For whatever reason the Washington Monument is coming to my mind this July 4th.  I thought of what monuments like that remind me of – our independence and the brave generations who fought to earn it and keep it throughout history.  Then I thought of the fact that construction was halted on the Washington Monument for years when there was a lack of funds as well as during the civil war.

It makes me wonder what the generation who built the Washington Monument would do now regarding the Freedom Tower.  Would they put that project on hold until funding was available?  Would they put it on hold until the war is over?  I know the Freedom Tower is important and all, and I can’t wait to see it one day, but something tells me there is an order of priority we should go by and while our national debt continues to nose-dive into the red we should step back and consider what priorities need to get pushed out so that more important ones can get finished and so that the debt-hole can stop getting deeper.

I sound like Debbie-Downer on such a positive holiday.  It is a blessing to be an American and I’m very thankful.  I will be celebrating just like everyone else.  But it doesn’t hurt to think back on the reasons for our holidays and the people from back then and the lessons we can learn from the principles they lived by.  Happy Independence Day to all.

This one really hits home for me when I think about my path so far.  I went all the way through college and now have a job that I probably could have learned without any college.  I agree the education probably sharpens my ability to solve problems and work smarter, but I often question why I’m not doing something that utilizes my education and talents more.  Maybe I’m over-thinking it.

Instead of focusing too much on what I might have done wrong along the way I try to focus on continuing to educate myself in new ways and find or develop new talents.  To make myself good at the things in my work I try to read industry publications and self-help materials that help me improve not only in my work but as a person.  That is part of the reason for this blog.  I’ve found that my education has given me a decent ability to write so why not use that to share thoughts and ideas and improve that ability…

I’ve also learned that the simple fact of knowing how to read, write, and do arithmetic gives me the ability to learn pretty much anything else that I want.  With the internet and libraries full of books there is an endless opportunity for educating ourselves and learning how to develop our talents.

The point is we are all educated in something or in some way (if not then we should use some time to become educated).  What are we doing to put our education and talents to good use and/or learn new things to build on the education we already have?  Our education and talents are a resource we should be using to prosper.

Time is probably one of the most widely mis-used resources for all of us.  It is the only resource we all have an equal amount of.  It has been said that time is the great equalizer for all of mankind.  It can be argued that the most successful people in every area of life ae the ones who figure out how to use time most effectively.

Let’s all admit the more entertainment and social interaction becomes available the more distracted we get with how we’re using our time.  Misusing my time is something I find myself failing on too often.

It is easy for me to think that I should be working more.  But that isn’t what I mean necessarily.  I have to question whether or not I’m spending enough time with my wife or my family and investing time in the relationships that are important to me.  There is a healthy balance that has to be found when it comes to how we use our time.

When it comes to work I have to question whether or not I am spending my time doing the most important tasks and projects for where I’m headed with my job.  Work time needs to be spent doing WORK.  It is easy to get distracted by conversations or activities that don’t help productivity and should be reserved for non-work time.

I’ve learned that investing time in my health is easy to neglect if I don’t make a disciplined effort to go to the gym.  The best time of day to do that is in the morning before the rest of my family is awake.  Otherwise I might have to neglect either work or family time in order to squeeze in some exercise time.

Investing time with family and friends is important too, so I try to make it a habit to spend evenings and weekends with the family as much as possible and incorporate time with friends in there as well.  One thing I try to focus on is what we do with the time I spend with family and friends.  I often examine what activities are we doing and what are we talking about to add value to relationships and find that I need to do a better job.