A simple but powerful lesson: Don't split pennies.

One of the conversations that eventually happens with anyone I have ever mentored is the useless idea of splitting pennies. The expression is meant to explain how at times we spend too much time and effort attempting to save on things that make very little sense.

Because I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to dismiss the importance of being smart with your money, I'm going to attempt to describe this in the simplest way possible. But before doing so, let me lay some groundwork for my point.

The mistake we make when we are splitting pennies, at least in my opinions, is the one were we stop placing enough value to our time spent. What I mean by this, is that in everything we do, every work we put towards a task is not only measured in outcome and results, but also in the time it took for us to complete it.

You could say that time is subjective, and that argument is semi valid. But the idea behind optimizing our time, our efforts, comes with the correct management of our finite resource, our time. As we know, there is absolutely no way that you could get a refund for any time you have ever wasted, as a time machine is still not in production, and even then it's still not the same thing at all.

If we value our time, then we must be able to decide between the things we are doing, the things we need to do, and the things we must learn to either ignore or delegate. Once we learn this balance, we become more effective at our jobs, and more productive in life in general.

To give a concrete example: If a lawyer makes two hundred dollars and hour, but he chooses to not work today because he needs to clean his car. If the thought process behind that is saving the $40 dollars from the car wash place, he effectively lost $160 dollars.

I grant you that life is not full with such clear examples, and some of them require a little more analyzing. But in many ways many of us fall for the same mistakes.

In my view all transactions, whether commercial or not need to be thought from that perspective. Understanding that someone who values his time, values it enough to be aware of this little predicaments. If we learn to value our time, to put effort and energy in our strengths and not our weaknesses, we will find a new source of abundance, and even more importantly a Happier life.

Wishing you all a beautiful week

@chbartist

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