School holidays in my world usually means a trip to the cinemas.
As my kids are in their teenage years they have started to venture out on their own catching buses & trains to meet friends and do whatever it is teenage kids do these days. In my time everything revolved around a soccer ball or a cricket bat. Nowadays? Well, I mostly see teenagers sitting around each other with each of them glued to their phone which leaves me wondering why they bothered to get together in the first place.
But one thing has not changed in my household -the holiday trip to the cinema. Yes we have moved from Disney films (where all parents pretend to be super excited but in reality dread the next 2 hours knowing those 2 hours are never coming back) to action packed films all father’s love watching with their kids.
And often I find films have a unique way of conveying life’s messages which we don’t often take in. Films like the life of George Bailey in ’A Wonderful life’ or something more subtle like the remake of Jumanji where a principal tells his students there is no better time to reflect on life as being in detention. I often wonder what we would achieve in life if we were willing to spend time in detention as adults on a regular basis.
Anyway, we went to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Now there are not many people who have not seen any of the Indiana franchise movies so I do not need to tell you that Indiana Jones loves, breathes and lives archaeology.
This is a man who knows his history. This is man who can make archaeology exciting and interesting. This is also a man who put his work way ahead of anything else in his life.
And as he is about to retire what would be important to him?
You would think that this extraordinary man, who can take more beatings than anyone else I know, who is willing to risk life and limb to find out the power of history would be absolutely consumed if he had the chance to go back in time in a time machine. Where would he go and what would he see? I can imagine him spending days agonising over this.
But in the film (spoiler alert – don’t read this paragraph if you want to know nothing about the film) he gives a split-second instantaneous answer and it had nothing to do with archaeology or his work.
He talks about family.
He did not know he had a son until his son was in his mid 20’s (on another archaeology mission) and he had an on-off relationship with Marion all his life.
But when given the chance to view or change history all Indiana Jones wanted was to save his son and his relationship. Family was all that mattered.
In many ways this reminds me of Bonnie Ware, a palliative nurse who looked after those who were about to die. She spoke to them specifically about regrets in life and none of them said they wished they worked more, or wished they had more passion for work.
And maybe that is what we should take away from these nuggets from films and from professionals like Bonnie.
But it is easy to say work less and spend more time with family. Reality is that you need an income to survive and live a life you want. No point spending time with the kids during the holidays if you have no money to take them to the cinemas.
And that is why if you want time freedom, daily financial freedom or wealth it is not the hours you put in that makes the difference. It’s how smart you use the hours you put in the business.
If you want less hours then you need an efficient business model. Efficient businesses usually have great team mixes and systems. They also have clear goals, and key core values.
These are all things that would be covered in a 2-page business plan. Yes, we know you love what you do. We know your life revolves around your work but at what expense? Because the last thing you want is to wish you had is a time machine – because as Dr Jones found out they don’t work out either.
