Happy New Year! End of 365 days, there’s a New Year of-course with an exception every 4th year. We wish that to be a Happy one. We set resolutions, so that we can reach the milestones and achieve happiness.

A few days ago the most foggy morning was experienced in the last one decade in Bangalore city. Along with my walking partners Anupam and Venkat enjoying the fog and the walk with the new year round the corner, the conversation was all about the new year resolutions…while sharing amongst us what mattered most to us for this year, it was also a lighter morning while sharing what new year resolutions meant to many people and some of the interesting lighter ones that surfaced were:

– Resolutions are made only to break it!

– My New Year Resolution is to have No Resolution

– I want to shed 12 pounds body weight in the next 12 months, but later realized that I only shed 12 month of time

as the day continued to be foggy, during the lunch time my colleague Himani brightened the day by narrating the following,

“Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course?

Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no over draft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against “tomorrow.”

You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in creating a good future for yourself by learning & implementing in your workplace or anywhere else, as much as you can.”

While the narration above was shared to me in appreciating time and its productive utilization, my question is, which is more important in your perception – Time or Money? Depends on which side of the table, right? Those in surplus of finance might find Time as precious, and those in shortage might stick with money. But mind you, Time vs Money isn’t a subjective statement, but an acclaimed truth that between the two, Time has prevailed.

I remember my college days when we used to organize cultural shows during festivals. As part of fund mobilization, we used to visit the community residents for sponsorship – and the response was always mixed. Some were willing to contribute in cash, while some volunteered their time and came forward to support us with their efforts as part of workforce. It’s astonishing to realize today that those who were willing to part with cash were professionally very successful people who either didn’t have the time to spare or were already engaged in that hour. Time, to them, was too precious than bag of coins, gems or wads of currency or bars of gold. Time was too scarce to share or offer. Some successful people did contribute in both kinds – Time and Money, but that was more for the cause and because of contacts and relationship. Still, time was valued way high and treated sacred. To them there can be no high a price for their toil. That’s their interpretation of time.

Successful people treat time as the valuable resource. If that’s significance about Time for established people, then how it is invested matters even more. The investment is critical. The above narration captures this salient aspect as a double-edged sword. If Time is not invested then it’s gone altogether. Time, when invested and apportioned wisely will fetch the right dividends, but a bad move can boomerang and bite you back.

So it’s all about the importance on how wholistic the investment is. And its here the 16 forms of wealth which I call it Sweet 16, where time can be invested comes into the frame. Are we taking a balanced approach? Corporates follow a balanced scorecard to achieve set goals in a wholistic way. Then why not for our lives? If a balanced or wholistic approach is not followed, the returns too would be skewed.

It’s a New Year time – so set targets and goals. Achieve and measure. That’s Holistic growth – which is the essence for whole person. Are we becoming whole person? Well, that’s possible only when you can measure and assess. The whole effect is experienced with a holistic approach of investing your time and efforts.

In a nutshell,

• Time is an important and powerful resource for human beings.

• Wealth is of 16 forms, and if Time as investment is a resource, probe possibilities in investing in all the 16 forms of wealth.

• Have a resolution and a measure against these 16 forms of wealth to maintain a holistic approach and balanced scorecard.

Wish you a very happy new year! While we may get another new year just after 365 days, what also matters is how we live this available 365 days!

“Learn from the past, Explore the Future and Enjoy this Moment” – Naveen Lakkur

image courtesy: twitter.com/comite21