How do successful people spend their free time?

The biggest difference I’ve observed between successful & non-successful people is: HOW THEY SPEND THEIR TIME. People either waste time or improve the “future version” of yourself.

Amazingly, poor / unsuccessful people spend any waking moment “filling time”. That is to say, doing things that add little to no value to their future life — filling their time with “stuff to do”. I’m talking about playing games on their phones, on instagram, snapchat, youtube, facebook, etc. This is acceptable when you are a child, but not as an adult! Their mindless minutes waste away — minutes turn into hours, hours turn into days and weeks and months — pure time wasting. Unsuccessful people place a very “low value” on their time — even though they have a fixed life span — a limited time on earth — they have a “do it later mindset”. Yes, they may be behind on their rent, credit cards and car payments, but generally goofing off takes away some stress.

Successful people spend their time reading new books, listening to educational podcasts, learning new things, experiencing new things, visiting new places, writing about their experiences, practicing their craft/specialty, etc. They are generally “curious” about the world they live in and place a very “high value” on their time — they say “No” often to commitments that drain their time. Yes, successful people may have acquired some wealth, but they are always driving towards improving themselves and learning to adapt to changing circumstances — they have a “do it now” mindset. They travel to exotic locations and try new things to burn stress, they work hard and play hard.

(Banff National Park, 2013)

If you think about the best use of your life, it’s to build something that lasts longer than your life — why waste life away on things that just fill up time?

So the next time you have a free hour or two, THINK CAREFULLY about how you will spend it — wasting time on something doesn’t improve your life OR doing something that can provide a future benefit. Do you lean more towards how successful or unsuccessful people think?

UPDATE: We aren’t trying to define what success is here…everyone has their own personal success “definition”. Pretty amazing how many people disagree with the basic idea of using your time wisely. Do you think todays Billionaires like: Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett spend hours and hours on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat letting time pass watching cute cat videos every day? The basic idea is to improve the FUTURE version of yourself.