My father grew up on an Iowa farm. The family didn’t have a whole lot of anything, except corn cobs. And they were used everywhere: burned as fuel in the stove, stacked up in the outhouse, and Frosty wasn’t the only one with a corn cob pipe. I once asked why they used corn cobs for so many things. His simple reply, “It’s what we had.” There endeth my first lesson on the efficient use of available resources.
In broad terms, the only resources we have are time, money, and energy. And they say you can only have two at a time. The key to living our best life, then, is not so much focusing on which resource we lack, it is effectively managing the resources we do have. Or, as Sam Harris sang, “use what you got!”
In the youth of our first life we have a seemingly unending supply of both time and energy. Money is tight. This is a time to hustle. DIY projects abound. We take on several jobs at once, and have energy to spare for late nights with friends. Pay for an Uber to the movie theater? Forget it. We save that money and walk, or bike, or skateboard.
Soon, though, we find ourselves in our second life with a comfortable amount of money – or at least we are comfortable with the money coming in and the prospects for saving. We’re still energetic. However, our interests and commitments (kids, anyone?), have usurped all of our time. In this life, we decide it’s OK to spend a little money on something that will free up our precious time.
As we transition into our third life, our children leave home, we leave the workforce, and once again time is a plentiful commodity. We’ve spent our lifetime accumulating wealth and it’s more available than ever. Our bodies, however, begin to betray us. And not just our arms and legs. No. Where we used to be able to hold many things in our head, we’re now writing more lists and reminders. At one point we recognize that both physical and mental energy is flagging. Ah, but all is not lost. We look around and see we still have resources: time and money.
The third life is that time when we can literally and figuratively slow down, stop chasing, and reserve our energies for those things which truly bring us joy. We don’t have to take that 12-cities-in-10-days tour because we only have two weeks of vacation this year. We can spend a month in Provence, or Portland. And we can pay someone to do those chores that wear us down. We get help with daily chores so we have the energy available for the good stuff. Goodbye, housekeeping; hello, grandkids!
None of these stages are clear cut or set in stone. It’s a generalization – and we recognize the change only after it has happened. Is there a time when we have ALL of those resources in abundance? Probably, in those undefined transitional times as we move from one life stage to the next. Unfortunately, we never really know when those moments start or end. So, start now. Take a moment and consider how you can maximize whatever resources you have in abundance now to get the life you want.
©️ 3rdLife, LLC 2021