This addiction has cost me time and money

My earliest sports memory is the 1985 University of Tennessee Volunteers football team, also known that year as the Sugar Vols.  

That Tennessee Vols football team went to the Sugar Bowl and were #8 in the country.  

They played the unbeatable #2 Miami Hurricanes, otherwise known as “The U”.  

UT won that game 35-7 and I was hooked!  

My dad has always been a huge Vols fan, going as far to make his office walls an orange and white checkerboard with UT pics hanging everywhere and he’s been a season ticket holder for 35+ years.

Life was good as a Vols fan, until 2008 when UT fired Phil Fulmer.

Since then we (yes, I still say we) have been through four coaches and just started on our fifth.  

UT hasn’t won double digit games in any season, had the worst and the most publicized coaching searches in history, found every conceivable way to lose close games, have only had 2 winning SEC seasons, squandered NFL level talent, and lost to Vandy and Kentucky with some regularity over the last 5 years.

But I still love UT football.  

I read every article, check out possible recruits, and text with other grown men all of the time about how we would fix everything.

I might love UT football, but it doesn’t love me.  

At all.

All of the time, effort, and energy I’ve poured into each and every agonizing weekend in the fall is usually wasted.  

Honestly, I just don’t have much to show for my investment.

We do the same thing in our business all of the time too.

For example: 

• You invest 2 hours a day on email.

• You invest 4.5 hours a day on your phone.

• You invest 4 hours a day watching tv.   Well, you say it’s just on in the background while you are doing something else, but it still fractures your attention.

• You invest countless hours reliving that time when an infuriating client was wrong and you were right and what you “should” have told them.

• You invest hours stressing out about your future; when can you retire, go to Cancun, get the roof leak fixed, etc.  Not careful planning; just run-of-the-mill worrying.

• You invest hours worrying about your parents and their health even though you can’t control it.

• You invest hours worrying about little Johnny’s place on the soccer team and why he doesn’t get to play more.

You love things that don’t love you back.

There is no return on investment for any of that.

Sure, some of it is unavoidable, but we use that as an excuse to wallow in this “busy” mentality that keeps us in the same “busy” spot without anything to show for it.

At one point you loved the purpose of your business.

• A financial advisor loved helping people plan out their future.

• An insurance agent loved helping people sleep better at night knowing the things that they worked hard for were protected.

But now your day is spent like a human router just moving bits of information around multiple times; constantly checking email, Facebook, your CRM, voicemail, meetings, non-urgent emergencies, etc.

And strangely enough, you love it.  Or at least you think you do.

It’s time to give all of that busy work up.

You love it, but it doesn’t love you back.

If it did, you would have more to show for it and you would be happier.

Choose to love the things you can control, the things you are good at, and the things that make you money.

As for me, maybe I won’t  pay attention to spring football practice or the fact that we already have players suspended...maybe:).