What does it mean for you: Thank you for your time?

Just finished a writing assignment, I thought it's going to be just like any other. My job was to turn my client's note into an article. What was the article all about? Well, it has nothing to do with the time traveling, if that was your thought. This was something completely different and unique. My client even asked me for my opinion. Not as a critic of his work, but rather as a personal opinion.

This guy wanted to know what does it mean to say - thank you for your time. I thought this was a ridiculous thing to ask. We all know what it means, don't we? We say thank you to someone who has invested his time to talk with us, to do something for us, and similar. We aren't immortal beings, so we need to take care of the most precious resource we have at our disposal - the time itself. How? Every man for himself. Obviously. Only you know what's worth of your time. Right?

Then I realized. So, when a client hires me, he or she doesn't pay for my words, but rather for my time. For what is worth, Justin Timberlake plays in the movie called In Time. The catch with it is that time has become a currency - literally, in the brave new world of our near future. So, when you hear time is money, for the characters in this movie that really has a special meaning.

So, I said to my client that I have only one conclusion for him. The next time I'm to say thank you for your time to someone, I will really mean it. Maybe, until now I used this phrase without a second thought. Just like that, which is understandable and expectable for the most of us. Right again?

I'm fully aware that I'm not going to make the world be a better place just because I say a common phrase with a different emotional tone. Very often when I say thank you for your time during the negotiation with a potential client, this means that we are done. It's like I'm saying, leave me alone. We haven't reached an agreement about the price, work, or deadlines, so let's move on. But, when I say it, I don't actually thank them for their time. I feel sorry for my time invested in something that will give me nothing eventually.

So, the next time you say to someone thank you for your time, do your best that it means something more than a simple phrase. Thank you for your time you invested in reading this thread.