On this day, I would like to talk about how you can squeeze the most out of each moment you have. There are four sections to think about here. This is a training I did for a company a couple of days ago. This lesson is going to be a short and quick one, and hopefully it is powerful and useful. 

What Is the ROI You Expect from Each Hour?

To start with, let us look at every hour. If you look at every hour of your life, try to figure out what it is worth to you. Pause and think about it; what kind of ROI do you need to get from each hour of your life for you to look back and go “Wow, that was worth an hour of my life!” 

What kind of ROI do you need to get? Is it feeling a certain way? Is it making so much progress? Is it having a certain kind of experience each hour? Is it being in alignment with what you know you were meant to be? Is it a certain amount of money you need to make? Is it a certain relationship that needs to develop? In short, what return on investment (ROI) are you looking for during each hour of your life? If you could scan back over the last two or three hours of your life, what kind of return,

1. Were you expecting or wanting?
2. Did you get?

This is literally a game-changing question for a lot of people because most of us have never thought of this. We never thought of the kind of ROI we want from each moment or each hour of our day. If you think about this, you will look back and ask yourself whether you got the kind of return that you had desired to get. 

This morning, I posted a quote from Warren Buffett. He said that was is most amazing is that people say time is more valuable than money, but if you look at their calendar, this isn’t true! This is because most people are using so much time to do things that are robbing them of happiness, robbing them of their progress, robbing them of anything they want out of life. You are doing things that rob you of all the things you want for your life, such as enjoying every moment, adding value to others, etc. 

Ironically, you can easily set aside some money and pay someone to do those things for you so that you give yourself an hour of the ROI you really demand from each hour of your life! You can give yourself an hour of calm so that someone else can clean your house for you. You can give yourself an hour of learning something new while you let another person take your calls for you. You can spend an hour doing what you truly love while you hire someone to do the things that make you money.

There are so many ways to do this, but many of us don’t think about the ROI per hour in what we are looking for. You could spend an hour doing all those things you value but instead, you are so busy doing stuff that you think you have to do and yet those things are denying you the chance to get the ROI that you desire from each hour of your life.

How Do You Interact With the People Around You?

Let us shift the perspective a little on this. When you are out and you are interacting with the human beings around you, how do you treat them? Now I have been on both sides of this. I have been the kind of person who has treated people really well, and I have been treated really well. And I have been the kind of guy, by accident when I am not my best self, and someone says something and I am pissed and use not-so-positive words to describe that person. And afterwards I realize that I didn’t treat that person well, I can do better than that!

To change the perspective on how you treat humans, think about how you would treat a person if you found out that they only had five days to live and you cared about that person. Would you treat that person any differently if you had such information? Would be a little kinder to them? Would you celebrate something they did right? Would you be more loving and supportive to them? Would you be willing to support them in their journey?

All we have to do is shift our perspective. We shift our perspective of time and say, how do I get a return on investment from this? Would you help someone with only a week left do something that they have always dreamed of? 

This happened to one of my family members recently. My mom was getting to a point where she only had a couple of weeks to live and one of the greatest experiences I have had thus far in my life was to be able to fly out there and spend the final three weeks of her life with her.

And I asked her that question. I said, “Mom, if you could do anything, if you could have any experience, you tell me and I will do everything I can to make it happen.” And she said really? And said, “A double-double from In and Out!” and my wife and I started jogging and we said, “Double, double on the double! Let me figure out how to make this happen because I didn’t know how to FedEx a hamburger from California to Ashfeld. 

Related: 21 Questions To Ask Your Parents While They Are Still Here

But we went to Whole Foods and found a way to make one for her. We asked what else she wanted. She mentioned she wanted a certain kind of pizza and we made it for her, then asked what else she wanted. She said she wanted an orange creamsicle and we said “Coming right up!”

It was pretty simple, but those were the things she really wanted and we pushed long enough to try and get her healthy and we got her to that point of no return and we said, “Hey, if this is her time and these are her last few weeks, how can we give her everything she dreams of?” So, how do you change that perspective and adjust how you treat or interact with other people?

How Would You Alter Your Interactions With the One You Love If They Suddenly Went Missing and You Thought They Were Gone for Good, Then Returned After a While?

This comes down to relationships. Now, one of my friends was at the airport and he looked over and he saw this father just ripping into one of his little kids. My friend sent me a picture and a message about this guy who was being so mean to one of his kids, and he added that he wouldn’t act like that if that kid went missing for a few weeks.

And I thought about that and totally agreed that it was really true. If one of those kids that he is so upset with all of a sudden got diagnosed with a life threatening disease, I bet he would instantly treat them differently. If that kid disappeared for 30 days, he would treat the kid drastically differently. This dad who was being so mean and nasty to the kid would be on his knees crying and praying if that kid disappeared, and when the kid returned it would be the greatest experience in that dad’s life.

And all these things are a matter of shifting perspective. This gives you a radically different experience of things. We have heard stories of people who thought they lost their siblings and twenty or so years later, they meet again and it is so amazing how that relationship instantly changes.

Treat Each Business Client as Though They Were Your Only Client

If you think about this in a business sense, this 100-Day Personal Performance and Business Growth Challenge; from the business sense, how would you treat every client if they were the only client you had and your entire business depended on them? 

I have an odd feeling that the way some of us treat our clients after so much time goes by isn’t the way we would treat them if they were the only client we had and our whole business depended on them.

And if you really looked at every relationship and every person you do business with and in your mind you decide to see them as the only client and you whole business depends on them, you would make sure that you do everything to make them your raving fan. You would do everything you can to rock their world. If you treat each client like that, you would be wildly amazed by what that would do for your business.

Hopefully this is helpful, hopefully this is useful. If it is, share it with someone who needs to see this and I will see you guys tomorrow for day 99 of our 100 Day Personal Performance and Business Growth Challenge!

To Your Success,

Jairek Robbins