How much to do value your stuff?  OK, I know you’re asking “what do you mean by stuff?”  Fair question on your part. Let me answer it in two ways.

The first way is all your material possessions.  I have gone through a lot of changes over the last year and done some serious soul searching.  I can honestly say that if I can replace it, I don’t really value it that much.

I admit that the lifestyle I live is better than almost everyone else in the world but that is almost part of the problem. Realistically, if you are reading this, you can make the same statement. The only material things that I have that I really value are pictures and family videos and a few “hand-me-down” type items that have some sentimental value.  Other than that it is just stuff.

The second type of stuff that I refer to, the important stuff, is time.  You may not think of time as stuff, but tell me you have not answered the question “What are you doing today?” at least once by saying “I have all kinds of stuff to do.”

So why am I tired of everyone taking my stuff?  Because the stuff I am talking about is the important stuff – time.  Honestly, “everyone” includes me as well.  Remember those material things I was talking about … well they take time away from me.  You have to clean them, you have to put fuel in them, sometimes you have to clean out their gutters and quite often you need to store them somewhere because you don’t really need them (at least not right now anyway.)

We only have so much time.  My wife and I are nearing the end of a week long vacation. It’s the first one we have taken in a long time that was not scheduled around other stuff. In fact, the only stuff of our own that we have with us is the stuff that we could fit in our suitcase.  All the other stuff around us belongs to someone else.

This has been one of the best weeks we have ever had.  I think it’s because we have lots of time and very little stuff.  I don’t know why we have not done more of this.  I do know that we are going to do more in the future.

We have been trying to figure out how we can do more of this “time” thing as we both near the half century mark.  A lot of time has already been used up, but God willing, we still have a good amount of time left.

Now that I understand this time concept related to stuff, I have a new outlook on life. You see, I don’t need a lot of stuff to enjoy life.  I need time.  Time with my family, time with my friends and time to enjoy the great world that we live in.

Michelle and I have been using this week to plan out 2013.  We both agree that time is the thing we want to schedule into our calendar more than anything.  I know many of you will also be scheduling out 2013 during the next few weeks.

Do yourself a favor and think about the “stuff” that really adds value to your life, the stuff that really matters.  I know that there is not one person out there that does not need to ask the following questions:

• What do I need to do more of?
• What do I need to do less of?
• What do I need to start doing?
• What do I need to stop doing?

So the real question is “what are you going to do?”

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Barry Smith   www.buildingwhatmatters.com   12/7/12            photo by author