A few days ago I was lucky enough to hear the world's greatest living explorer speak about his early years, and how it came to be that he circumnavigated the globe on foot.
It was the best talk I have ever had the good fortune to hear.
Funny. Very, very funny. Acerbic, extremely clever and totally original – after all, it was about his unique life, and how it came to be.
For those of you who don't know, I'm talking about the British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes – the sprightly septuagenarian – who doesn't look, behave or move the way a 71-year-old "should".
And he's still going – just six months ago, Sir Ranulph completed the six-day, 265km gruelling run across the Moroccan desert – the Marathon des Sables.
He has written books, raised millions for charities, and continues to plot and plan to beat the Norwegians to various firsts – the latest of which he won't reveal.
The room was euphoric. Energy levels sky high. "Yes I can" type pheromones were flooding out of people's pores.
But once things settled – over lunch and coffee – you literally saw the same people hunch back into old behaviour patterns, aspirations and hum drum lives.
Conversations changed to focus on careers, progression and deals.
Not everyone is Ranulph Fiennes. But, to a person, his audience was blown away by what he has done. They wanted a piece of his life. But they lacked his courage.
"Take six months off? My boss would say don't bother coming back."
It's not easy turning your back on paid work, or a familiar life structure.
But we don't need to take years off to do magnificent things. How about rejigging the importance you attribute to "work" and "working hours" in your day and week.
We tend to prioritise "work" when deciding to make the most of our time. I believe this is a mistake. I'm not detracting from the importance to focus on career at certain phases of life – no, what I'm saying is that we tend to prioritise our working hours – at the cost of all other hours, and what we could be doing with them.
Think for a moment: 9 to 5 or 8 to 6 – whatever yours are – you still have at least 12 if not more hours with which you can learn, do, create, and – yes – sleep.
Some people earn degrees within this time, invent businesses, write award-winning books. Others get super fit, learn a skill that becomes their livelihood, or just learn for the joy of it.
Today I'm inviting you to look at how you spend your time, and how you prioritise work over your life's work.
We might not have made it to the three-hour working day that the economist John Maynard Keynes stated would be enough – this from his 1930 essay "Economic possibilities for our grandchildren".
In it Keynes speculated that we would be eight times better off come 2030 than in 1930, and that we'd be wondering how to fill our time, because we'd be working only 15-hour weeks.
We're much better off, but the 15-hour week – that didn't happen, did it? And it appears that the better educated, better paid you are, the more hours you'll be putting in at the office.
This is what two economists – Mark Aguiar and Erik Hurst – found when they looked at how work and leisure time evolved for Americans between 1965 and 2003. They also found that overall, Americans had the equivalent of an extra five to 10 weeks of holiday per year, assuming a 40-hour work week, in 2003 compared to 1965. Wow. What would you do to have an extra two months off work, or the equivalent of?
Their study found that men had six to eight hours per week more to do with as they wish, and women four to eight hours per week. Add it all up and you can see how much time that translates to over the course of a year.
So even if you cannot embark on months or years of thrill-seeking adventure, take a leaf out of Sir Ranulph's book – and see that there are so many ways to live. So many ways to earn a living – in his case from the sponsorship money raised, books written and talks given. More important is that he touches people's lives – whether through the charities he supports, or by talking to groups of mostly middle-aged portly men who dream of being a bit like him.
Figure out what you want as your life's rewards. Bottom line is: you have time. Make the most of it.
Nima Abu Wardeh is the founder of the personal finance website cashy.me. You can reach her at nima@cashy.me and find her on Twitter at @nimaabuwardeh.
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Use Sir Ranulph Fiennes as inspiration and reach out and claim your heart’s desire
Nima Abu Wardeh is inspired by the adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes to live a life filled with possibility.
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