What are these activities that are low-yielding?
Most people think it is politically correct for them to answer all telephone calls. Well, that might sound morally right but, is it expedient? That kind of practice brings you lower and makes your life a low-yielding life. The best thing to do is to assess the benefits of each relationship before you decide what time you give to them. A lot of people would rather do something because their friends, family, relatives and colleagues are asking them to do it, but not necessarily because it is what contributes to their life goals one way or the other. Again friends, I am sorry to say but this is another factor that makes a lot of people ineffective in their lives. That lifestyle that makes you to want to make other people happy at the expense of your vision or dream could be detrimental to your dreams and goals.
In some countries, some cultural expectations take you away from your passions, dreams and aspirations, rather than encourage you to move in the right direction for your life. So many people are not doing what they know to be right just because of one social or cultural expectation or the other. If you put as your priority, the desire to fulfill cultural demands, at the expense of your vision and calling, that would eventually cost you dearly.
Many people are actually not attaining the best they could be in their professions and life goals, because they live for the public opinion. They dare not risk. They would not dare so, as not to unleash upon themselves the wrath of the public. Well, that is why it is a low-yielding lifestyle. Most effective people have long overcome those kind of fears to become who they are today.
In some societies, certain behaviors are not welcomed especially as regards to women, young men, etc. Some things are expected to be done by men, others by women, others only by older people, and so on. You will observe that even in those societies, the only few people who are greatly successful are those who have been able to break out of the status quo. For example, in the country of Ukraine where I live, it is not expected of a Ukrainian to leave his orthodox faith. It is regarded as a betrayal of the ancestral religion. So even though some know, that they need to go to a more progressive church to experience salvation, yet they would not do it, because it is considered a wrong kind of behavior in the society.
In most countries, there are behavioural orientations that limit people from becoming the best they could be, thereby holding them down in a low-yielding lifestyle. Some families have their own behavioral orientation. In some cases, it is a behavioral orientation given by the community which limits the individual from being himself. Behavioral orientations could be given by groups of people, cultures and traditions that forces an individual to live within a certain boundary.
Watching of TV is a low-yielding lifestyle. As obvious as that might look, yet millions of people engage in it from day to day. Some people follow serial movies, soap operas, at the expense of the time they are supposed to use to develop themselves or perfect their arts.
Some cultures put so much emphasis on dressing and looking good that it has become a lifestyle. A low-yielding lifestyle that consumes hours of our day. Men and women spend many hours trying to just look good. But unfortunately, that does not put money in their pocket, just a good feeling.
The list of low-yielding lifestyles and things that contribute to us having this lifestyle could go on and on. The examples I have given above are simply to give us an insight into what we are talking about. I am sure you have your own list of things that hold people back in the low-yielding lifestyle.
Are you all fun and no cash?
Too many of us are what I call ‘all fun and no cash’ I will like you to ask yourself, what is in it for you in those particular activities that you give your time to. Some people like to watch movies. They spend two hours watching movies per day. Add that up. Can you add that up and tell how much that could give you in a week, a month, a year or in ten years? If you only make as little as 10US dollars an hour and you spend 2 hours a day watching movies there are a lot of things you do that would yield you more than that 10US dollars per hour.
Go online, look for home jobs. There are numerous jobs waiting for you there. But let’s just say 10US dollars cost an hour and you make 20US dollars a day instead of the 2 hours you spend watching your favorite soap opera. If you do that every day of the week, that would result to 140US dollars in cash instead of just good feelings you could have gotten from your movie. In a month that would give you 560US dollars in real money instead of just good feelings.
In a year, that 2 hours you spend watching TV would give you 67,000US dollars. Now that is money! I am not sure the movies you watch deliver that kind of money into your pocket after one year of faithfully watching your movies. Since many of us have spent over 10 years of our lives watching TV, let’s see how much that would amount to in raw cash. That would amount to 670,000US dollars in 10 years. Do you have that amount in your savings account or in your deposit account? Was it deposited there by your TV Company or your soap opera industry? Or are you all fun and no cash?
With 670,000US dollars you could get a car, a business, a house or an apartment in any country of the world. If that apartment is rented out however, it becomes the goose that produces the golden egg.
Ladies and gentlemen, can you do an inventory of your life and try to make a list of all the activities you are engaged in, that the only thing they give you is fun but no cash? Some of you will say, is everything in life about money? No, not at all. By the way I am the author of the book that talks about that – “Money Won’t Make You Rich”
However, money is a parameter, a standard, a measurement that could be used to measure and gauge the productivity of our daily engagements. You should be able to tell yourself the truth – ARE YOU ALL FUN AND NO CASH?
- Would you rather care more about partying during your free weekend or giving extra classes to the kids in your neighbourhood? This is not about fun, nor is it about cash, because what the extra classes will give those kids is much better than what money will give you. It would give them a destiny, it would give them a future. Those things you don’t buy with money. But it is a high-yielding lifestyle vs a low-yielding lifestyle
- Can you imagine that all the hours you spend browsing or talking on the telephone about some unnecessary things could be exchanged for a few hours in hospitals visiting the sick or in elderly homes, volunteering a few hours a week? That too is not just about money but it is about life. A low-yielding life or a high-yielding life.
Sunday Adelaja is a Nigeria born leader, transformation strategist, pastor and innovator. He was based in Kiev Ukraine
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