Yesterday a listener of my podcast sent me a quotation he thought I’d enjoy. The quotation comes from Bertie Charles Forbes (May 14, 1880 – May 6, 1954), a Scottish financial journalist and author who founded Forbes Magazine.
“Tell me how a young man spends his evenings and I will tell you how far he is likely to go in the world. The popular notion is that a youth’s progress depends upon how he acts during his working hours. It doesn’t. It depends far more upon how he utilized his leisure…. If he spends it in harmless idleness, he is likely to be kept on the payroll, but that will be about all. If he diligently utilizes his own time.. to fit himself for more responsible duties, then the greater responsibilities – and greater rewards – are almost certain to come to him.”
What a great observation. So out of curiosity I asked the unknown sender how old he was and how he was spending his evenings, knowing that if a quotation is meaningful to us, there is some connection to our personal lives.
Here’s how Ben Eubanks replied:
I’m 27 and spend my evenings writing and reading (no cable TV at my house!). I’m building my blog/business after the kids to to bed every evening.
I want to make it to an event at the Sanctuary one day, because you have left an incredible impression on my and multiple areas of my life. Been reading/listening to you for over 8 years. Here is the quick background story in case it provides context for my comments earlier today.
My wife is a teacher, and when we were first married she spent several hours every night doing “teacher work.” The extra time for me was a new freedom, so I spent and inordinate amount of time watching TV.
Then one day I stopped, looked back, and realized how much time I was throwing away, so I made a fairly radical change. I stopped watching any TV and began pursuing me dreams in the physical, career, and entrepreneurial areas. I started a small business, moved into my dream career field, and trained for my first ultramarathon (50 kilometers).
Now I live a well balanced life – I enjoy my day job, love my side business, and have plenty of time for family and friend.
I am living a rich and blessed life!
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I don’t need to add anything. Congratulations, Ben as you prepare yourself for greater responsibilities – and greater rewards – that are certain to come to you.
If this is the year you are going to leave the zombie life behind and you need a plan – click here for my free Goal Planning Guide
Most folks who complain about not being able to do anything because they are too “busy” would be shocked at the time they truly are wasting. As a mom of four who worked full time with a two hour daily commute I was able to write three Amazon too 100 books with in about a year while starting to build a business doing some of the things Ben mentions above. When we become intentional on our time we can do amazing things. Thanks for sharing Dan and showing us it can be done.
Jen – yep, you’re a stellar example of what can be done in those evening and off hours. Becoming “intentional on our time” is an amazing opportunity builder.
Well well well. What do we have here?! We have here a 57 yo man (me) who spent a good chunk of life wasting it watching TV and now “participating” in social media like Facebook and/or Twitter in the evenings. “Too tired to really do anything useful or constructive” I kept telling myself day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month, and year-after-year when I got home from work. Had kids in my 30’s. Kids take a lot of time and energy. Same cycle after they went to bed. They got older and now are pretty much grown, but you know what, same thing. Come home from work. Eat. Watch TV. Get my ipad out and log into FB or Twitter and waste up to 4+ hours doing those 3 things. If you are young, please please PLEASE don’t get into that habit. Make the most of your evenings to read both fiction and non-fictional books. Take a class. Take an online class. Take music lessons. Take karate lessons. Learn to cook. Learn to shoot a gun. Hike. Exercise. Learn a new skill. Learn something but more importantly DO SOMETHING! Find something you are passionate about and do it. You might not be good at it but at least you will have fun doing something you enjoy and you know what, you don’t have to be good at it either. Just enjoy it. I, at 57, am trying my best to get out of my rut. When I get home, I read a little. Eat dinner. Clean up when it is my turn. And now, instead of watching TV after dinner, I try to read some more but more importantly, at a minimum, I am taking at least one hour per evening on learning a new programming language, Python. I do this Monday – Thursday. And on the weekends, I am now doing wood working projects in addition to my weekend chores. I will paraphrase here. Opportunity comes knocking all the time. Those who take advantage of those opportunities are those who are prepared. Please, don’t be me. Well, OK, don’t be the old me!
Bob – thanks so much for sharing and for your encouragement to the younger generation. If you take advantage of what you know now, you may still have 30 years of fun, productivity and new opportunities.
Thanks for your transparency in sharing Bob. Powerful lessons learned.
Bob – I sure wish you would present that testimony at local high schools. I recently spoke to an older woman who was stuck in Stamford, CT due to the blizzard (she lived in upstate NY). She was talking about shoveling snow and I joked, “Don’t even think about it – that’s what teenagers are for.” Her reply – “Not here it isn’t – the 15 year olds tell you that shoveling snow is ‘beneath their (income) bracket.” Instead, they sit mindlessly in front of TV or playing on their cell phones – habits and an attitude that won’t change, of course, unless they’re hit with some lightning bolt that wakes them up to the fact that at 15, they have NO income bracket to brag about and they’d best be learning to be useful.
This is fantastic, Ben! I wish that I had your wisdom at age 27. Congratulations on your success.
What about spending my evenings being the best wife and mom friend and neighbor I can be? I have just gotten to the place where I have learned to leave office work at the office and be totally present for my family when I am home… to prepare wholesome homemade meals for them, to eat together, to help my son with homework, to talk to my husband and on one night a week to meet together at church with a group of positive and encouraging women. So while I understand what you are trying to say, I somewhat disagree. Bringing work home every night caused problems in my family life because I was spending so much time on it that I was not present in the moment with my family. Instead I decided to take Wednesdays off from seeing patients each week to concentrate on nothing but office stuff, networking, writing, and sharpening my skills (while my family was at work or school) and that worked for us. Although I Do agree with the author that frittering ones life away with endless and mindless leisure is a not good thing, for life to be balanced you need those moments to just veg out from time to time and let your mind relax and I am also learning to do that too without guilt. Ecclesiastes 3 says there is a time and place for everything under the sun so balance, timing, and determining what works for you and your family are the keys here.
Rochelle – oh my. I want to tell you how wholeheartedly I agree with you. The things you describe are certainly not in the category of “harmless idleness” or ” endless and mindless leisure.” They are deep and active investments in a richer, fuller life. Using time wisely includes much more than just building a business or getting another degree. And yes, the season of our lives plays into identifying what is most useful at any given time. I’m confident I could “watch your evenings” and be thrilled about the future you are creating.
This post resonates deep in me because like Ben, I spend my evenings doing everything blog-related because I want to escape the 9 to 5 and have my own thriving online business soon and just like Ben as well, I used to watch a lot of television too. There really comes a point when you’ll realize just how much time you’ve wasted and I had to learn that the hard way.
The quote above reminds me of what Zig Ziglar said about the size of your television and library. Thank you very much for the content Dan! I’ve been listening to your podcast for 2 years now and haven’t missed an episode. Keep doin what your doin because you’re helping a lot of people!