Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope your day is off to an awesome start!
Okay, first things first. Last week I challenged you all to make a list of simple things you need to get accomplished, and then make a point of checking them off as you do. And this wasn’t just a homework assignment – I did it, too. My original list of 10 items grew to 12 (my wife and I both added one), and I did a lot more that wasn’t on the list. Here’s what I learned.
First, as some of our friends have commented, it needs to be a written list. For this to work (and it does), you need the satisfaction of taking a pen and crossing items off the list as they’re completed. Also, don’t do what I did – if you tackle something that wasn’t on the list but should have been, add it. The more you can cross off each week, the better this strategy works.
The idea is to do this for a month at least. If it becomes a lifelong habit, I doubt you’ll ever regret starting it. You’ll get more done in a shorter time and, if you’re like me, that paper memory supplement works great. And along the way, you’ll build two vital habits – the habit of getting things done, and more importantly, the habit of success.
Now, what are your plans for the weekend? I told a friend today my plan is to hang around the neighborhood and avoid all those working stiffs who have to cram their weekend into two days. She still works, so she thought it was funny. But it’s true. Traffic, whether it’s on the streets, in parking lots, or in the checkout line at Costco, is always much worse on weekends.
A friend told me years ago that we’ll meet a lot of people in our lives who feel pretty financially secure. When presented a money-making opportunity, they’ll usually turn it down. People want what they don’t have, and if you have plenty of money, you don’t always need more. There are some people in our society who apparently never learned that lesson.
But what many of these folks (and most of us) lack is time. You see, money is a renewable resource. When it’s gone, you can always make more. But time is finite. It’s even more important than money (unless you’re a bill collector), and still it seems we spend our entire lives chasing the wrong one. What good is a bunch of money if you don’t have time to enjoy it?
It’s the classic Catch-22, and we’re not left with a lot of viable alternatives. Ideally, we would do one of two things – increase our hourly pay so we don’t have to work all the time (good luck with that) or build a residual income on the side that doesn’t require our continual presence. In other words, something that can generate income even while you’re away.
There are lots of ways to do that. Robert Kiyosaki wrote a series of books on this topic, including Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Business of the 21st Century. If you can get past some of his self-aggrandizement (he’s earned it), both are excellent books to give you some ideas. But both stress the need to generate an income that works while you play.
That doesn’t mean hands-off. It means less hands-on. That’s time you can be sleeping, playing with the kids, on vacation, or whatever. It’s YOUR time to use the way YOU decide. Naturally, it has to generate enough income to allow this, and that takes time. Or a lot of money to start with. Those are your only real choices. And you have to choose now.
So, the question is pretty simple. Do you want to invest your time, or spend it? Investing time today can increase your income and lead to more free time down the road, sometimes much sooner than you’d think. But spending time is like a one-time event. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. So, make sure you spend it doing something YOU want to do.
Especially in this global economic turmoil, and with AI threatening millions of jobs across multiple industries, the time to start investing in ourselves is now. Today. In fact, if we haven’t already started, we’re late. You’ve heard this before, but you have to start digging the well before you get thirsty. And trust me, friends, it’s getting hot.
That’s all for now. Take some time this weekend and start thinking of ways you can invest in yourself. Don’t be shocked if you come up with a whole list. Meanwhile, have an awesome day and an even better weekend!
© 2026 Dave Glardon – All rights reserved
Dave Glardon 