45 Minutes a Day to Make Your Dreams Come True
We all have dreams. We all want to be successful in life and at work, and we all know - on a conscious or unconscious level - that the decisions we make can move us forward what we want or hold us back. What if I told you that just one decision could make all the difference? And I'm not talking about deciding to drink more water or eat better. That's good advice, but it doesn't make a significant difference in your life (at least not that quickly).
I want you to imagine for just one minute what would happen if you decided to start working on your dreams - no matter where they take you - just 45 minutes a day. What if I told you that's how I wrote a 300+ page book in just over a year (371 days to be exact), will read 52 books this year, am teaching myself Spanish and started a new business on the side?
In this article, we'll explore how understanding the opportunity cost of wasting your time watching TV, on Netflix, scrolling through your phone together with the power of the compound effect will alter the course of your entire life.
As usual, the formula is relatively simple: find your time wasters and commit to replacing 45 minutes of wasted time with proactively working on your dreams. It's the execution that requires a little support, practice, and perseverance. I often find that understanding the mechanisms of our behavior helps to steer us in the right direction. So let's dive in.
What is opportunity cost?
We all have the same number of hours in a day. Yes, some of us have more help and support than others, making more of those hours available for the important stuff. But still, every one of us wastes time. Whoever says otherwise is a big time-wasting liar!
What this means is that every decision has a price. Opportunity cost is the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen; it's what you are giving up to get something else.
Opportunity cost can look like this:
Watching TV instead of reading a book
Spending time on social media rather than learning how to play an instrument
Falling down the research rabbit hole instead of taking a practical step (aka doing something)
Worrying about a project instead of starting it
Wasting time binge-watching another Netflix series instead of writing the paper that's due tomorrow
All these things might seem like trivial decisions. They're not. When you make poor time choices, what you're leaving on the table is nothing less than your dream life. To grasp this enormity, we must first understand another concept of time: the compound effect.
What is the compound effect?
The compound effect is a concept that states that all small actions and decisions in life will have the opportunity to grow into big rewards. Although applicable to every aspect of our lives, this concept was first applied in the financial field. When talking about investments, compounding is the ability of money to generate more money, which is then reinvested or remains invested to create even more money.
A famous example is that of compound interest: the earlier your start investing, the more return you'll get for the same amount of money as someone who starts later in life than you.
The compound effect and your dreams
The compound effect isn't only applicable to money. Because everything we do requires time, it's relevant to EVERYTHING:
Spending 20 minutes every day exercising can add up to a fully toned body over a year if you maintain this habit. This same action could also make you healthier and happier, which will lead to more opportunities in the future.
Reading for 30 minutes a day, every day for a year can add up to over 60 books a year! The time you spend reading each day is short, but it adds up quickly and gives you new knowledge and life opportunities.
Writing for 45 minutes a day every single day can add up to over 100,000 words in one year. Imagine how much you could write if you commit yourself to this simple daily practice. I'm living proof that it's possible!
Now let's take this concept back to your dreams. Spending a little time each day on something worthwhile will produce incredible results.
45 minutes a day to make your dreams come true
Things start shifting when we put opportunity cost and compound effect together:
Identify 45 minutes of time wasters you can do without
Work on your dreams every day for that amount of time
Using the opportunity cost concept and the compound effect for your benefit is as simple as replacing 30 minutes of scrolling with writing or 15 minutes of thinking about something. Remember that opportunity cost comes from every decision you make in your life while compounding means doing the same small thing over and over again every single day.
You might not know this, but these concepts are already at work in your life. Every time you're scrolling through your phone, your compounding your knowledge of what's hot or not on Instagram or Facebook, all the hours you spent streaming series make you a champion at Netflix trivia.
There's no way to escape these forces from being at play in your life, so you might as well use them to build your dreams, don't you think?
You know you need to make a change in your life, but you keep putting it off.
Maybe you're not sure what the next step is or how to get started. Or maybe there are too many options, and it feels overwhelming. Whatever the reason, I can help! I offer personalized coaching services that will guide you through every step of making positive changes in your life so that you can finally start living the way YOU want to live!
Let me help take away all those feelings of overwhelm and confusion so that together we can focus on creating a plan for success for you and push past any resistance or procrastination holding you back from achieving your goals!
