You never intended to be short on time, stressed-out, anxious, while not accomplishing anything important day after day. Your life evolved into your daily routine little by little. You begin with a checklist a mile long at the start of the day and are left with a checklist even longer at the end of the day. The hamster wheel just keeps going around and around. Days turn into weeks that turn into months, which turn into years. Alas, a life that feels wasted. Does this sound like your life?
Successful people do things differently than most. But what is it that makes their days so different? The answer is that they use their time completely differently than most.
Learning the difference between dreams and goals and then spending time on the habits and behaviors that help you reach your goals adds value to your life, your career, and your happiness. Having the clarity of thought on “what” is important to do and “why” that is important reduces stress and prevents information overload.
Once you know “what” to spend your time on and “why,” you can move on to “how” best to use your 24 hours in a day which is the exact same amount of time given to every other person on planet Earth.
When I was younger, I often confused the difference between dreams and goals. Sure, I had all kinds of dreams. There were material things I wanted – BIG THINGS! I thought they would make my life easy and happy. When I was in college, I dreamed (and truly believed) that I would own a helicopter that took me to work each day. Who had the time for cars and traffic? There were other dreams that were non-material and hard to put my finger on, but I knew I wanted those as well. It’s natural for us to want to be loved, respected, admired, and desired. Who doesn’t dream about being a big shot with fame and talents galore?
But I learned (often the hard way) that there is a difference between dreams and goals. DREAMS are like mind art. They are images that can be created, changed, distorted and manipulated using our imagination. Dreams can diverge (often greatly) from reality.
GOALS are specific objectives. They are concrete, definitive, and clear. They provide a roadmap for your life, your decisions, your habits, and your behaviors. With knowledge of your goals, you can write your own human software to run your personal programs that help you reach your goals. One way or another, you are going to run human software and you are going to spend your time. You might as well run good software to help you reach your goals.
“If You Don’t Control Your Time, Someone Else Will Gladly Do It For You.”
Everybody wants some of your time; employers, corporations, politicians, Hollywood, and the media. The Forces of Evil will want to greatly influence your time. They will want you to work at their companies so you can make money to buy their houses, and cars, and clothes, and use your time to play their video games. They will want you to listen to them so they can get elected and make rules that are going to make your life awesome (so they promise).
You need to know what it is that you want your life to be about.
- What is it that you want to accomplish?
- Who do you want to accomplish it with?
- What do you want to become?
- What are you about?
- How do you want to live your life?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, there is a long list of entities that will choose for you. The results for your life will end up far less than desirable.
The food companies will feed you crap while they “save you time.” The healthcare industry will sell you drugs to make up for the exercise that you missed as you tried to “save your time.” Your employer will tell you exactly what to do, what to say, how to dress along with other decisions for you to “save your time.” The government will try and help you run your life. They know better on how you should spend your time.
If you are waking up every single day without knowing what your priorities, your goals, and your objectives are that will move your life forward on the big picture, you are going to end up just like everybody else. You will allow day after day to pass where you “just can’t find the time” to make yourself smarter, make yourself healthier, make yourself wealthier, and make yourself happier. You are like a hamster on a wheel that never gets off.
But somehow, you’ll find the time to watch TV, read crap news, listen to the same songs repeatedly, and keep moving into bigger homes further away from your job so you can spend that much more time in your car listening to crap news and listening to your same songs repeatedly. You can come home so exhausted that all you want to do is watch TV.
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” – Harvey Mackay
STOP WITH THE MADNESS! You are never going to “find the time” to do anything different than what you are doing every day. You are going to have to “make the time” to do things that are going to change your life and transform yourself from the person you are today to the person that you want to become tomorrow. When I say, “make the time,” it’s about modifying how you use your time as you can’t make more time literally (although you can extend your longevity if you are smart with your health). You are going to have to make the time to do the tasks necessary to improve whatever it is you want to improve.
- Maybe that is playing the guitar, in place of social media
- Maybe that is reading books to make yourself smarter, instead of watching more TV
- Maybe that is training and exercising to make yourself healthier, instead of eating more desserts
- Maybe it is spending more time with your spouse and kids to have better relationships at home instead of texting each other
- Maybe it is starting a small business that can grow into a bigger business that gets you away from your crappy dead-end corporate job that is going to be outsourced to a robot or someone on the other side of the earth for 10% of what they are paying you today instead of working overtime at a job you hate.
That’s where a simple piece of paper and a pencil can come in handy.
- Have you written down your goals and objectives?
- Have you taken an inventory of how you really spend your days?
- Do you know where your time is going each day?
Personal excellence is living a daily life that leads you towards your own personal goals and objectives as best as you can. That comes from implementing the discipline and habits necessary to get 1% better each day. It’s not realistic to think that you can change your entire life overnight. You aren’t going to lose 20 pounds in 10 days and keep it off for good. That’s not how things work.
“If you improve 1% a day, then in 100 days, guess what? You’re 100% better.” – Ken Carter
The best lives are those that move towards simplicity and freedom. Mastery comes not just from knowing what to do but also what to cut out. What is unnecessary? What is waste? When you choose one thing it comes at the cost of pursuing something else. You can’t have everything. But you have to choose what it is that you really want in life. Then do the daily tasks necessary to keep yourself moving in that direction
Once you get organized, time management becomes 100% easier with far less stress and anxiety. You stop wasting time on things that don’t move the needle in your life. You no longer worry about things on your to-do list that never get done because you know that those really aren’t as important as other meaningful items.
You only get 24 hours in a day. But that is the same as everybody else. You don’t get more time. They don’t get more time. It’s how you use your time that matters.
“Time = Life. Therefore, waste your time and you waste your life. Master your time and you master your life.” – Alan Lakein
Are you always stressed and anxious and can’t find the time to do what is important? Have you written down your goals and objectives that allow you to find items that you should NOT be spending your time on? Sit down and spend time getting clarity on your goals and objectives. Write them down. Post them where you can see them often. Align your daily habits and behaviors with your goals.
Do I think you can do better with your time management? Yes, I believe in you. Do you know deep down that you are capable of pulling more out of yourself? Yes, you know you can give a little bit more and dig in. You can achieve success and move the ball forward as long as you are taking steps in the right direction making progress bit by bit. Your goal today is to improve upon who you were yesterday. If you do that, there’s no telling how far you can go.
Are you spending your time on what matters and eliminating the time spent on what doesn’t?