According to a groundbreaking study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia, individuals who value time more than money consist
ently attain greater levels of happiness.
The researchers sought to assess whether people who chronically prioritize time over money are happier than people who prioritize money over time. The research paper, published by the
Society of Personality and Social Psychology, provides the first empirical evidence that “prioritizing time over money is a stable preference related to greater subjective well-being.”
In happiness economics, this phenomenon is known as the Easterlin Paradox, which was first used to explain why Americans were not becoming happier in the 1970s, despite steadily rising incomes.
It turns out that the old adage “time is money” may be outdated. Time, on one hand, is irreplaceable. We are unable to manufacture more time, and once a moment has passed, it is beyond retrieval. Money, on the other hand, can be continuously generated (with a little luck and a lot of hard work).
So why is it that we fiercely guard against the loss of money, but not against the loss of time, as if the inevitability of time passing makes it worth less, rather than more? And what does the increased valuation of time have to do with your business?
What Valuing Time over Money Means for your Business
These new findings highlight the important role that time plays in our daily lives, and provides insight into how we can best allocate our financial resources,
Time is precious. None of us get more than 24 hours a day. To increase our happiness, and our clients/colleagues’ happiness, it makes sense to focus on the here-and-now. The experiences people accumulate over the course of spending their limited time quite literally makes up a person’s life. So, if you take away anything from this new research, it should be that spending time with the people you value, doing the things you love, is a direct road to prosperity.
As business leaders, we tend to over-emphasize quantifiables like quarterly budgets while overlooking non-quantifiables like relationships. Prioritizing time in our businesses leads to prioritizing social connections. Prioritizing social connections leads to a bevy of business benefits, from allowing others to take an emotional stake in our success to the development of mutual respect and admiration.
Given the finality of time in our lives, instead of spending money on tangible items, we should spend money on experiences. This allows us to use our money to make the most of the time we have available.
‘One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation,’ says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. ‘We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.’
The Science of Why You Should Spend Your Money on Experiences, Not Things. Jay Cassano,
Co.Exist.com. So rather than buying the latest smart watch or a new Mercedes-Benz, Gilovich suggests
we can obtain more happiness by spending money on experiences.How Businesses Use Experiences to Build Relationships.
Shared experiences connect us to others. Our general tendency to prioritize time over money reveals that socially connecting experiences are responsible for the happiest and most memorable parts of many people’s day. A client who you host at an NFL or MLB game is much more likely to feel a connection to you, as compared to the client that received a piece of technology as a gift.
While the happiness from material purchases diminishes over time, experiences are an ingrained part of our identities.‘Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,’ says Gilovich. ‘You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.’ Cassano,
Co.Exist.com. Your family, friends, and business associates consume experiences directly with others (ideally from you). After an experience is over, it becomes part of the stories that they tell to one another.
Our selection of luxury sports and concert suites offer a turn-key solution to your experiential needs, whether you are thanking team members for a job well done, recognizing clients for their continued business, bidding a fond farewell to a valuable employee, or even awarding lucky contest winners.
Our well-accommodated suites will leave your guests with a lifetime of memories. Our professionalism and attention to detail allows us to provide the most cost-effective and hassle-free suite packages on the market. After you experience the comfortable seating, delicious food and drinks and flat screen TVs our suites offer, you will soon realize why a luxury suite is truly the best place to create lasting experiential connections.
