RPF0389-Banish_These_Two_Phrases_From_Your_Vocabulary
00:00:00.000 | There are two statements in the English language which are common to all of us.
00:00:07.560 | I've said them, you've said them, people all around us on a daily basis use these two statements.
00:00:13.660 | But I believe that if you really want to make progress in your life, you need to recognize
00:00:20.280 | how damaging these two statements are and eradicate them from your life.
00:00:26.920 | I challenge you to eliminate these two phrases from your vocabulary.
00:00:32.280 | Phrase number one, "I don't have time."
00:00:37.880 | Phrase number two, "I can't afford that."
00:00:43.280 | Time and money are alternate forms of currency.
00:00:46.060 | We use time to make money, most of us, and then we use money to buy time.
00:00:51.520 | So they're closely related.
00:00:52.940 | The more impactful of these, by the way, I believe is not the basis of money, but rather
00:00:58.640 | the factor of time.
00:01:01.740 | One of the most damaging phrases that you can use in your life is, "I don't have time."
00:01:11.060 | Two reasons why you should eliminate this phrase and also the phrase, "I can't afford
00:01:15.860 | that."
00:01:16.860 | Number one, these two phrases are simply not true.
00:01:21.640 | They're never true.
00:01:24.440 | Now obviously that's a big statement.
00:01:27.660 | Do you doubt me?
00:01:29.320 | First, you can't actually have time.
00:01:32.740 | Time is not something that you possess.
00:01:34.280 | Time is an experience that you have.
00:01:36.580 | It's a bit of a mystery.
00:01:38.060 | The philosophers work to pull it apart and try to understand it.
00:01:41.580 | It's one of those things that we experience and you know exactly what time is until you
00:01:45.880 | sit down with a pen and paper and try to actually write out a definition of time.
00:01:52.500 | But you don't have more or less time than anybody else.
00:01:57.060 | You have the same 168 hours in your week that I do in my week.
00:02:06.320 | You have the same 24 hours in your day that I do in my day.
00:02:12.040 | And we have the same amount of time as every other person in the world.
00:02:17.300 | So you can't have time.
00:02:20.320 | You can only use the time you have.
00:02:24.620 | Now you say, "Obviously I know that.
00:02:27.580 | That's not what I meant, Joshua.
00:02:28.580 | I meant I don't have time, meaning I've got too many important things to do so therefore
00:02:32.100 | I can't do whatever it is that I don't want to do."
00:02:39.460 | Well here I point out to you that you actually don't have anything that's more important
00:02:47.220 | than what you're doing unless you decide to give it more importance.
00:02:53.720 | No matter the urgent task that's on your plate today, no matter the urgent project or priority,
00:03:00.660 | the pressing deadline, no matter the task, project, or deadline, it is negotiable if
00:03:09.820 | the stakes were high enough.
00:03:11.220 | If you got a phone call right now that your son or daughter was in the hospital and had
00:03:16.840 | been in a serious car accident and might live only out the hour, you'd be in the car headed
00:03:22.140 | to the hospital as quickly as you could be.
00:03:25.780 | No matter who you are, it's all a matter of priorities and not a matter of time.
00:03:35.940 | You always have enough time to do the things that are the most important to you.
00:03:41.660 | One of my favorite maxims of life is, "There's never enough time to do everything, but there's
00:03:47.320 | always enough time to do the most important things."
00:03:52.660 | So the statement, "I don't have time," is not true.
00:03:57.060 | What about, "I can't afford that"?
00:03:58.700 | Well, this one isn't as clear as, "I don't have time," but I think it's also...
00:04:04.500 | We can also apply those same two arguments to it.
00:04:08.500 | This is going to sound very metaphysical, but it's not true.
00:04:15.580 | The phrase, "I can't afford that," is actually a phrase that has very little meaning.
00:04:19.620 | First, who says what you can and can't afford?
00:04:24.780 | You're the one who has control of your budget.
00:04:28.320 | You don't run your budget based upon an article in Money Magazine or a percentage of advice
00:04:34.660 | that Joshua Sheets gives on radical personal finance.
00:04:38.040 | You choose what to spend your money on, and you're always going to spend money on the
00:04:42.220 | things that you value, on the things that are the most important to you.
00:04:46.300 | It's also not true because money is literally unlimited.
00:04:52.500 | Money is created, and there are always ways to go and get more money.
00:04:58.340 | If the idea is good enough, if the need is grand enough, if the project is compelling
00:05:03.140 | enough, the money can flow in.
00:05:04.620 | So the phrase, "I can't afford that," it really doesn't have a lot of meaning to it.
00:05:11.660 | Now of course, as with time, I understand what you mean when you say, "I don't have
00:05:15.500 | time," and I understand what you mean when you say, "I can't afford that."
00:05:21.900 | But the meaning that you think is there is actually not there.
00:05:26.780 | These statements have a lot less meaning when you sit down and examine them.
00:05:33.940 | But the big reason why I think you should reject these statements is they're simply
00:05:38.620 | not useful.
00:05:41.780 | They're not true, and they're not useful to you.
00:05:46.740 | The reason they're not useful is they don't need to action.
00:05:51.260 | Saying, "I don't have time," is a negative statement, and your mind immediately stops.
00:05:57.380 | Well, I can reject this opportunity because, well, I don't have time.
00:06:05.580 | You won't go beyond that.
00:06:07.540 | If you say, "I can't afford it," you'll probably just quit, and you won't go beyond that.
00:06:16.660 | These ending negative statements are not useful because they don't lead to a solution.
00:06:22.180 | And if you've got a problem, you should lead with a solution.
00:06:25.740 | And the way you do that is you ask a question, or you at least start with an honest statement.
00:06:34.020 | So I urge you to banish these two phrases from your life because they're not true, and
00:06:39.500 | they're not useful.
00:06:41.140 | And I urge you to supplement and utilize some truthful, useful statements instead.
00:06:49.020 | Here are some ideas to get your brain working, but of course, you'll have to come up with
00:06:53.260 | the ones that are appropriate to your situation.
00:06:56.460 | Instead of saying, "I don't have time," try an honest, truthful statement like, "I don't
00:07:04.660 | want to make time for that activity right now."
00:07:11.220 | Instead of saying, "I don't have time," say, "What you're proposing is not important enough
00:07:16.820 | for me at the moment to dedicate the time to it."
00:07:23.300 | Instead of saying, "I don't have time," say, "I have other priorities in my life right
00:07:28.140 | now that are more important to me, and so I'm choosing to spend time on those other
00:07:33.480 | things instead of what you're proposing."
00:07:36.420 | Or just, if you need to give a flat-out no, just simply say, "What you're proposing is
00:07:45.180 | not important enough for me to dedicate any of my precious time toward it."
00:07:52.340 | You don't have to be completely abrupt and brusque with your statements to annoy people
00:07:58.500 | and offend people in order to be honest.
00:08:01.960 | You can find an honest, truthful statement that would indicate the reality, which is,
00:08:09.140 | it's not important enough for you to use some of your time in that manner.
00:08:17.080 | Instead of saying, "I can't afford that," say, "I don't have the money to pay for that
00:08:23.280 | right now."
00:08:25.780 | Very small difference, but even just that slight difference, still a statement, not
00:08:32.720 | as powerful as a question, but even that slight difference is much more empowering.
00:08:39.040 | Saying "I don't have the money to pay for that right now" points out the problem, which
00:08:43.600 | is lack of money, not "I can't afford that," which is some kind of weird vice thing that
00:08:51.440 | jumps on you and that you're pretending I don't have control over this.
00:08:56.800 | If what you mean by "I can't afford that" is it's not allocated in the budget, say that.
00:09:02.640 | Say, "I haven't budgeted the money for that right now," or "I haven't allocated the money
00:09:07.140 | for that right now."
00:09:09.560 | You'll find that as your wealth grows, you'll need to say that more and more because you
00:09:13.600 | can't truthfully say, "I can't afford that."
00:09:16.560 | You can't truthfully even say, "I don't have the money for that," and you have to truthfully
00:09:20.360 | say, "I haven't allocated the money for that right now," or "I haven't decided to budget
00:09:25.540 | the money for that right now."
00:09:26.640 | Now, maybe you don't have the money.
00:09:33.720 | That's okay.
00:09:36.080 | A more truthful statement would be something like this.
00:09:38.980 | It's not important enough for me to figure out a way to come up with the money for that
00:09:42.200 | right now.
00:09:43.200 | Again, doubt me.
00:09:45.560 | I'll pick on your kids again.
00:09:47.100 | Your kid has a terminal illness, but there's a cure available.
00:09:54.000 | I could put any dollar amount on that cure, and you would figure out a way to come up
00:10:03.400 | with the money.
00:10:12.720 | Where there's a will, there's a way.
00:10:16.440 | When people have a pressing, urgent need that they need help with, people tend to be resourceful.
00:10:28.800 | A statement like, "It's not important enough for me to figure out a way to come up with
00:10:32.240 | the money for that right now," is a good statement, or "I haven't figured out how to pay for that
00:10:37.520 | yet," or "I don't know what to do to earn the money for that at the moment."
00:10:47.520 | These are much more accurate statements, but they're still statements, so here's how you
00:10:52.280 | turn them into questions.
00:10:55.680 | A question would be, instead of saying, "I don't have time," say, "That's not a priority
00:11:01.380 | for me right now," and ask yourself, "Should it be?
00:11:05.360 | Is that a priority for me right now?"
00:11:08.040 | If you find that in answer to that question, it should be a priority or it is a priority,
00:11:14.400 | then you ask yourself this, "How can I make time for that right now?"
00:11:23.880 | You see this all over the place.
00:11:25.420 | People ignore their family until their life is falling apart, and then all of a sudden,
00:11:29.280 | they start making time to spend with those they love.
00:11:32.640 | They ignore their brother until all of a sudden, their brother is diagnosed with a terminal
00:11:36.360 | illness, and then all of a sudden, they start making the phone calls.
00:11:41.100 | People have a tendency to ignore their health until they're diagnosed with heart disease,
00:11:45.080 | and the doctor says, "You must solve this problem or you will die," and then all of
00:11:51.720 | a sudden, they're the most committed, healthy people that you find.
00:11:55.440 | Guess what?
00:11:58.120 | You can control that.
00:12:01.280 | So ask yourself a question, "How can I make time for this activity?
00:12:05.840 | If this is important to me, how can I make time for this activity?"
00:12:10.820 | Because a question like that leads to your thinking about it in the proper light.
00:12:19.140 | You're being honest with yourself.
00:12:22.800 | You might say, "I can't have time," and you might really mean it, and it might actually
00:12:28.720 | be true in the sense that your schedule is so packed that there's no calendar space available
00:12:35.380 | for you to insert this activity.
00:12:41.260 | So if you ask yourself the question, "How can I make time?"
00:12:44.800 | It empowers you to make a change that leads to the result that you want.
00:12:50.480 | Remember, you got to pay the price before you get the reward.
00:12:54.680 | You've got to plant before you reap.
00:13:00.240 | You got to perform the action that leads to the result.
00:13:05.620 | With your money, ask yourself, "Is there a way that I could afford this?
00:13:09.760 | Is there a way that I could come up with the money for this?
00:13:12.160 | Is there a way that I could earn the money for this?"
00:13:16.620 | From little numbers to big numbers, the young man, about an 11-year-old boy in my neighborhood
00:13:22.840 | here who washes my car, he came to me this last week.
00:13:27.720 | Man, you got to admire his gutsiness.
00:13:31.240 | Comes to me and usually charges me 10 bucks to do my car wash, which is a little bit of
00:13:34.880 | an overprice, but I'm happy to pay it because it's supporting my local entrepreneur and
00:13:38.640 | it gives me a chance to talk to him and to encourage him.
00:13:41.640 | But he came to me and he said to me, "Hey, listen.
00:13:44.520 | Today, would you mind, I'd like to charge you $12 instead of $10 because there's this
00:13:48.860 | sweater that I want down at the store and I'd really like to buy it and I need $12 for
00:13:52.600 | it."
00:13:53.600 | Now, I had a little lesson with him about providing value for the customer instead of
00:13:59.200 | just asking, but at the end of the day, he walked away with his $12 in his pocket to
00:14:03.320 | buy his sweater that he wanted and I wasn't unhappy to pay it.
00:14:08.880 | I admired his gutsiness and his clarity.
00:14:11.860 | His gutsiness and his clarity was, "I want this thing.
00:14:14.760 | How can I earn the money to get it?"
00:14:18.040 | You and I could take a lesson from that.
00:14:23.400 | Almost any number that you have, if there's a goal that you have, a financial goal, whether
00:14:29.240 | that's a personal consumption goal for yourself or whether that is a goal for an impact or
00:14:35.920 | something you're trying to fund in the world, almost any number, you can put together a
00:14:42.000 | plan that would earn it.
00:14:45.280 | If it were important enough to you, you'd do it.
00:14:49.720 | Honest, precise language is the starting point of great change.
00:14:59.880 | Seek the truth, start with yourself, and then start to others.
00:15:06.040 | In our world today, truth is becoming and has become a much, much debated topic.
00:15:17.960 | It seems as though people place less and less importance on truth.
00:15:23.960 | Don't let that bother you.
00:15:26.400 | Truth matters today more than ever.
00:15:30.000 | As the one of my favorite quote from me from George Orwell in 1984, "Being in a minority,
00:15:38.280 | even in a minority of one, did not make you mad.
00:15:43.700 | There was truth and there was untruth.
00:15:47.560 | And if you clung to the truth, even against the whole world, you were not mad."
00:15:54.820 | Start with speaking truthfully to yourself.
00:15:57.080 | I challenge you, be precise in your language to yourself.
00:16:06.880 | Make a 30-day challenge to banish the use of these two phrases from your vocabulary.
00:16:12.760 | Do not say, "I don't have time."
00:16:15.240 | And do not say, "I can't afford that."
00:16:20.200 | Say something that's more truthful, and if what you're talking about is a priority, ask
00:16:26.600 | yourself a question of how you can achieve the outcome that you're trying to achieve.
00:16:33.200 | [BLANK_AUDIO]