Episode 115: Your Time is Your Most Precious Asset

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I'm asking a question: do you have people who are in your life and all they ask from you is for your time? They ask you for a meeting, they ask you for a conversation, they ask you for help, they ask you for advice. They're always asking, asking, and taking from you something that equates to to your time. You only have 24 hours in your day. Let's flip it around. How often throughout your day do you have people call you, say, I want to give you something, I want to give you advice, I want to give— I want to help you, I want to go out of the way, I like to take you here, I want to drive you there? How many of you are going, I wish my day was full of people like that, because all I have is people just taking, wanting I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to do this. Where are the people who are calling me or contacting me or sending me stuff to take care of me? That's what I want to talk about. That's what I want you to realize. There are people in your life— and I know this is brutal— but they are time vampires. They're sucking the blood out of your life. You only have 24 hours in your day, and you got to protect those 24 hours. Those are your 24 hours, and you got to decide This is what I want to do with my 24 hours. And during those 24 hours, this is what I want to feel during those 24 hours. I want to have 24 hours of love. I want to have 24 hours of feeling like I'm being hugged. I want to have 24 hours that I feel like I'm being taken care of. Or is your 24 hours feeling like they're sucking me dry? And when in the evening when I go to bed, I feel exhausted. I have nothing left. Then you have the time vampires suck your life out of you. Do you get it? This is brutal, but this is the way I want you to see your life and want to frame it. I'm being serious. Why can't you have a day full of love and people taking care of you and looking out for you? People calling you and saying, hey, let me do this for you. Hey, you know, I got this idea. Hey, you know what, I got this great deal, I want to make you rich, or I want to bring you in on this deal. Hey, you know, why not? Why Why not? The thing is, people have gotten spoiled. Everybody wants something. Let me tell you a story. On LinkedIn, I'm reached out by many companies, no, saying that they, uh, want me to have meetings with me. Everybody's complimenting and all that crap, right? So it's very, very nice. There's one company, they reached out and they said they have a new— their startup, and they have a new app to help people with mental health. I said, absolutely worth my time helping people with mental health. With COVID— with not even COVID, life itself, everybody needs some help. And if there's an app that can help people people mental health? Yes, let's invest time, right? So I tell them, yeah, let's have a meeting. I said, tell me, someone send you more information. Long story short, they weren't even in that space. They, they completely are someplace else. And when I told them I don't want to meet with them now, when I understood what they were doing, they were quite, quite nasty at the end, saying, you know, I don't even get into it. These people are time vampires. They caught attitude when I didn't agree to give them my time. And it wasn't just my time, my time plus my free advice, plus my knowledge, plus my experience. That's what time vampires do. What I see running rampant is that people have gotten ridiculous in the head. People actually expect with attitude for you to give up your time, your knowledge, your experience, your life, your values, your scars, Everything you've gone through your life, all your reflections, you got to give it to me for free. And if you don't, you're a shithead. That's what people are doing. People are quite nasty about the whole thing. Who do you think you are that you don't give me everything I want? These are time vampires. How many time vampires do you have in your life? Do you have them in your family? Is your best friend a time vampire? When's the last time your best friend took care of you? If they're truly a best friend, they should be— you should look forward to them. They should be surprising you with things, or at least making you laugh. Is your 24 hours a day filled with time vampires? Do you hear me? This is serious. Look at your day. You're at a job, you're attending meetings that are boring as hell. It's just a time vampire. You're just being sucked dry in that meeting. People fill up your calendar. You have no control over that. That's— those are classic time vampires. Excuse me. If you have people who all they do is grab a hold of empty slots in your calendar, those— that is the definition of a time vampire. I need this. I need your help. I need your advice. Time vampires. Flip your life around. What do you need? Are you a morning person? You go, oh, you know, I would love to wake up morning and just grab a cup of coffee and just relax, maybe read the newspaper. Oh, I can't remember the last time I did that. Why not? The reason why not is because you let the time vampires suck you dry. They control when the hell your day starts. Think about that. You're a grown adult. You're a grown adult, and other people control when you start your day. Sounds like your mom and dad. Now, that wasn't bad. You were a kid, you needed somebody to control you. But shit, you're a grown adult, and you let other people determine that your day starts at 8 o'clock, your first meeting's 8 o'clock? No, you decide when the hell your first meeting is, and you decide what is the theme of that first meeting and what's the tempo. I mean, God, imagine starting your day off with a meeting with somebody who's there to complain, "I'm not happy about my job," and all that crap. That's more than a time vampire, Jesus Christ. That person's going to suck the life out of you for the rest of the week. Control your day, control your life. You're able to flip it around. This is the life I want to have. Are the people you're with in your family, are they sucking you dry? Stop spending time with them. I don't want to tell you how many— I mean, look, family members, you're born into a family and they're not perfect, and I hope to God they love you, but you don't have to spend all your time with them. Who in your life you enjoy being with, who in your life that you want to have in your life, get closer to them. It's your life. Stop, stop letting time vampires suck your 24 hours, the life, the love, the hugs that you deserve, the attention that you deserve, the compliments that you deserve, the smiles that you deserve. All those things, how many do you get a day? And then flip around, how many people you getting complaining, whining? I need this from you, I need that from you, I need, I need, I need, I want, I need, you must. Vampire, vampire, vampire, vampire, vampire. It's your life, you deserve love, because I love you. And I know that once you have this epiphany, once you understand what I'm saying, once you see clearly that what I'm saying makes complete sense, and all you got to do is flip your life around saying, I control my life, I control my day, I control my thoughts, I control my emotions, and I want this and I want that, and everybody else— I don't want to say that, those words are not nice, but you know what I mean. They could go someplace else. And they will go someplace else. Let's leave these time vampires to suck each other and let them both die off. But people now become ridiculous. Everybody wants something, and if you don't give them the catch attitude, it's because it's a sign of immaturity. You're surrounded by a bunch of immature people, and it's not— and you don't have to be. Be surrounded by people who give you love, hugs, and everything. Okay, there'll be a couple of people during the day that you have to meet with. I I get that. Okay, that's understandable. But don't have your whole day full of people who all they want to do is take from you. That's not you. That's not your life. Go forth and spread beauty and light. You deserve a hug. You deserve to have every conversation being people complimenting you. Why not go to work every day and every day everybody compliments you all day? When you go to bed at night, you'll be so full. You'll be like, ah, I'm not exhausted. I just, I'm just so full of energy. When was the last time you went to bed like that? There you go. That's the life you deserve. This is Thomas Anglero. I'm super proud of you. I'm super happy for you. And I want your day today. I want your life for the rest of your life to be full of that. And get rid of all those people and just bring in all the love that you deserve. I truly do love you. Take care of yourself. Until next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.