If you’d asked a prisoner, some would say, ” I’m doing time” at least that’s what they use to tell me.

Like prisoners, some of us go through life just doing the time instead of using the time.

Here’s why:

We complain about getting up to go to work, we complain while we are at work, and we complain when we leave work. We repeat this cycle five, six, sometimes even seven days a week.

Let’s be frank, a life as such doesn’t add up to God’s design for a people created in His image and likeness. And although some of us know this, many of us will continue to live life as if we were doing a life sentence—like a prisoner.

As entrepreneurs, we’re often asked why we decided this path. Freedom is one of the most popular reasons and with that is the entrepreneur’s ability to make money. At one point, that was my reason. However, with almost two years since I started this journey, I now say it’s because of TIME.

What is Time?

Time is a gift, but it’s also an indiscriminate resource that can be experienced either as a curse or a blessing. Every one of us rich, poor, black and white receive the same amount: 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours in a day. The only difference is how we decide to use it. And that’s a personal choice.
Freedom of time is one the primary reason why some people decide to ditch their 9-5 job to become an entrepreneur. It was for me.
When I did the calculation, I spent a lot of my time preparing to get to work, traveling to work, being at work, and then traveling back home from work.

This cycle left me with little or no time to do the things that really mattered.  I decided that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life like that. I didn’t want to continue feeling like I was doing the time.

Entrepreneurship gives me the liberty to use the time as I wish and not as someone else wishes for me. The time that I can use to be with the people I love, doing the things that I love, while making money.

I accepted the fact that the only way to get to that place was to have freedom of my time. If I truly wanted to take control of time I had on earth, it would have to start with a decision…. a decision that ignites ACTION.

Time, like money, is meant to be spent. Unlike money, it cannot be saved or hoarded. The scripture tells us that are “days are numbered”. This is why our time is so much more valuable than money. Everything we do in life happens within the gift of the time allotted to us. Time will continue to do what it was designed to do: move forward. It waits on no one.

While prisoner “do the time” because they don’t have any other choice, you still do. You have the power to decide how you are going to spend the remainder of your time on earth. You have the power to decide if you will continue to “do the time” or “use the time”. No one can make that decision for you.

Ask yourself today: Am I doing the time or using the time?

If you have discovered that you are doing the  time, I want to encourage you that this doesn’t have to be the case. Don’t be a prisoner in time. Choose to use your time as you wish. Choose to harness the power in time and became all that you were created to be in the image and likeness of God. Anything good worth creating will take time? So why not start now to use your time to create, build, give, and serve. We are all born2bless.