What Should I Do with My Next Moment? Part I

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What Should I Do with My Next Moment? Part I

Throughout the course of this podcast, I’ve given tips on managing financial resources. But along the way, we take some side trips to talk about the management of an even more important resource – time. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. Yet many people approach time as if it is a limitless resource. And many people use their time thoughtlessly, not realizing that every moment of every day we are choosing how to spend a moment that we will never be able to get back. Never get that moment back. Think about that. Time is a series of moments, a string of experiences. We often arrive at significant moments, like a graduation, a marriage ceremony, the birth of a child, graduation for that child, becoming a grandparent for the first time, the death of loved ones, the diagnosis of an illness – all these are watershed moments that cause us to reflect and often cause us to marvel at how quickly we arrived at those moments. “How did we get here so fast?” we ask. But seeing every moment, not just the significant ones, as a gift, and thinking carefully about how to use those moments can transform the way that you see time. Many of these moments happen within the context of the workplace. The average worker is spending nearly half of their waking hours during the week at work. So today I’ll be sharing a series of 4 questions to help you determine how to spend your time in the workplace. The first question to ask yourself is this, “Is this task worth doing?” A thousand things are going to present themselves to you today and beg for your attention. This may surprise you, but some of those things are simply not worth doing. Now if your supervisor is asking you to do something then it is worth doing. But if you have some measure of authority to determine what is worth doing then take a pause before you jump to your next task. How can you know what is worth giving your attention to and what is not? I’m going to get theological on you for a moment but hang with me. What do you think you were put on this earth to work on? Based on your particular skills, based on the opportunities before you, based on the things you enjoy doing, what do you think you were made to do in the workplace? Hard question, isn’t it? Take a stab at writing out a sentence that summarizes it as best as you can. Once you have this, we’ll translate it to the workplace. I’ll share mine with you to help get your wheels turning. The calling on my life is to teach people how to make God their greatest treasure. That’s incredibly broad, but I believe that is what God created me to do. I believe God has given me gifts of teaching. He’s also given me enjoyment dealing with people. He’s also given me a love for interacting with finances. So, if I can use finance as a vehicle to teach people that there is an even greater treasure out there than what we can see and touch, I will consider my life having been used for the purposes for which God created me. So, if I’m trying to decide whether to spend time putting together this Podcast, I have to ask myself, is this something that can help me teach others how to make God their greatest treasure? I believe that it does, so that’s why I keep doing it. But even in those tasks that are routine, like answering an email to make a decision, or when I’m meeting with a co-worker to help them grow in their skills, or when I’m interacting with a vendor regarding a new product, or when I’m talking to a potential new client, that calling remains in the back of my mind. So, you see, there are times when that calling is being fulfilled directly, but more times than not it is indirect. But if I see something that isn’t going to help toward that great goal of my life, I need to pass on it. Perhaps you are called to the field of medicine because you want to make sick people well. Or maybe you are called to provide valuable things to people who need them (in other words “sales”). Think about your calling, the vocation that you are on Earth to accomplish and make sure to every extent possible the tasks you do on a day-to-day basis somehow further that calling. There’s not a formula that can spit out an answer as to what things in the workplace are worth doing and what aren’t. This isn’t an exact science. But articulating what your main goal is can give you a starting point to evaluate what is worth doing. You’ll likely find yourself tweaking that goal over time, but having something to work with is better than aimlessly spending your time on whatever task happens to come your way. A second question to ask is “Am I the one to do this task?” This weekend we got back late from a quick trip snow skiing in St. Louis (by the way, yes you heard me right – there is snow skiing to be found it St. Louis). We were cleaning out the car and I noticed that my youngest daughter had left some trash in the back of the car. In with Wilson house, we believe that caring for the things that we have is one way that we demonstrate thanksgiving and worship to God, and caring includes putting up what we take out. I could have cleaned out the remaining trash on my daughter’s behalf. It would have been much more efficient to do so. But she is the one who needs to do it so she can learn this valuable lesson yet again. I could have done it, but it was more appropriate for her to do it. There will be a host of times, particularly if you are a supervisor, when you need to let one of your team do things that need to be done. Not because you can’t but because your time should be spent on things that your team can’t do. I find this very applicable in the volunteer world as well. You can’t be on every board and volunteer for every good thing – there simply isn’t enough time. Maybe you do need to coach your youngest in their sport, or maybe it’s actually better for you to let someone else do it. So, as tasks come your way, ask yourself, “Am I the one best suited to do this?” Question number three: When should this task be done. This may be the most important of the three. There are many, many things that you will find are worth doing and are consistent with your purpose in life. But you cannot do them all at one time. It is human nature to live in a state of misplaced urgency. We make things urgent that aren’t, and we tend not to give urgency to things that genuinely need it. So, determining when something needs to be done is critical. We are not trying to determine when we want something to be done, but when it actually needs to be done. When is the real deadline? Not the preferred deadline, but the real deadline? This can keep you from thinking everything does not need to be done immediately. So much stress and anxiety in the workplace stems from making everything urgent. If everything is urgent, then nothing is urgent. I’ve got a quick grid you can use to determine urgency that I’ll share in the next episode. I think it will be helpful to free yourself from the tyranny of the urgent. And in the next episode I’ll also share the final question to ask yourself as you are trying to decide what to do today. Well, you’ve taken some of your valuable time to listen to this podcast, and we are truly grateful. We really do see banking as a platform for service. If you feel like your financial institution doesn’t serve you well, we’d love for you to give us a shot. We’re not perfect, but we are aiming to foster a vibrant financial community where we are meeting our clients’ financial needs consistently, where we are building meaningful financial relationships with those clients, and where we are earning financial loyalty from those clients. If that sounds refreshing to you, start a conversation with us by visiting Foundationbank.org. We also hope you’ll subscribe to this podcast to it in your favorite podcast app and share it on social media. Until our next episode, God bless you.

-President Chad P. Wilson, CFP

Today’s episode of “Money Matters” was written and recorded by President Chad P. Wilson of Foundation Bank/McKenzie Banking Company on February 25, 2025. This episode does not constitute financial advice. Please consult a financial professional to discuss your specific needs. Any rates mentioned are subject to change and are accurate as of the recording date. Foundation Bank/MBC is an Equal Housing Lender, Member FDIC.