24…
24…
24…
It’s something about the number 24. There is no coincidence that Kobe Bryant’s number was 24. Kobe Bryant played for the Los Angeles Lakers for 20 years, but changed his jersey number half way through his career – number 8 to number 24. During the 2006-2007 season Kobe debuted the number 24. I remember when Kobe wore number 24 for the first time. Of course, people were upset because they had to buy another stitched authentic jersey with Kobe’s new number. Back then, you wouldn’t be caught in just a t-shirt or ironed on jersey number. Sorry, let me bring it back to 2020. Kobe stated that the number 24 signified growth and maturity. But when I think of the number 24, I think of 24 hours in a day. You have 24 hours in a day to make yourself that much more better.
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. – William Penn
You have 24 hours in a day. Your success, progress, and overall development as a person depends on how you utilize your 24 hours. I always say, we have the same 24 hours as Beyonce. Now you may say Beyonce has a team to help her throughout the day. But she still used those same 24 hours to gather her team together in order to gain stardom. Clearly Beyonce is my favorite entertainer. I’m surprised I haven’t used more Beyonce references in my blog, but I digress.
Do you ever think about how you utilize your 24 hours? For most of us, we work a 9-5 (or sometimes a 9-7 or 7-6, we know how that goes). But outside of your job, are you tracking towards your goals? It doesn’t matter if you want to become the best singer, dancer, or mom, you have 24 hour a day to track towards that success.
My trainer, Genetino Coplin, always says, “A fresh 24”. What are you going to do what your time? Are you going to spend it in the gym for 1 hr? 4% of your day? We usually find ourselves saying, “I do not have enough time for ____ because ____.” Fill in the first blank with something on your goal or bucket list, such as “work out more,” or “travel.” Fill in the second blank with your favorite excuse, such as “I have kids,” “I work 10-hour days,” “I volunteer every day after work,” or “I don’t know how.” As human beings, we are good at coming up with excuses to not do something. So, I think do we not have time or are our priorities not straight?
I challenge everyone to take a good look at how you're spending your time. Now I get we loved to hang out with friends, find a good happy hour, binge watch a show on Netflix. A balance is definitely needed. But look at your bad habits that is taking up time. An eye opener for me was my high utilization of screen time. Thank you Apple for sending those weekly reminders. But in all seriousness, it made me think about how much time I was spending on the phone between social media, texting, or watching shows/movies. I now am conscious about that and I spend my time reading. I’m trying to tackle a book a month.
If you claim that health and exercise is important to you, but you don’t spend much time being active, your priorities are not aligned with your health goals. If you have dreams of starting your own business, but you don’t spend much time learning about your craft or creating a product, your priorities are not aligned with your career goals. Remember our true priorities dictate our time. I challenge my readers to jot down your top 3 priorities. Are they aligned with your goals and actions? Figure out what motivates you. Come up with some ways to align your lifestyle with your priorities. Then, most importantly, do what you say you are going to do!
It is just that simple. Like Nike says, ‘Just Do it’.
Although Kobe and Gigi died in a terrible accident, Kobe made basketball and his family a priority. He wanted to maximize his time with his family by being time efficient and taking Mamba, his personal helicopter, wherever he needed in order to avoid LA traffic. He put everything into the game of basketball. He spent countless hours in the gym when no one was looking.
What are you doing with your 24 hrs? The same 24 hours that Kobe had.
Comments