It is our beliefs that drives our behaviours,... our
behaviours that create our results. So if you don't like what you got, you got to change your behaviours. The
only way to change your behaviour is to revisit your belief system.
Learn from the experts because the experst already travelled through this
journey. They have already done this kind values clarification. They have already arrived at some conclusions of wisdoms, an incite about life and about
living.
It's not the circumstances in which you find yourself that defines the person
who you become. It is always,... it is always the choices you make in your
life.
Stop Doing list. To do is transactional, to stop doing (your stop
doing list) leads you to your list called "to be"... I must be, before I can do.
It's amazing how relational-capital,... Relational capital is the bridge that connects us with both success and significance in
life.
"Time is the stuff of which life is made" - Benjamin
Franklin. Learning to manage the limited time we have each day is a common theme in many peoples life. Don't we all want to be able to
squeeze more productivity and efficiency into our days so that we can accomplish more of what we want?
A wise person once said, "A millionaire and a beggar both
have 24 hours in a day. It's what they do in these 24 hours that make the difference."
So why is it that some people seem to accomplish so much in
their allotted day and some people seem to get no where, stressed and pulling their hair out? The secret lies in their time management
skills.
More... A popular analogy that illustrates time management at work is the one
about the rocks and the jar. The story goes; A professor wanting to instill the virtues of time management placed out onto the table a
'wide-mouth' mason jar in front of his students.
Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one by
one, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked,
"Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." Then he said, "Really?"
He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some
gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the space between the big rocks.
Then he asked the group once more. "Is this jar full?" By this time the class was
on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered.
"Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand.
He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.
Once more he asked the question. "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted.
Once again, he said, "Good!". Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.
The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put
the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all.
What are the big rocks in your life?
Here are some simple tips to help you put the big rocks first in your life:
1. Crisis Management.
Management guru Peter Drucker says that "crisis management is actually the form of management preferred by most managers" The
thing to bear in mind is that if you spend your life filled with crisis and the small stuff which is represented by the gravel and the sand then
you'll never have room to fit in the big rocks in your life. The irony is that actions taken prior to the crisis could have prevented the fire in
the first place. So the best way to prevent crisis from occurring is to schedule your big rocks first into your life. The big rocks are your
dreams, relationships, life goals, the things that are most important to you that will lead to fulfillment in life.
2. Don't mistake action with productivity.
Imagine witnessing a hamster running its heart out on one of those spinning wheels. The hamster may be giving its all and
running as fast as he can but it's spinning in the one place. It never really gets anywhere and so it is with many people. They run from crisis
to crisis, meeting to meeting, event to event without really making any real progress from one year to the next on where they want to go. Today
starts to look a lot like yesterday and you begin to dread tomorrow because you know it's going to look like today. So instead of going around in
circle, stop once in a while and reflect on what your goals are and whether you are making any progress with them. There is no point burning
yourself out if you aren't getting any closer to your goals or outcomes that you are looking for.
3. Take time out for regular reviews.
At the end of each day, you should take a few minutes to sit down and review the day. Write down in a journal all the things
that went well and all the things that didn't go to plan. Write them without judgment and decide to take one of the things that didn't go to plan
and come up with an idea to either prevent it in the future or solve it in the present. Then with the things that did go well, figure out what
actions or decisions preceded it and see how they can be implemented more frequently into your life. The idea is you will encourage yourself to
make consistent small positive changes in your life which won't seem drastic when seen from day to day but the benefits in the long term can be
enormous. The Japanese even have a name for this concept of continuous improvement, they call it 'Kaizen' and it was instrumental in them
becoming an industrial powerhouse. The great thing about small continuous improvement in your life is that anyone can do it. Jim Rohn once said
"Life asks us to make measurable progress in reasonable time. That's why they make those fourth
grade chairs so small so you won't fit in them at age twenty-five!"
4. Change your focus.
So often people focus on the work and being seen to be doing something instead of the fruits of the harvest which comes from
the outcomes and results of the action. Jim Rohn says "There are some things you don't have to know how it works - only that it works. While some
people are studying the roots, others are picking the fruit. It just depends on which end of this you want to get in on." So if you have a task
which can be better performed by someone else, then learn to delegate. It is more important to measure your day by the end result then to be
focused on the unimportant stuff of doing.
About the Author
For the young at heart, find inspiring and motivating articles for every aspect of your life. For more information visit:
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