you need to plan something? Don't just waste your time by.

Hope, Ready, read. Don't hurt any feelings by playing on your phone or by looking at Tick tock or by here's surfing the Internet. You can spend hours and hours and hours doing that. And your most precious commodity is your time. And it's ticking on and it's moving by. I love this one. This one came from General Douglas MacArthur. Many of you remember him as one of the great World War II war heroes and leaders of the American troops. All of life's problems can be summed up in two words. Too late, too late. Now. That's powerful. You know, I find that most of the problems people run into are because they planned too late. They started too late, they got involved too late. Now, as long as you're breathing, you have the opportunity to keep moving forward. Many times it's we started too late because we didn't start early enough. That helps me. That helps me to not put things off. I don't want to end up running out of time because I started too late. Napoleon Hill, the great father of motivational speaking and positive mental attitude training, said this Most misfortunes are the result of misused time. I read that one day and I it touched me. Most misfortunes. Are you broke? Do you not have relationships with good people? Have you not taken care of your health? Did you use your time wisely? Most misfortunes are the result of misused time. I'm so glad I learned these quotes because they shape the way I think about. Use each day to the best of your ability. Again, I am not an obsessive, compulsive person that you have to be using every day of your life. However, I do go to bed early. And the reason I go to bed early is because I get up early. I used to think 9 o'. Clock. Wow, 9 o'. Clock. There's nothing better than going better than going to bed at 9 o'. Clock.

And then I discovered 8 o'.

Clock.

Now I realize that we live in a world that's operating 247 and there's always something to do. But I like to get up early. If you get up early and have a cup of coffee and have your quiet time, I usually spend the first hour of my day.

Little bit of a routine, but I try to make it real. I'll read in a devotional booklet, write in my journal every day. A page, just a page. The reason I write in my journal is I've discovered if in my journal is something like a prayer. Dear God, thank you for a new day. Help me to be wise. I pray the things that happen today would be good. And if something goes wrong, help me not to go with it. Help me to learn to be wise. Have you ever asked God, the Creator of your brain, to help you to be wise and to think clearly? It won't hurt I just spend the first part of my day doing that reading, thinking, and then I'll get my list and kind of go through my list to see the priority of what's really, really important. Not just what's urgent, but what's important. That's another whole aspect of time. You can spend your whole day doing things that are urgent, urgent, urgent, and miss doing things that are important, important, important. When's the last time you looked someone in your family and said, thank you for being an important person in my life? Was the last time you looked at your husband, wife, mom or dad, brother, sister, children, son or daughter, and just say, I love you. You mean a lot to me. I'm so proud of my grandson. He's in the United States Marines. He's been in there just a little.

Bit over a year.

Yesterday he got promoted from private first class to corporal. Now, realize that's just sort of the beginning process. Two stripes, a corporal. But I let him know, I'm so proud of you. Thank you for the service you're rendering to our country.

Thank you.

I am so grateful I get to be your grandfather. Little things like that encourage people. How about this one from Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President, United States. Nine tenths of wisdom consist of being wise in time. Now, folks, you're on a podcast about time management because it's a wisdom part of life. These are how to become a wise sage, a wise person, a wise.

Guru, someone who is a wise leader. How does that happen, using your time wisely? I mean, I've never been the president. United States probably won't ever get to that office, but 9, 10 of wisdom comes from being wise in time. I can't even imagine such a thing yet. Theodore Roosevelt, who is a great American hero and a great president, said, use your time wisely because 9, 10 of your success will come as a direct result of how you use your time. And then the one I mentioned earlier, if you lose money, don't worry, you can always get more money. If you lose time, be concerned you can't get more time. I love that because that is true. How about Thomas Paine wrote the book common sense in 1776. He said, Time makes more converts than reason. Now, I had to think about that one a little bit because I didn't catch it. Time makes more converts than reason. That simply means you can sit down.

All day long and reason about something.

And think it out to try to figure it out. But time will be the greatest teacher you ever meet, because time will teach you. If you made A mistake.

You're going to have to do that over again. If you messed up, you have the opportunity to clean it up.

I was a young school principal, and I made the comment to our school board one night, well, you can't cry over spilled milk. I'll never forget James Fleming, one of our school board members, looked at me. He said, that's true. You can't cry over spill spilled milk. You can't cry over spilled milk, but you can clean it up before it spoils. What was he telling me? He was telling me that situation still needs some work to be done. Don't waste time. Clean it up before it spoils, he told me. Call the people where we had a problem with their son.

Call him the next day.

Just let them know. We could have done that better. I wanted to apologize again. Thank you for talking to us about it. Just let people know that you care and you're engaged. Well, I saved the best one for last. And that was the one I got from my mentor and my good friend, Zig Ziglar. Zig used to say this. You're going to be dead a lot longer than you're going to be alive. So you ought to consider what's going to happen to you after you die. Now we grin when we laugh that because I have never met anyone who has said, I don't think that's true. The truth of the matter is all of us are going to be dead a lot longer than we're going to be alive. If you don't believe it, go down to the local graveyard and walk around. And then go back in another week and another month and another year. They'll all still be right there in their graves. The truth of the matter is this. This life is wonderful. But how long do we have with it? 70, 80, 90, 100 years? Then we leave this life. We step out into eternity. Now I'm speaking for myself. I don't know where you are on this journey, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. Did you hear what I just said? I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. And I've done research and I've studied. I've looked at every religion in the world. Because if there is life after death and if there is a heaven, I.

Want to go there.

Do you? You probably would think, well, yeah. Are you aware there's only one person in the history of the world who has ever offered to get you to heaven? Have you ever thought about that? Only one person who's ever lived, made you this offer only one religious person, if I can use that word, one great spiritual leader. His name was Jesus of Nazareth. And here's what he said. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That was his offer. He said, I can forgive your sins. He did it many, many times when he was here on this earth. He would look at someone and said, I forgive you of your sins. Now, I don't know about you, but if all of my sins could be forgiven and I could have eternal life, if I could have a home in heaven forever, he said, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

I am amazed when I started studying that, that no other religious leader, not the Virgin Mary, not Martin Luther King, not Gandhi, not Muhammad, not Buddha, Confucius, you cannot find in any writing, in any book anywhere that they said, I can forgive your sins and I will give you eternal life. And then after he was put to death, we remember at Easter, he arose from the dead. And therefore I've decided to put my faith and trust in the One who died for me and arose again so all my sins can be forgiven and I can have eternal life. Because as Zig used to say, you're going to be dead a lot longer than you're going to be alive. It's a good idea to consider what's going to happen to you then. Well, I've considered that and I've done that, and I trust that you have, too. Well, our time together is up for today, but I just want you to spend a little bit of time thinking about your time. Maybe ask yourself, how many days have you been alive? There's so many methodologies out there. I heard one gentleman who told me he put a marble in a jar for 52 marbles for every year he thought he had left. He had about 10 years. He said, I think I've got about 10 years left. So he put 520 marbles in a big jar, big jar, he said, And.

I started taking out one a week.

He said it wasn't long before that jar started to be about a quarter full.

He said, I realized my life is passing.

Those marbles, those.

The time that represent time.

Are vanishing is true for all of us. I don't think it's something that we need to be morbid about. I don't think it's something that we need to worry about, because what can we do about it? We can't do a thing. You can't worry and worry and worry and end up having an extra day, week, month, year in your life. It just really does more harm than good. I would say this in my years of wisdom. I'll soon be 74 years old.

I've just discovered get up every morning.

And have the attitude, this is the new day.

God has made it.

I want to use my time wisely to the best of my ability.

I don't want to drive myself crazy.

Worrying if I miss a second or a minute or even an hour here and there.

But just be a good person.

Do the next right thing. Be a blessing to others and always let good things come out of your mouth where you're encouraging people.

I wear a little bracelet and it.

Says this is my motto for life. It says, just do the next right thing.

I have heard this.

If you do the next right thing.

All day, at the end of the.

Day, you will have had a right day. Do that seven times, you'll have a right week.

Do the next right thing 4.3 times.

Those seven days and you'll have a right month. And do that 12 times, you'll have a right year.

And then do that repeatedly and you'll.

Have a right life. Thanks for our time. I look forward to being with you on our next podcast sometime soon.

God bless you.

For more information about this podcast, please visit www.becomingwiserpodcast.com.