Most of us have heard the biblical Parable of the Talents. In a quick rundown (insert spoiler alert here!), a servant who was given money that could make him more money did nothing with it. If it was modern day, he probably would’ve plopped his lazy, procrastinating ass down on the couch and got wrapped up in whatever mindless BS on his TV screen.

Speaking of which, have you ever noticed how people claim to never have time to build or create something but always make time to stare at the Idiot Box from after work to bedtime? To squander hours on social media? Rooting harder for their favorite sports team than themselves? Now, before folks get all into their friggin’ feelings about it, I ain’t knockin’ the occasional veg-out session, but too many of us are slaves to things that yield no return on the investment of our time.

Adopting a hu$tling mindset is mainly about setting priorities and maximizing your time. You may not be able to play a mean oboe (but has anyone, EVER?!), run any faster than a person with little, stubby legs, or draw anything better than a stick figure. However, the one thing we’ve all been given, no matter what our current financial standing, is time. That means the gazillionaire real estate developer, the franchise owner, and the lady in the trailer park all have been allotted the same 24 hours per day. In fact, the only time this changes is on the day you were born and the day you die.

You become a product of with whom and what you spend your time. And, unlike money, you cannot get it back. As we age, people recognize that time is a finite thing. We only have so much of it to make an impact and to do the things of which we’ve dreamed. Because of this realization, we want to waste less of it with people who aren’t worth our time.

For some years, I was a police supervisor. As I got to the bottom of my shift, the relieving watch commander would come in to set up for his or her oncoming shift. As the personnel gathered in the roll call room each night, there was one cop who would always come strolling in 10 minutes late. He was casual about it, as it was a common occurrence that became accepted. It was a dumb move, because he would be forced to put for 10 minutes of vacation each time. When asked why he couldn’t seem to get to work ahead of the curve, he always claimed he left out at the same time, blaming his tardiness on traffic or whatever.

Likewise, there was a woman who used to go to a church I attended years ago. She was perpetually late, arriving about 20 minutes into service. She placed the blame on the time and energy it took to get her kids ready.

The solution to both problem is simple: add 30 minutes to the start. After all, early is on time and on time is late.

I was told I am a linear thinker, though I am actually dynamic with it. Linear in the fact that I realize the quickest route from point A to B is a straight line. However, I anticipate resistance, traffic backups, and other things that can alter the timeline. That’s where the dynamic part comes in: being able to select another route that was already considered and being fluid enough to adapt to changing circumstances.

We should be all about eliminating excuses for not holding ourselves accountable to our dreams. But we’ll cover the latter in another post…