14. What Kind of ROI are You Getting on Your Relationships?

What return on investment are you getting on the relationships you invest your time and your life force in? At first, this might sound selfish. Wait, this is all about what can I get out of things? And you know what, I'm a giver. I like to give in life. Okay, I understand that. But in all of our relationships, there needs to be a give and take, a giving and receiving. If you want things to be good and over the long run become better. There are certain relationships we have to participate in. So as you're a kid, you might have to have a teacher you don't like. If you're an adult, you might have a boss that you don't like, and you have to make the relationship work as best as possible. That's more than understandable. But when you're on your free time, when you have time to live life on your terms, are you investing that time with people and with groups of people that you most enjoy? Are you spending time with the people that do activities that you like? Maybe you have some friends that are into hiking or biking. Maybe another group is into personal growth or exercise or something like that.

Overall, if you want to work a four day work week and have a lifestyle that's similar to that, we first have to figure out how to make the most of the free time you already have. There's a certain amount of time you have to work, and separate from that, there's a certain amount of choice time where you can do what you like with that time. If you can't do what you want, or if you're not investing that time in the way you like, chances are you're not going to focus on and really get centered on making more time available because you're already not doing really a good job with the time you already have. No different than if you have a certain amount of money that you make and you're constantly wasting it, you're probably not going to be as motivated to make more money because you know you're going to waste that anyway. You're not going to get to your goals. Think about very specifically the types of relationships. What do they hold in common? Is it a certain group of people? Does it center around a certain activity that you enjoy? Do these people have a certain mindset?

Are they happy people? Are they focused on growth? What are they about? How do they speak to other people? Are they kind? Notice those patterns and see what types of people that are some of the favorite people that you like to hang out with, or be with, or learn from, and write down the names of a few of those people and start thinking about where you can get to meet more people like that. Now, if this is your wife or your husband, you don't need to be meeting another wife or another husband. But this is simply, of course, for friends and people outside of romantic relationships. Clarifying point there for those of you all who hold me to that, where you're making sure that you're seeing who are the people that you most enjoy being around. Similarly, write down the characteristics of the relationships that are not as fun for you. Now, I want to be clear here. I'm not looking to put down people. Everybody's at a certain point on their path, their journey, their evolution, however you want to word that. There are certainly people that are more evolved or nicer or happier than I am.

There's certainly people who are less evolved, less happier. Whatever word you want to use, I'm not God. You're probably not God either. But overall, people that when you look at where they're at, or even better, what they're aiming for, you say, you know what? Where they're aiming for is not where I'm aiming for. It's not even a matter of higher and lower. It's they're going over here, I'm looking to go over there. Notice the trends and the patterns of those people? Are they happy? Do they value the things you value? Do they treat people in a way that you believe in or find kind? Make a list of those characteristics. It's not as important to make a list of the names of the people. We're not looking at single people out or focus on people or become judgmental or holier than now. But we do want to be able to look at where do we want to put our most precious asset, our time, our life force? Where do we want to invest that? As we do that more, we're going to find a better return on our investments in the relationships we have. I hope you find this helpful.

If you want to go deeper into this conversation, go to 4dayworkweek. Com and check out the 4 day apprentice program. This is a program where we focus on helping you make the most out of your relationships, your time investments, your money investments, and the material possessions you own. It's the first step in getting clear about how you want your life to be by shaping your life outside of work first as similarly as possible in an alignment with somebody that works a four day work week. In other words, making the most out of the money, the time, and the relationships you already have. Then later you can move deeper into what it means to then create your own four day work week. This four day apprentice program is good for you whether you are an entrepreneur already or whether you're aspiring to be one in the future. I hope you find this helpful. As always, look forward to helping you make more money and less time doing what you do best. Thank you.