3 Degrees of Freedom

In-Between Episode: Chronos vs. Kairos And How People Live Fuller Lives in 10 Years Than Others In 60 with Derek Clifford

• Derek Clifford • Season 3 • Episode 161

Share episode

In this episode of "3 Degrees of Freedom," the host delves into the concepts of Kronos and Kairos, two Greek words representing different aspects of time. Kronos is quantitative, focusing on measurable, sequential time, while Kairos is qualitative, emphasizing the quality of moments and living in the present. The host discusses how understanding and balancing these time types can lead to a more fulfilling life. They share examples of individuals who've maximized Kairos moments for greater productivity. Balancing efficiency (Kronos) and intuition (Kairos) is key to personal growth. Practical tips include awareness, retreats, nature time, expert groups, and goal-setting. The episode also highlights wellness and the podcast's sponsor, Live Whole Wellness.

Connect with us through our social media channels, where we can get to know each other better and foster meaningful connections:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-clifford-elevate-equity/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKXbN-BL3oO10pG5O-lssaQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dereklovesequity
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dereklovesequity/

Unlock 3+1 degrees of freedom (time, location, financial + health) with our 5-Point Blueprint! https://elevateequity.org/podcastgift
 
If you really enjoyed this content and are looking for more, you can continue to learn more about us in several different places for free!

If you'd like to have a FREE copy of our 7 Ways Commercial Real Estate Syndications Protect and Build Wealth, simply click the link below. We are here and vested in your long-term success! elevateequity.org/7waysEbook

Unlock 3+1 degrees of freedom (time, location, financial + health) with our 5-Point Blueprint! https://elevateequity.org/podcastgift

If you really enjoyed this content and are looking for more, you can continue to learn more about us in several different places for free!

If you'd like to have a FREE copy of our 7 Ways Commercial Real Estate Syndications Protect and Build Wealth, simply click the link below. We are here and vested in your long-term success! elevateequity.org/7waysEbook

Derek:

Welcome to the three degrees of freedom podcast, where we explore lifestyle engineering with our expert guests to bring you in alignment with your own three degrees of freedom, location, time, and financial independence. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another in between episode today. I wanted to talk a little bit about a concept that I've been picking up from, 10 X is better than two X. And you've been noticing a theme probably with all of these in between episodes that I keep bringing you content from. That book, it's just because that it's so rich. And so I recommend that you go out there and go buy it. But what I want to talk about today is called Kronos and Kairos. Now these two are Greek words and Kronos is meant to be quantitative time where Kairos is supposed to be qualitative time. And I'll get into the importance in this in just a little minute, but I just hope that you stick with me on this because it really is important, to look at how time is experienced in two different ways. You can look at it in a chronological way, or you can look at it in a qualitative way, or impact, right? Like, moments worth living, right? As I was talking about before, Kronos is quantitative, which means you can count it by seconds, and Kairos is more qualitative. It's the quality, it's the experience or the magnitude of the quality from moment to moment. Kronos is sequential, and Kairos is very subjective. Kronos measures time, and Kairos measures individual moments, and Kronos is very objective, and Kairos is super experiential. So... What I wanted to kind of do just to make sure that you guys understand what this is and why it's so important is that you can actually live, a life, a full life with tons and tons of experiences. Like take Leonardo da Vinci for instance. He had spent so much of his time in Kairos because his time has dilated. He has lived a life fully. Live a life fully live basically right because he's been able to take so many experiences and dilate the amount of time that he's had in his life to live within five years, the same life that someone can live in a 50 year in a 50 year time frame, right? So that's the difference between Kronos and Kairos. And I hope that makes sense. And what I wanted to do is I wanted to expand on this a little bit more because most likely there are people out there who are looking to expand or be more efficient in their Kronos time. That's me, right? But then there's also you got to have this balance between being in Cairo state as well, which is like flow state experiential like quality, right? So there is a balance between these two and I want to talk about that a little bit more. So. The first thing that I want to bring up here after talking about what Kronos is versus Kairos is efficiency versus intuition efficiency I associate with Kronos right which is you've got a Regimented amount of time to do things and as a project manager and a real estate investor and just an overall person Obsessed with goals. We like to break things up into Kronos time But then there's the intuition piece, which is the Kairos, right? Because there may be some goals that come up that you can solve in an instant because you are thinking about or reflecting on a problem that then makes the problem just disappear, right? Like maybe you think a level deeper. Efficiency has its place, but I think you've also got to balance it out with being in the, you can't be in the details all of the time. And so if you spend time in Kairos, you're actually reflecting and doing work that can't be measured as easily. So, for instance... If my wife, right, let's, let's consider two different scenarios. One scenario in which I am, you know, moving for, I wanted to buy a house, right? And I wanted to get like a single family home in my portfolio and I don't know how to do it. And so I've been spending all of this time and energy and effort, right? Like I'm reading books and I'm doing, and all of that stuff is based on Kronos. What if my wife could come to me and say, Hey, you know, my uncle wants to buy a property and, he has the money and he has done this before. He just needs you to do certain X, Y, Z things, right? And you can buy two houses. So you'll be 50 percent owner in house one and two versus being a hundred percent owner in house one, if you do it all on your own. So if I spent that. Time in Kairos and really listen to what she had to say, right? She could open me up into that new world right where I have dilated my time I have spent less time doing the same thing and much easier Okay because I will have been able to Step into the situation where I'm a 50 percent partner with someone else And I've been able to basically get into that same situation with the same amount of ownership that I would be if I was on my own So there's this balance between efficiency and intuition. I'm not saying that there is times where, Kronos is not worth it at all, because that is not the case. Absolutely not. If you have the ability, to use Kronos time to execute on the things that you need to do from your flashes of intuition in Kairos, that is the best balance right between having those two. It's another example is, let's say that you're working a nine to five and you realize that, Oh my gosh, I cannot just depend on my nine to five because people are getting laid off right around me. And if I do that, what am I going to do? I don't have any other skills. I'd have to go find another job in a down market. What am I going to do? Right. So that happened to us also, and I think realizing that diversification away from just, the job was one moment of Kairos for me where I realized I have to do something that kicks off a chain of events that would be in Kronos time where I would have to manage and actually do something. Right? So. Again, I think that there's a really good balance. And whenever you get these flashes of insight, that is Kairos speaking to you. So Kairos allows you to live in quality of moments. And if you are living on your own in a cave, in the middle of the mountains with no quality of life, you could let your whole life pass you by 30, 40 years, right? Or if you are Elon Musk, right? In that same 30 years. Imagine all the experiences and the challenges and the things that he's going through and all of the incredible like opportunities and difficulties and challenges and people that get put in front of him He's living a life that people wouldn't most normal people wouldn't be able to live in like 300 years Right with all the stuff that he's doing. So I just wanted to put that out there There's a difference between kairos kronos and efficiency and intuition I think what you have to do also is be aware of a balance it boils down to How well you feel in this balance, because everyone craves a certain amount of Kronos and a certain amount of Kairos. It's foolish to think that everyone in Kairos, right, will then, succeed and be wild beyond their dreams, successful beyond their wildest dreams. I think that there's a balance that needs to be made, because if you're spent dreaming and thinking about insights and everything, that's one thing. But. If you can actually execute on that, right, and control all of that so that you can do what it is that you said you wanted to do or be inspired by, then that balance is really, really there. So I think that balance is key. And if you're spending too much time and energy being efficient and you need a breather, I think that's what your body ------ signal to say that, Oh man, I'm having too much time being spent in Kronos and I need to step into Kairos. And, you know, other than just being. Completely tied into what you're doing on chronos time you may end up getting sick, right? So not only will you be mentally exhausted, but you may actually find yourself getting into a state where you are sick And your body's telling you need to slow down It is also your body's way of telling you that you need a change So it may be the opposite for you. Like I said, if you are on, not strong on Kronos, you're not strong at execution. But you're actually strong and Kairos and you get all these insights and ideas. That's actually very common with visionary people. I am a more, natural integrator instead of a visionary. So I can relate more with people who are stuck in Kronos and can't really see the force through the trees. But in either way, I think it works both ways and you do need that balance. And if you feel that you've been getting stuck, right, and not making forward progress for quite some time, it could be months, years, or decades. That means that most likely you're just not in balance. And so the balance is super, super important. The balance allows most productive and successful people in the world to be productive as they are, and therefore achieve so much more because that time, as we mentioned before, dilates for them. They take the time to learn, reflect, Organize and execute. And then it goes back to learning and reflecting and then organizing, executing and bringing people in to help and then learning and reflecting and organizing, executing together at scale, right? And every time it happens, you learn something, become a bigger person. and then you learn how to manage that flow state in Kairos. And then the execution in Kronos. This is exactly what happened also when I left my full time work. Thanks to my wife, Sophie, she snapped me out of my Kronos saying, Oh my God, I've got to keep working and saving up as much money as I can to be able to get, you know, as many properties as I can. But that wasn't exactly true because I have felt that every time I left my full time or every time I went into a situation where I was uncomfortable, I always had the Ability in the foresight to land on my feet. It was very stressful and I made it work, but I owed it to myself to give myself a shot, right? To spend two, three, four, five years to do something that I created on my own. And that's all thanks to my wife, Sophie, for giving me the insight that I need to be away from just grinding away at the job and trying something different. And I've learned so much from that experience. I've reflected, I've learned, and then I've taken that to execute it. Now organizing and getting a team involved and everything. So it really is important to balance both of those things out. And then, of course, we're traveling, right? Being able to travel, being able to spend three months in Japan, four months in Europe, whatever we want. All of that, we've been able to do because we thought differently about what problems we had, right? And most people, in order to have that experience, will probably spend five to ten years trying to do that on their own, right? So, if they were just doing it the same way that I had, which was, you know, working really hard to save up a whole bunch of money and then make that happen, right? So... If you find yourself out of balance, what can you do to bring yourself in balance? Well, the first thing is I would say awareness of that balance is the necessary first step for finding Kairos. That's what you're doing right now. You're finding yourself aware that, Oh my gosh, I may be out of balance here. The second thing I would recommend is going into silence and maybe a retreat, right? Where it's just you. You're Connecting with your intuition and this is of course for people who are looking to find Kairos that have been getting signals from their body that the Kronos is too great, right? They are getting stressed out. There is, mental performance issues. You're getting not motivated. You're getting tired. you're getting, bored from the monotony. That's a time or a signal that your body and you're out of balance. You need some sort of Kairos right in your spirit. So number one is awareness. That you've already got right now. Number two is silence and retreats. And number three is finding time in nature. For some reason, being out in nature helps you connect with something bigger than yourself. So if there's spirituality involved in that, that's awesome. Please do that as well. But nature is a really great way, to get involved with something that's bigger than you and will help you inspire to get you into some more of that Kairos time. And then number four is getting involved in groups who are experts at both, right? At both Kairos and Kronos. that's for people who are looking for with Kairos and Kronos, right? Who are looking to be more organized and more streamlined and efficient. And then there's people that are looking for more inspiration. been there and done that, right? Things that people could point out for you and help you dilate your time, right? I would say that masterminds is really at the heart of what number four is. So please, you know, make sure that you go out there and seek out these masterminds. Most are paid, but there are some out there that are free, just finding some people that you can really learn from and you can help add value to them as well. And then finally, the fifth one is for those who are looking for Kronos, who are maybe Kairos minded and want to keep exploring stuff, but don't have the ability to execute. I think that there are some. Tons of tools out there to help you on this goal setting, efficiency tools, automation, time tracking and time logging, getting a team member involved to help you with all of that. There's tons and tons of tools for that. And people that have a problem with being in Kairos too much, is a gift. It's a very rare thing. And so I'm really, you know, if you're out there and you have Kairos a problem and you're looking for a Kronos solution, let me know, because I do want to talk with you about how you've gotten in that state. Cause it's super, super cool. So. Anyways, I want to go ahead and end this in between episode right now, because I think we covered a lot of ground, but just to recap calendar time versus time experienced, right? Efficiency versus to intuition, and then we'll Awareness of what that balance is, what the balance does for us, right? In dilating time and making sure that you're learning and reflecting and then organizing, executing. And then the fifth piece, which is how to bring yourself in balance that includes awareness that you're doing right now. Silence and retreats. finding time in nature, getting involved in masterminds or groups that are expert at both. And then goal setting efficiency tools and all of those things that can help you be more efficient to track towards your goals. So thank you guys so much. I hope this was success. This was helpful for you. Right now I want to also mention too, that this podcast is sponsored by live whole wellness. This is my wife's company that is focused on helping entrepreneurs improve their internal and external systems. If you're interested in learning more about this, please go to live whole you or live whole. com. And there's tons of, out there for you to start getting learned and start getting. Acquainted with what wellness means for you and how you can use your wellness to help boost your or amplify your performance So anyway, thank you guys so much for listening wherever you're listening to this podcast Please also go in like subscribe and comment wherever you see it because then more people will be able to get to this great information And I want to know if i'm on track and actually helping you so please do let me know Definitely appreciate you listening all the way to the end on this one and we'll see you guys next time