Do we get the message from society that time is valuable, and we shouldn’t waste it on things that don’t matter? That time is the single most precious factor in our lives that we cannot get back? This approach perhaps stems from the traditional working day and the education system. We were raised to spend long hours studying to gain a new skill, or an eight-hour workday to make a living. But is this kind of thinking still effective in our modern world?
More and more people don’t work in traditional jobs anymore, but start their own business, hoping to take control of their time. So, is it really time that matters? Or rather, how you focus your energy on a particular task at any given moment? Your focused energy matters more than anything else. This is the key to effective work in anything, be it your studies, work or even relationships.
Let’s take a look at what has been hindering our real growth and development.
Our traditional workplaces offer a salary in exchange for our work, based on how many hours we spend working. Even though performance is becoming more significant, we receive pay based on our time input. So, we have traded our time for payment. How does it affect our performance, lifestyle and happiness? And as a consequence, how does this way of working contribute to our growth?
Performance Versus Time
Valuing somebody’s time became equal to valuing the person. This is one of the major reasons why employees resign. The problem is, time is meant to help us track our work, and see our progress. But it shouldn’t be the most valuable asset of a working individual, and not the basis of our compensation. If we value our time more than what we did while it passed, we tend to think it is more important than our achievements.
It led to people going to work to pass time instead of doing high-quality work. And many employees started to perform on a sufficient level merely to keep their jobs. Long-term mediocre work doesn’t inspire the individual. In many cases, it had led to boredom, frustration and burnout. And feeling insignificant. Thus, businesses came up with incentives like bonus structures to increase quality.
But we don’t put in the same effort and energy in our times, therefore our times are not equal. What you need to look at differently if you want to have more work satisfaction is how well you use your talents and energy in the given timeframe. This could help employers value the unique purpose of employees, and employees to feel more worthy. Another problem is our system of hierarchy when many people seek equality.
Our Work and Education System
When you start a job, there might be key performance indicators to track your work performance; however, these don’t measure individual talent and other important areas of efficacy. KPI-s are created having the big picture in mind, hence it doesn’t analyze the key characteristics, skills and energy of a person in depth. That could be crucial to both individual and business success.
Many of us struggle for the exact same reason at school. Learning many useless things at school, overlooking the dominant strengths of our children, doesn’t allow the individual to shine at what they are best at. It doesn’t even allow many to realize what they are great at. Unfortunately, it leads to wasting our energy, talent and life altogether. So how would our system change if we prioritized talent over time?
How We Could Shine
We could quickly recognize unique strengths and characteristics. Our kids would be guided to use their gifts, interests and passions. This way, our society would be considerably more productive and efficient. We could lead happier lives, connect with each other on higher levels and have more satisfying jobs. We could throw away the masks that don’t serve us anymore and let go of creating artificial structures and performance indicators.
And we would feel inspired to create, work, live, share and grow together at last! Do you think we can create such a life?
