Author Kent Healy on ”Managing Time: Our Greatest Asset”

This is episode #33 with Kent Healy, the co-author of The Success Principles for Teens[i] with Jack Canfield and the co-creator of The Uncommon Life[ii] where you can go to learn more about this phenomenal writer, thinker, entrepreneur and now family man. You can listen to the podcast here or watch Kent's visuals on YouTube.

Welcome to the “Neuroscience Meets SEL” podcast, my name is Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports and the workplace for the past 20 years. Today we have a flashback interview with Kent Healy, someone I discovered by chance, over 14 years ago, when I was researching the most popular books for teens and success, before the release of my first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed. [iii]I came across Jack Canfield’s “Success Principles for Teens” and since I owned his National Bestseller The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,[iv] (if you have never looked at this book—I highly recommend it). After seeing Kent’s connection to Jack Canfield,[v] who is the co-author of the Chicken Soup for Soul Books with Mark Victor Hansen, I thought I had better find out who Kent Healy was, and get to know him better. Back then I wasn’t on Facebook, and don’t remember how I searched to learn more, but I did find out that Kent had written a few books, and he was in his 20s.

After a few minutes of thinking about the time I had wasted in my 20s, before I started to manage my time, I read his books and was blown away by the dedication, awareness and motivation that this young man had at an early age. Since I was always looking for high performers, I knew that he could help inspire some of the young people I was working with at the time, and when I needed help with launching Achieveit360 (2012), Kent was the first person I asked to say a few words of inspiration to help this next generation of learners.

I hope you enjoy Kent’s thoughts on how the most successful people in the world manage their time, our greatest asset, and think of some ways that you can better manage your time in 2020.

Kent Healy: Welcome to AchieveIT360.com my name is Kent Healey. I am the co author of the Success Principles for Teens and the cocreator of TheUncommonlife.com. So I assume since you're on this website you're looking for more, maybe more from yourself, more from your life. I really respect that-- the challenge is, you know, in order to get more, we often start with this question, do I have what it takes to get me to that next level? The problem with this question is it usually leads to a game of comparison, a game that we usually end up losing. So it's one thing to look at somebody else and appreciate and respect, you know, the talents and the skills that they've built. It's another to look at it and then compare yourself to those talents and skills that you're still in the process of building. Basically to say that you're not a leader is to compare yourself to somebody else and focus only on those differences.

But if we had to focus on what was most common, one thing that we often overlook is the fact that we all have the same amount of time. It doesn't matter who the person is, you know, whether they're a successful athlete, or a successful business owner or successful in any other way. It's not that they have more hours in a day or more days in a week. It's that they use that time extremely well. And this is why I always say that talent is overrated. So hands down, time is the greatest asset that we have. Time is really the great equalizer more than anything else. It's how we use our minutes that matter most. Successful individuals realize that time is more valuable than skill, than money, than almost any other resource there is. Because with enough time you can hone skills, you can raise capital, you can nurture relationships, and you can summon whatever is required to lead an exceptional life or to achieve the specific goal that you're after.

So you may ask, well, is it really that important to obsess about the seconds and minutes that make up my day? Well, rather than just give you my opinion, let's look at some specific numbers. So I don't know about you, but I've been guilty of saying, eh, whatever, it's only 10 minutes. Well, in the course of a year, that's two and a half days. In five years, that's almost two weeks. But 10 minutes is such a small period of time. I mean, let's look at something more realistic, like 30 minutes. Maybe that's the length of a TV show that you love to watch. Well, just 30 minutes every day in one year is a week in five years, that's 38 days. So you can see how time adds up and why it really matters. So what's really alarming though is the number of people that really can't answer or identify where their time goes, especially in increments of say like five to 10 minutes.

I mean, just think of yesterday, for example, what were you doing at 2:00 PM? You know, it's hard to really identify and it gets even worse the longer we go back. So the problem is we usually write off these lost minutes as no big deal, but it really does add up. I mean, let's use this fun example. So imagine that every morning a deposit of $86,400 was added to your checking account, but with each deposit came two unbreakable rules, number one, at the end of each day, your account balance is completely wiped, meaning that you know everything you don't spend and on that day disappears. No transfers allowed. Number two, the game can end at any time without warning. So the questions you have to ask yourself is, what would you do with this money? How might you act differently? And what would your days look like? Okay, so truth be told, this is not an exercise in finance.

It's actually much more sobering than that. Metaphorically, this is your game of life. So the daily deposits I mentioned of 84,600 are actually the number of seconds that we're given each day. So money or not, the same rules, right I mean, at the end of the day, we don't get to use those seconds in a different way and the game may end at any point in time. So we have to be in the moment and appreciate every second that we're given. That's what makes the difference. So I'm currently in my twenties now and when I look back over the last 10 years or so, you know, I'm very pleased with the amount of stuff I've been able to do in that period of time. But I'm also smart enough to know that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. There's a lot of people who are born with more natural talent and ability than I am.

But it's funny that this awareness has actually changed my life in a surprisingly positive way. Instead of focusing on this like obscure, immeasurable, and inheritable concept of talent, I've turned my attention to maximizing what we all have that's equal. And that's time. So over the years I've developed this healthy obsession for these 84,000 seconds that I get given in a day. And that to me has made all the difference. So here's the thing. No one else can make you care. No one else can make you care about these 84,600 seconds that you're given every day. But in the end, that is what makes the difference. It's not innate talent. The best tips and the best insights will do absolutely nothing if not proceeded by the willingness to take action and apply what it is that we learn. So let's stop looking at things in which we can't control and start focusing on what we can.

It's the passing of time combined with just an effort and a commitment to be a better person is all that we need is all the opportunity necessary to accomplish the goals that we want. We just have to demonstrate that commitment each and every day. Look at nature, even the largest mountains, the hardest rocks are no test against the tenacity of time. And the reality is we have far more time than we know what to do with or that we care to admit. So do you have what it takes to succeed? Well, if you use your time well, the answer of course is yes. If you could just spare 15 minutes each day to work towards your goal, then that equals 3.8 full days at the end of the year. That's a lot of time to start, you know, building a new skill to start networking with other successful, extraordinary individuals to start raising capital or to start doing whatever necessary for you to reach a goal. The only question remaining is, will you, nobody can force you to take action, but most importantly, will you stop focusing on this arbitrary idea of talent and start focusing on what you do have control of it, which is time. I hope you enjoyed this video and be sure to check out the other amazing resources here at achieveit360.com 

 RESOURCES:

[i] The Success Principles for Teens by Jack Canfield and Kent Healy (April 15, 2008) https://www.amazon.com/Success-Principles-Teens-Where-Want/dp/0757307272/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2R17R5H9SJ7ZG&keywords=the+success+principles+for+teens+by+jack+canfield&qid=1577812252&s=books&sprefix=the+success+principles+for+%2Cstripbooks%2C186&sr=1-1

[ii] www.theuncommonlife.com

[iii]The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi (September 15, 2008)  https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership/dp/1604940336

[iv] The Success Principles by Jack Canfield (10th Edition January, 2015) https://www.amazon.com/Success-Principles-TM-Anniversary-Where/dp/0062364286/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AYWLT8GZ525P&keywords=the+success+principles+by+jack+canfield&qid=1577812462&s=books&sprefix=the+success+principl%2Cstripbooks%2C189&sr=1-3

[v] https://www.jackcanfield.com/