Sha Nacino Happy Friday,
I just arrived in the Maldives a couple of hours ago.
I took Singapore Airlines from Manila to Singapore (about 4 hours flight), then Singapore to Maldives (about 5 hours).
On the way to our hotel in Male, Maldives, I shared the hotel van with a retired couple from Singapore.
They were sweet, nice couple. I learned they travel a lot now that they are retired.
They also said Maldives is very expensive but they love it here.
I have no idea how expensive Maldives is because I’m fortunate to be hosted by the organizers who took care of my flights, accommodation, and everything in between. I’m so grateful and I’m not taking anything for granted.
I spoke at a conference in the Maldives in 2019, and they invited me back to speak this year.
To say I feel pampered in the Maldives is an understatement.
To be more accurate, I feel luxuriously pampered and loved.
While unpacking my luggage, I beamed and I caught myself saying,
“I’m soooooo in love with my life! Thank You, Lord!”
I arrived in the hotel at almost 12 midnight local time in the Maldives (that’s 3AM in the Philippines).
Guess who greeted me at the lobby?!
The organizing core team.
They’re so hands on, warm, and hospitable. Truly world-class! Thank you! 🙂
Today, I want to pose this important question:
Where do you invest your time, energy, and resources?
While at the airport in Manila earlier, I passed by this boutique shop.
I checked the bags and the prices. One bag caught my eye and I asked myself, “Is it a good buy?”
Context: I’m not a bag person. My well-meaning friends advised me to buy branded bags and I finally saw the value of buying one.
When I was about to buy one, I received a brand new Coach bag as a gift!
I was so happy. I hugged it. I thanked the giver and I said, “This is my first luxury bag!”
The person who gifted me the bag said, “Sha, it’s not a luxury bag.” Hehe!
For me, it’s a luxury bag. It’s now my favorite bag and I use it everywhere! 🙂
Back to the boutique.
I remembered how I just hired a brilliant, top-notch, in-demand coach.
The amount I paid for a one-time 90-minute coaching session with her via Zoom was more than the cost of any of the bags I saw in that boutique shop.
To me, hiring her was a no-brainer. In fact, I feel so grateful I got to book a slot in her calendar, which gets filled up easily. She has the answer to something I’ve been trying to figure out since 2019.
You see, everything is about value.
We invest our time, money, and resources in something we perceive as valuable.
But sometimes, we don’t give enough attention to asking ourselves, “Is this valuable? Is this worth my time? Is this worth my money?”
Sometimes, we do things on auto-pilot.
Let me give an example.
Are you on social media? I am.
How much of our time is spent on social media?
According to Statista, As of 2022, the average daily social media usage worldwide is about 2 hours and 27 minutes.
I love Math. So let’s make a simple computation.
2 hours and 27 minutes a day = 73.5 hours in one month.
That’s 9.18 man-days in a month! (one man-day = 8 hours)
110 man-days in a year spent on social media!
My gosh! That’s a lot of wasted time!
We don’t even realize it. We can get so addicted to our phones.
Is social media really free? If you’re not intentional in using it, t’s not free!
In fact, it’s extremely expensive! It can potentially cost us 110 man-days in a year!
Compute how much you’re earning per day (8 hours of work) and multiply that by 110.
That’s the amount of money you are wasting on consuming social media. Ouch!
I like social media because I get to share value through my content and I get to connect with people.
But I am also guilty of mindlessly scrolling social media sometimes.
That’s why I decided not to consume FB and IG from Feb 22 (Ash Wednesday) until April 9 (Easter Sunday).
That’s a total of 46 days!
I will also not post on FB and IG the entire month of March.
So far, I haven’t missed anything.
In fact, I feel my mind is amazingly clearer. There’s no unnecessary mind clutter.
So clear that I was able to figure out a formula on how companies can build a culture of care and excellence and drive results in terms of increased creativity, productivity, engagement, wellbeing, etc! This is what I’m going to share during the convention here in the Maldives.
I’ve also read studies and researches by ivy league professors and authors from Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, etc., that support the formula I created. I even finished taking up short courses on Positive Psychology at University of Pennsylvania.
The good news is, we can design the life we want.
Two questions that will be very helpful are:
What can you give up so you can have more time to do what really matters?
Here are a few examples:
- Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok
- Chismis (talking badly about another person who is not present)
- Ruminating about what went wrong
Where will you invest your time, energy, and resources?
Here are a few examples to consider:
- reading a good book
- listening to great podcasts
- learning a new skill
- exercising
- making time to reply to a friend
- making time to date a family member
- sending a thank you note to a mentor or coach
- feeling your feelings and being gentle and curious about how you can heal
- journaling what you’re grateful for
- meditating or praying
- savoring what made you feel loved during the day
- watching the sunset (and sunrise if you’re an early riser)
- binge reading my TuesDate newsletters *wink
What would you like to add to the list? 🙂
I wish you fearless possibilities!
Cheers,
Sha Nacino
Keynote Speaker l Author l The Possibility Igniter
P.S. If you doubt yourself, may this song inspire you. I sang this at the Global Authors Summit 2019 in front of about 500 people live, in-person.
During the tech rehearsal the day before the event, I was so nervous and I doubted myself if I should sing or not. I remember calling up my coach and asking him, “Do you really think I can do this?”
He replied, “Definitely, Sha! You have a beautiful voice.”
When I sang that song live the next day, I saw so many people crying. I’m not sure why they cried! Hehe!
Later on, I learned from the participants that they felt every word in that song and they were so moved. I hope the song will speak to you! 🙂
You got this!
