Your Most Valuable Asset

The most valuable thing you have isn’t money, talent, or influence—it’s time. Because once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can’t retrieve it. You can’t stockpile it. You can’t roll it over to next week. Time only moves forward, and every moment you waste is irretrievably lost.

That should arrest you. It should make you stop scrolling, stop stalling, stop drifting.

The real measure of your life isn’t how long you live, but what you live for. Your life’s worth will not be tallied by its duration, but by its donation. What did you spend it on? What will outlast you?

Greg McKeown, in Essentialism, says, “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” That’s not a maybe—that’s a guarantee. Most of us aren’t short on time. We’re short on clarity. We say yes to too many things, spread ourselves too thin, and end up busy but ineffective.

Leadership demands focus. Essentialism calls it “the disciplined pursuit of less.” Scripture calls it wisdom. Either way, it means saying no to good things so you can say yes to the right things.

You won’t have the same lifespan as everyone else, but everyone lives life at the same pace—one day at a time, 24 hours at a time. The difference is how we steward each day given to us. Jesus taught this plainly in the parable of the talents: while each servant received different amounts, they were all judged on one thing—faithfulness.

Faithfulness includes focus. The servant with less capacity who showed equal faithfulness received the same reward. You may not be the most gifted man in the room, but you are responsible for how you spend what you’ve been given. Your calling is not to do everything, but to do the most important things well.

That’s why the mature leader must become ruthless in eliminating the trivial. As McKeown puts it, “Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution toward the things that really matter.” You can’t be faithful if you’re constantly distracted. You can’t lead well if you’re constantly reacting.

I’ve made this mistake: confusing urgency with importance. Just because someone wants your attention doesn’t mean God does. Not every need is your responsibility. Not every good thing is your calling. Jesus lived under constant demand—and yet, you never see Him rushed. Interruptions didn’t disrupt Him, because in the providence of God, they weren’t interruptions. They were part of the mission.

That’s the kind of presence you need as a leader. Alert. Grounded. Discerning. Willing to say “no” so that you can say “yes” with conviction.

But here's the catch: none of this happens by accident. Clarity takes effort. Execution takes courage. Decisions require moral strength—and procrastination only makes it worse. McKeown warns that if you don’t make intentional trade-offs, life will make them for you—badly. And when you delay a decision that should be made today, it only gets heavier tomorrow. Or worse, the opportunity passes entirely.

So act. “Do it now” isn’t just a productivity slogan—it’s a principle of spiritual leadership. It’s how things get done. It’s how ground gets taken. It’s how fruit gets borne.

You don’t need more time. You need more clarity. You need more courage to act.

So stop wasting time. Stop waiting for perfect conditions. Prioritize. Cut the fluff. Reject the noise. Focus on what matters most. And do it now.

P.S. This post is inspired heavily by the books Essentialism and an earlier edition of Sander’s Spiritual Leadership. I love both of those books. Get the oldest version of Spiritual Leadership you can.