3 Most Precious Things In The World Are Free

By alik levin

What are the most precious things in the world? How to identify what’s priceless?

Priceless is something that is given for free, but when lost it cannot be claimed back or bought. Time, health, and trust are given for free to each one of us. When lost no money can buy it.

by covilha

Time

Time is given for free. “I have no time” sounds too often. The more I hear it the more it sounds weirder to me. We are all given 24 hours a day, ain’t we? The trick is allocating right amount of time to the right thing.

My take is that Time Boxing Is The Biggest Secret For Achieving Results.

Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” -  Harvey MacKay

Health

Most of us are born physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. If it is not the case there is no reason to make it worse. Preserve it and grow. Invest in your physical, mental, and emotional health.

My take is that one must be sensitive to the 4 Dimensions Of Personal Power .

To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” - Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

Trust

Trust is hard to earn. Really hard. You earn trust by being there and offering value. Not just value, but the one that meets the challenge.

My take is two fold:

“Trust no one unless you have eaten much salt with him.” - Cicero



22 comments ↓

#1 Mike King on 03.25.08 at 12:13 am

Great Post Alik! I love the quote from Harvey MacKay.

Its sad how time is just used as excuse for most things that are really important. Like having time itself!!! :)

#2 alik levin on 03.25.08 at 8:21 am

Mike - Exactly! That is why I care about time most. Time-boxing proves to be most successful and effective technique for me - both at work and personal life.
Applying it allowed me to achieve more with less, no joke.

#3 Rx4Life.info on 03.26.08 at 2:53 am

If I can master these three areas, I will be extremely happy. I think gratitude plays an important role here.

When you’ve discovered just how fragile life can be, then you realize how precious it is.

Tola

#4 blogrdoc.com/blog on 03.26.08 at 3:00 pm

I learned with my new job that *trust* is definitely earned. As a parent, I learned that the bond between a parent and child is also earned, and likewise - there is no shortcut.

Consider: when it comes time for a parent to part with their child, the child will either miss them dearly, a little bit, or not at all. I want to be missed *dearly*. The only way to do this is to spend time. I’ve read from your previous posts that you place priority on that and I admire you for that.

#5 alik levin on 03.26.08 at 10:40 pm

@Tola - Share what you do to master tese three.

@blogrdoc - You tackled most “painful” bullet in my today’s agenda - kids. I have two daughters. I am on my quest after finding the way to enroll them into good parent vision, rather than get them being complied to good behavior doctrine. I am reading Peter Senge’s book “The Fifth Discipline”. I adopted enrolment and compliance thing from the book. Although he does not talk about parenthood, I truly believe it is very applicable in parenting too. Influence without authority. How do you crack this nut with kids? How do you influence your kids without authority? If you know the answer please share. I am having hard times right now to find the answer. I want to be missed too. Just like you.

One thing I can tell you is that the technique of building vulnerability based team works both in workplace and with kids too. When I shared my vulnerabilities with my colleagues I got lots more support and help. When I shared my vulnerabilities with my kids I earned a sympathy and they went to bed without a fight LOL!
More on building vulnerability based teams here - http://thebookshare.blogspot.com/2008/01/building-trust-on-your-teams.html . JD talks about trust there, GEEZ law of attraction strikes again.

#6 blogrdoc on 03.27.08 at 5:11 am

I can’t claim to have any answers since my oldest is only 3 (turning 4 this Fri). Moreover, I think it’s harder with girls and fathers (esp. at young age). But, here’s one example that I think ties in with your vulnerabiliy-based philosophy:

My dad grew up in culture/time that when *his* father simply called his name - he was _trained_ to say ‘Yes, Father’. Not only were these two words required, but even the _tone_ was important. He tried to train my kids to do the same for him (by repetition). It sort of worked, but not really.

Then, my 3 year old turned the table on me, and he would call ‘Papa!’ and I decided I would say, “Yes, son” (in a subservient tone). And without fail, he would return to me and say “Yes, Papa” (in the same loving tone)

Basically, I ‘give in’ first to “teach” him correct behavior.

#7 alik levin on 03.27.08 at 12:44 pm

blogrdoc,

I get more and more confident about the approach you describe - teach by example, role modeling, less preaching, more examples.

Actions are louder than words. Both with kids and at work…

Thanks for sharing

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#9 Shilpan | successsoul.com on 03.30.08 at 8:53 pm

Alik,

Great post. I would like to add one more though, that is “thoughts” .

Thoughts are things. They are intangible yet have most powerful influence in our life. We can not own or buy anyone’s thoughts. We can only influence thoughts with positive attitude, self belief and by providing exemplary leadership.

Shilpan

#10 alik levin on 03.31.08 at 2:58 am

Shilpan,

Thanks for the additional thought! ;)

I believe that in order to genuinely influence someone’s thoughts you must earn trust first.

You cannot buy other’s thoughts but if you win someone’s heart she or he buys in.

#11 Vered on 04.03.08 at 4:42 am

Well, grandma always used to say that health is the most important thing of all. :)

She was right, of course, and you are right too: good health, generally, cannot be bought.

#12 alik levin on 04.03.08 at 5:22 am

Vered, good to hear you liked the post!

I went to your blog and two titles caught my eye (OMG, 3 titles):

- Study: Moms And Toddlers Argue 20 Times Per Hour (I am on my quest to reduce this rate, in fact I am writing the post right now on that topic, Mark Twain is of great help here….)
- Multitasking Reduces Efficiency
and the winning one is:
- Blogging: are people truly interested in the discussion, or is it all about self-promotion? (What a fantastic question to ask!!)

I am your reader now!
alikl

#13 Alex | Livingwish on 04.05.08 at 3:44 am

I think the main reason people use the phrase “I don’t have time” is because they look at Time from an uncontrollable perspective. Rather than looking for ways to save, alter, and create time, they just let it be, and that is also part of being organized.

New reader, and like what I see, keep up the good work.

Alex

#14 alik levin on 04.05.08 at 4:34 am

Alex,

Great to hear you like the stuff on this blog! WRT to time, I liked how you put is - “create time”, nice.
I am sure you will like reading this
http://practicethis.com/2008/01/10/time-boxing-is-the-biggest-secret-for-achieving-results/ and then this one
http://practicethis.com/2008/01/03/blogging-saves-me-time-4-examples-and-counting/

I went to see you blog – wow, nice work! But what really hit me is your “My Story”. It resonated w/me a lot for two reasons – first, your passion for self improvement. Second – I walked similar path 17 years ago.

Subscribed, tezka.

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#16 Yossi Elkayam on 04.12.08 at 9:11 am

Time , For our Kids is important:

As parents we are the Major teachers, the biggest people in the wide world by their perspective.
We are the most confidence fundamentals to our Kids in a vary situations in our day after day scenarios.
One important this is to rank the value of you most operations.
The Higher level that our job can be is Second place and this is a compliment for our job.
The Higher and the first place is our family.
First thing to do when you interact with a customer you have to ask if he/she has kids.
If you’re Kid has a Show or any School or kindergarten activity this is the most important “Mission” on your schedule time.
Be aware that our Child satisfaction is one of our Life mission.
Bye

#17 alik levin on 04.12.08 at 6:06 pm

Yossi, Thanks for checking in!
You made a good point. Allocate enough time for your kids to earn their trust. Invest in your family first. I cannot agree more. Here is the mantra I adopted “My family is the first and the best customer”. Sounds familiar to you? ;)

thanks, alikl

#18 madhu on 10.27.09 at 3:49 pm

its really most precious thing in the world

#19 vishal on 11.03.09 at 11:42 am

HEALTH:

Its fact, today everybody is running for earning money only, nobody care’s about health

TIME:
we worked with very busy shcedule, but we should spend some time with our family member’s and parents as well, because they have lots of expectations from us

As YOSSI said,
parents are too busy with there shcedule, They have no time for there kids even, I don’t know one thing that they are earning for whom, BIENG PARENT if you don’t have time for your kids, then I am sorry to say
(YOU WANT TO GREW A MANGO TREE BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TIME FOR TAKING CARE OF IT)

TRUST

Its one of critical thing in whole world, without trust anyone you may not be able to do anything.
If you trust the wrong you will finish

AND

If you trust the right you will become compelete….

Thanks And Regards:>

vishal arora

#20 alik levin on 11.03.09 at 12:00 pm

vishal,
Seems like the post resonates with you, eh? :)
I liked your mango tree metaphor.

#21 vishal on 11.04.09 at 6:05 am

THANKS ALIK

#22 prakhar on 02.04.10 at 5:34 am

ya i’m agree with this ,it’s real n it ’s a truth of world……..

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