Colors are very powerful things – they say a lot about a person. I was recently reminded of this as I worked on a website for an artist client. You see, orange is one of the colors on her site.

Now I have a personal resistance to orange. When I was young I had a best friend Karla and she was born with cystic fibrosis. Karla wore orange. Me, I never liked the color – too loud! I’d much rather wear a soft pink like little girls were supposed to wear.

Karla was different. Not only did she like orange, she wore it in all kinds of ways. She was in fact, one of the first kids I ever saw in bright orange high top Converse sneakers. She usually wore them with Hawaiian print “jams” (long shorts, for those not growing up in the 80’s).

Karla didn’t mind getting noticed. She was authentic through and through. It may have been the fact that she had exceeded her life expectancy by the time she was 12 or it may have been just her personality. I on the other hand had 11 siblings, went to catholic school and blended in with what people expected without question.

Karla went on to further exceed the limitations placed upon her. She graduated high school, then college and even got married. At the time of her wedding, I was 9 months pregnant with my oldest child (Karla Rae). Reminding me that she had worn pink in my wedding, Karla announced her colors would be orange. Can you picture a pumpkin? She took pity on me as maid of honor and settled on a peach colored dress.

Three years after a double lung transplant, at the age of 24, Karla passed away and I took my children to their first funeral. I was not prepared for what greeted me. Karla was surrounded by 100’s of teddy bears (her entire collection) and on the floor beside her were her Converse sneakers.

Though my daughter as namesake was given many treasures that had belonged to my dearest friend, including said collection of bears, her wedding gown and pieces of jewelry, the thing she has kept in her closet since before she could fit into them are those orange hightops.

One of the lessons Karla taught both of us was – wear orange!

When you hear the word “value”, you probably think of how many rolls of toilet paper you can get in the big package as opposed to the small one. Or how the price per pound of bulk food is exponentially less than those little boxes you find at gas stations. So what is value, really? Certainly it’s not just about sheer quantity for your dollar. No, it’s about quality for your dollar.

When standing in the checkout lane I am often faced with a small decision as to which treat I would like to indulge myself with. While a simple chocolate bar is somewhat satisfying and fairly inexpensive I usually find myself choosing a smaller piece of Godiva chocolate instead. Is it overpriced? Maybe. Is it worth it? Absolutely. It’s about value.

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that the most valuable thing in the world is time. Yet, for many of you, your job takes up most of it. If you own your own business, you are probably one who enjoys a good day of work. However, I bet there are certain tasks you face each day that you absolutely trudge through, just to get to the stuff you really wish you were doing. Couldn’t your time be better spent on more meaningful business pursuits? Something you actually enjoy? That is the reason you started your own business after all. To do what you love. Freeing up time to do that – now, that’s valuable.

Jim Rohn is quoted as saying, “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” I’m sure you can agree. Even a mountain of money wouldn’t buy you more time here on this planet. But certainly, if you could just find a way to save a bit of time within each day, you could pool it into a few more minutes, hours or days to do those things that really matter to you.

As a virtual assistant, I’m in the business of giving others more time.

I often find myself bogged down by certain activities that, while necessary, prevent me from doing the things I enjoy. A cupboard needs fixing, the lawn needs trimming but I really would like to spend time with my kids. Fortunately, I sometimes enlist the help of others so that I can accomplish the goals that are more important to me. By hiring a boy who lives around the block to do yard work I can free up that space in my day do things that I really love.

I apply this same concept to work. There are many tasks that are added to my workload throughout the day. By hiring an assistant or a specialist I can hand certain tasks off to people I trust, while also handling the things that I would like to personally accomplish.

What do you value? What else could you “buy” with a little more time in your day? It could be something as simple as the opportunity to pick your kids up for school, or, even bigger, a chance to take a day off? It could also be work-related. Like the chance to concentrate on the parts of your job or business that you value the most by simply handing other things off to someone such as a virtual assistant.