The Ride to the Rink - Are You Spending Time or Investing It?

Lee MJ Elias [0:00 - 3:23]: Skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Lee here with you today. You know, I was having a great conversation with my good friend Pete Whitney, who's a coach. He coached NCAA hockey. We coach together right now for a national team. He's been a mentor to me. He's been on our show many times. All right, if you look him up, you'll find some episodes with him, if you're interested. But Pete and I were talking about being your age as kids and how you spend your time, and he brought up this really great point about the difference between time invested and time spent. And I really want to talk to you about that for a few minutes because it really kind of hit me between the eyes. And I had a great conversation with my kids about this, and I wanted to share that with you. So time invested is when you donate your time to something that's going to give you something back in terms of something you can learn, something you can bring. If we're talking hockey, you're investing time to get skills, to get knowledge, to get something out of that time with a coach or a team that's going to make you a better player down the line. It's no different than school. You invest your time in school. I know you think you have to go and you do, but you're investing that time for knowledge that's valuable. You are spending time and getting something tangible in return. All right? The difference between time invested and time spent is in time spent, you're giving your time for something where you're getting very little back in return. What I'm going to tell you now, not some of you are going to nod your head and say, I got a lot out of that. But I'm thinking about Fortnite. I'm thinking about video games, mindless YouTube channels, brain rot. As all of you have heard, that's time spent if you're at home watching videos or playing video games. And I'm not saying that there's not time for that, but if you're doing that more, then you're doing things to invest your time. That's not a good equation. You want more things that you can invest time in over spending time in. While the videos on YouTube might bring you some happiness or laughter, and there's a little value in that, don't get me wrong, if that's all you're doing at home for four or five hours a day, you are spending time and not getting much in return. So I want you all kids to take a moment and think about each day. And if you want to do a little activity about this, write it down. How are you spending your time versus investing your time specifically outside of school? Look at the 5, 6, 7, 8 hours outside of school. How much of it are you investing in yourself? And how much are you spending from yourself? And overall, what are you getting out of it? Because if it's not helping you become a better person and you notice I didn't say hockey player there, you should ask yourself, is this worth my time? The best athletes, actually the best at anything, invest most of their time. They don't spend much of their time. They invest most of it getting a little bit spent here and there is. Okay, you do have to do that from time to time. How can you invest? Invest your time wherever you're at on that journey, I want you to know we believe in you. Okay? Invest a lot of time into yourself. You're worth it. We'll see you on the next episode of the Ride to the Rink. Everybody take care. Let's get on.