Buying Time

We buy the perception of time everyday in the form of convenience foods, fast foods, and pre-made meals that are marketed to make us feel as though they are saving us time. When considered this way, our time is relatively cheap. These “foods” all contain cheap calories and little to no actual nutritional value for fairly little money. The question is, how much do you value your time, and do you put a higher value on the quality of time rather than time itself?

The thing about time is that it is our one true currency. Unlike the money in your bank account however, you never know how much time you actually have. It could be a day or it could be sixty years, you really never know. As currency you need to really think about how you want to spend it. You definitely want to pinch seconds in certain areas, but in other areas the benefits might just outweigh the cost. As you don’t know how much time is left in your ledger, you need to think about quality.

This brings us back to what you eat. We have all heard the old adage “You are what you eat.” take this to heart. Think about the quality of the food you are eating and think about how that affects your time. I liken it to oil. So, oil is relatively cheap. It is cheap because we are not building the actual cost into each barrel. I’m talking about the associated environmental cost for ourselves and future generations. Cheap calories are the same thing. You are not considering the long term effects on your health, well being and time. Just like with oil, if these costs were built in, no one would be able to afford these “cheap” calories.

What it all comes down to is short term versus long term thinking. We all want what we want now. Not tomorrow, now. We don’t think long term as individuals or as a society we think only of the present. If we thought long term, and our actions reflected that, we would not have a multi billion dollar industry built around the idea that we have better things to do than feed ourselves. Of all the things that can be done to save us time, lowering the quality of our foods should not be at the top of the list. It should be the absolute last thing we are willing to sacrifice. We are what we eat. Food is our fuel and just like with a car the better quality fuel you put in it, the longer it will last and the better it will run.

If you want something to sacrifice in the name of time turn off your tv, log out of facebook for a few hours, and stop scrolling through instagram. You have plenty of time, you just have to get real with yourself about how you are spending it, and what that’s worth to you. Just like time is the only true currency, health is the only true credit. Everytime you buy and eat a convenience food, or premade, salt laden meal your moving funds from one ledger column to the other. Keep this in mind, because the interest is building, and some day it will be collected.