Rethink time vs money. How entrepreneurs can escape burnout and shift from scarcity to abundance to unlock next-level success with Dr Sharon Spano
There is an old saying: we can either have time or money but never both. It’s true that when we’re scaling a business, we often trade hours for income, and when we finally have financial breathing room, time feels scarce. That’s just part of life, right?
But what if the tension between time and money isn’t the real issue? What if the real constraint is something else? In a powerful but down-to-earth conversation, Sparks host Phil Rose talks to executive coach and author Dr Sharon Spano as she challenges the assumption that time and money are locked in hot competition.
Drawing on years of research for her book The Pursuit of Time and Money, and decades of executive coaching, she explains that they are deeply interrelated. And in fact, when we shift our mindset, we can experience abundance in both.
Are you here or somewhere else?
Successful entrepreneurs don’t lack motivation: getting things off the ground takes hunger, ambition, resilience and gumption. But when you’re ready for the next stage in your journey, the relentlessness can get in your way.
‘It can catapult you to success but can hold you hostage.’ Dr Spano says.
That’s because it’s too easy to live in a constant mental spin. If you’ve ever checked your emails during dinner or planned strategy while pretending to rest, you’ll know what this means. The result is rarely true success: it looks more like chronic distraction, mounting pressure and eventual burnout – as well as alienation from the people, pursuits and the things that we love.
Are better systems, more discipline and smarter plans the answer? Almost certainly, but the real, radical breakthroughs start with something far simpler.
Is work/life balance throwing you off?
We’ve been taught to chase the elusive work/life balance as if our existence can be put neatly into boxes but if you’ve ever been left feeling disappointed and frustrated by not achieving it, there’s a reason.
‘I don’t think we’re ever fully balanced,’ Dr Spanno says. ‘We have to learn to integrate the circumstances of our life and the reality of what we’re in with what’s available to us.’
It’s about making choices about what we have now.
‘We’re working all the time in our heads, and we’re living all the time in our lives,’ she goes on. ‘Be where you are and present where you are. Don’t think about where you need to be next. There’s a great deal of peace to be had in this.’
But it takes discipline: aligning how we spend our time, energy and money with what truly matters and recognising that taking time for ourselves is never convenient. Ironically, the key to getting more done, at this stage of the journey, is to step out of the fast lane.
The source of radical abundance
And here’s the pivotal point that unlocks next-level energy. The behaviours that hold us back are rooted in a fear of lack: that we won’t have enough and that we won’t be enough. Often, we’ve carried them through from childhood into adulthood without even knowing.
‘I was led to believe that rich people were bad… What I’ve learned is that you need entrepreneurs with philanthropic hearts to do good for others.’ Dr Spano says.
- So what do you believe about time?
- About money?
- What did you learn from your parents and those around you?
- What does enough mean to you?
Enough looks different to different people, which means you get to decide what it is. It’s all about perspective.
Time for harmony
We cannot create true abundance externally while feeling inadequate internally. That’s when we overcommit and override our boundaries.
By disarming the war between time and money, we turn them into allies, seeing them both as the energy that propels us forward. We reduce our susceptibility to burnout, deepen the relationships that keep us going and sharpen our leadership skills.
How do you make the shift from scarcity to abundance, balance to integration?
🎧 Listen to the podcast to find out.
Find more about Dr Spano and her work here
And if you feel moved by what you read, please look at how to get involved with her foundation, giving young disabled people greater choices in their lives here