A New Year’s Spending Challenge

I need you to use your imagination… (I’d instruct you to also close your eyes but then you wouldn’t be able to read what I’m writing, now would you?)

$86,400.00

Let’s imagine that there was a game to be played in which every morning your bank deposited $86,400 into your private account for you to use however you wanted.

Alright, sounds good right? However, just like any game, this one has certain rules.

The first rule would be that everything you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you. You would not be allowed to transfer the money into some other account (i.e. savings, etc.). Also, each morning, another $86,400 would be deposited into your account for that day.

The final rule is this: the bank can end the game, without warning, at any time. The bank could close the account and not let you have a new one.

So with the stage set and the rules explained, I want you to think for a moment of what you would personally do in this situation. Wouldn’t you buy anything and everything that you’ve ever wanted? Not only for yourself, but wouldn’t you also do the same for the people you love? Even, possibly, for people you don’t even know because you would eventually run out of things to buy, wouldn’t you? The bottom line is; you’d try to spend every last cent and not let any of it go to waste, right?

Well, surprise! The game is not fictional! It is reality. Each of us is actually in possession of just such an account, but we just can’t seem to see it.

Magical Bank

The magical bank is time.

Every day, people wake to receive 86,400 seconds deposited into their life account; when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is not credited back to us.

What time we haven’t spent that day is forever lost.

Each morning, our accounts are refilled, but those accounts can dissolve at any time – without warning.

So, what will you do with your 86,400 seconds? Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. We need to enjoy every second of life because the bank may not refill our account tomorrow.

What will you do with yours?

We’ve just made it through 2011 and we’re watching to see what this New Year will have in store for us.

I challenge you: start spending.

This post was inspired by an article that I read in a local newspaper. The article was not credited to anyone.