But What Did You Pay For?

If you have ever taken a "red eye" flight, you know how they are just a miserable experience. It's just one of those little inconveniences you have to endure to get home (or to your destination) more quickly. Last week at the end of one such flight, a lady in the row across from me was complaining about the experience. She said, "My red eye flight was so much better a few weeks ago." Inquiring as to why, she told me she was in first class with the seats that recline completely and there is more room. She had been upgraded to the better seat because there weren't many people on the flight. She didn't pay for it... circumstances just worked in her favor-that time.

As she continued lamenting this most recent experience, I finally asked her, "Did you pay for a first class seat on this flight?" Her quick response was, "No. Of course not." "Well," I replied, "I guess you got what you paid for."

Her thought process reminds me of how many of us look at investing our time. We use it poorly but expect "first class" results. We complain at the end of the day when our highest priorities were not addressed, but if we look closer we might find that we didn't use our time as wisely as we thought.

The situation reminded me of basketball coach Rick Pitino's book from a few years ago entitled, You Must Deserve To Win. If we want to experience anything of greater value or benefit (i.e. a better airline seat, a winning record or less stress), we must invest our time wisely.