Haven’t we all thought of giving up at one time or another?! But, winning isn’t about finishing first - success is about getting up each time you fall.
As we pursue our life’s dreams, we have points at which we stumble, question, and doubt. That’s the best time to pick ourselves up and continue the race.
Watch this latest installment of Simple Truth’s inspirational movies….
Thank you Tish for sharing this with us today!
In today’s busy world most of us multi-task. Getting smart about combining tasks (multi-tasking) can be a very effective time saver. A word of caution: don’t combine high priority tasks. Those higher priorities in your life deserve your undistracted focus.
○ Consider spending time talking with your kids (very important) while you fold the laundry (who knows, they may help)
○ Turn your commute time into educational or entertainment time by listening while driving. These days, almost every book is available in audio format.
○ Put your filing in order while waiting on hold.
You can get much more done when you engage the support of others. Who can you delegate to? Who can you partner with. Relinquish some control and share it with others who are willing and able to support you. You free up much needed time for yourself and leave them empowered with their own sense of accomplishment.
These days we all wear many hats. It can be done with style and grace when we plan to succeed, making the most of our time.
You frantically run around each day attempting to get it all done - juggling work, family, friends. Your endless to-do list just keeps growing … as does your frustration. How can you get more time - to get it all done AND for yourself? Time Management done the right way…
Minimize or Remove Distractions
We all have distractions in our lives. After all, things come up. However, there’s a lot we can do to minimize certain culprits that rob us of our most valued commodity - time.
○ De-clutter your life: Clutter is distracting and takes your focus away from important things. Is your desk or office messy - clean it and get organized. Is your home cluttered - make it a project to go room by room and sell, give away or donate those items that you haven’t used in 1 year or more. Clutter subconsciously suffocates us which is why we can never be at peace while we’re surrounded by it. We naturally focus better when we have space.
○ The 5 minute rule: If it takes less than 5 minutes to complete a task, do it now. Put those dishes in the dishwasher, the clothes in the laundry, make that phone call (if it’s less than 5 minutes) - you get the picture. The little items can pile up and become overwhelming. Do it now. The distraction will be gone and you’ll feel as if you’ve accomplished something.
○ Technology trap: These days we have technology helping us out - but it isn’t always a time-saver. Very often we find ourselves wasting precious time checking email, surfing the internet aimlessly, chatting online and yes, playing mindless computer games. Here’s a hint: ONLY check email during specific times of the day. This is one of the biggest distractions in getting the important things done. Also, limit your internet, chat and computer games time to the “free” time you have - that is AFTER your most important priorities have been addressed.
Time is the one thing we can’t buy more of, borrow, rent, sell or trade. On this, we’re all on the same playing field. So why do some people seem to move effortlessly through their day, accomplishing much AND they seem happy and balanced? Time Management done the right way…create more time by effectively using your 24 hours a day.
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
Brian Tracy said if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. It’s an absolute necessity to plan our days in advance in these fast-paced times. Without some kind of structure in our day, we race from here to there taking much longer than necessary, and get distracted along the way. That’s where time management comes in…
○ Plan your week in advance: Block out specific time slots to complete tasks for the next week. If you work during the day, block after work time for family, household chores, hobbies, etc. It’s important that you know what your priorities are - you’ll plan them first and then your less important priorities.
○ Plan your next day the night before: This is where you can fine tune your schedule for the next day and it takes less than 5 minutes! If something came up that needs to be addressed immediately, you can shuffle your schedule around. When you plan before sleep, you wake up with an expectation of how your day will go and work more effectively.
○ Plan personal time: Time for ourselves always falls through the cracks when we’re ultra busy. This is one of the biggest mistakes we make, thinking there isn’t time for us. When we don’t take the time for ourselves, our batteries run out. What happens then? We have even less energy to get it all done. Even 20 minutes a day of uninterrupted personal time is enough to recharge your batteries.
○ Plan exercise time: Another mistake many of us make - no time for ourselves, definitely no time to exercise. Half of recharging our batteries is mental and the other half physical. Our bodies need movement to remove life-draining toxins from our systems. Again, you don’t have to block out hours of time - commit to 30 minutes a day - all at once or broken into 10 or 15 minute segments.
Planning in time blocks gives us the structure to focus on a task at hand and getting more done. Be flexible - plan to do a little each day on a task, or in larger, less frequent blocks of time. You’ll quickly find yourself getting more done, more effectively.
How do we break free of “try”? How do we set ourselves up to succeed? Begin with changing our language.
Get honest with yourself (and others)…
You do or you do not. You do want something, do act on something, do work towards something - or not.
Here’s the key - DECIDE. When you decide, you’re telling your subconscious mind to go to work on finding ways to get what you want. When you decide, you make it happen - no matter what.
Feel how different “decide” feels from “try”. Can you feel the expectation of success in decide? Can you feel the change in energy in your body? Can you feel the conviction that you’ll do whatever it takes once you’ve decided?
There’s no room for failure in decide - you’ll keep going until you succeed.
Raising Your Standards:
One of the key ways to raise your standards is to stay true to your word - to yourself and others - but most importantly to yourself. When you say you’ll do something, do it. When you don’t want to do something, or have no intention of doing something, say so. Remove “try” from your vocabulary and insert “do” … or “don’t”.
○ DECIDE - decide what you want
○ COMMIT - commit to seeing it through to success
○ RESOLVE - resolve to work through any obstacles that may come up
You know what you want. Choose to include in your life more of what you want, less of what you don’t and to more honestly express your choices. Not only will you respect yourself more but others will as well.
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
~ Yoda
(fictional character from George Lucas’s “Star Wars”)
How often have you “tried” to do something and failed…often miserably. There’s yet another reason to not try again - another example of failure. Soon you just give up trying and stay stuck in a life of mediocrity that may feels comfortable, but erodes your soul every day you exist there, until you wake one day and wonder what happened. You question why other people seem to have all the luck and you don’t. It may surprise you to know that by removing one word from their language, these same “lucky” people have lifted the lid from their mediocre lives and have begun living the life they truly want to live.
“Try” is the language of failure. Subconsciously, your mind registers “try” as the assumption that you’ll expend energy without the expectation of results. So why even bother trying? Sometimes we’re just kidding ourselves, and other times we’re just kidding others. When is the last time you told a friend you’d “try” to make it to their party, never intending to show up. I’ll bet your friend knew you wouldn’t show up even if you didn’t admit it to them.
As with your friend, when you use the language of “try” on yourself, you’re excusing your lack of action and follow through before you even start. Essentially, you don’t want to do what you’re saying you’ll try to do. It’s like a pre-emptive excuse - Well, I tried!
Want success? Change your language!
Susan Boyle is a shining example of how the dream never dies. She recently catapulted to online stardom after auditioning for Britains Got Talent, a reality show spin-off of American Idol. And yes, both shows feature Simon Cowell as the hard-edged, sometimes cynical judge giving straight forward feedback to the contestants’ performances.
As she steps onto the stage, determined to follow her dream, she’s met with doubtful looks and ridicule from the audience and judging panel alike - her dream is to be a professional singer and to be as successful as Elaine Page. You see, Susan is 47 years old and does not represent the stereo-typical beauty queen, or what we think of when we think “star” material.
Undeterred, she begins to sing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables, and no more than 3 notes are released before she’s surrounded by cheers from both the audience and the judges alike.
She’s captured our hearts and our souls and has earned the respect and admiration of us because she represents what’s possible for each and every one of us. She showed courage, determination and perseverance. A shining example indeed.
Watch her performance here…be prepared to be moved - tears and goosebumps.
(This link will take you off this site to view the video.)
One of the lines in ”I Dreamed A Dream” is ….my life has killed the dream I dream. What dream have you stopped dreaming because you thought it was too late? What excuses have you given yourself to not go after what’s deepest in your heart? What have you let stop you?
What are you now ready to do about it?
Coach John Wooden redefined his own definition of success in 1939 when he was a high school coach in Bend, Indiana. Why is this important? The message that Mr. Wooden shares is not only inspirational, but will tempt you to take a look at your own paradigms about success.
Where do you come from? I don’t mean the physical location, but the people you come from - your environment. You see, the lessons you learned growing up are likely the beliefs you now carry with you. These beliefs shape who you are, how you do things, how you interact with others, and yes, how successful you’ll become.
Here’s an example: I come from a family of hard workers, so I learned the value and rewards of working hard and being the best at whatever I do. I also learned the importance and the role of family in my life which has affected my relationships both inside and outside of my “family”. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that integrity is a lifestyle, not something to practice only when you’re being watched - after all, once lost it will be harder to re-establish.
So, where do you come from? Do you carry good or bad habits - or both? What’s your current environment and does it support you, or hold you back?
The good news is, no matter where you come from, or even what your current environment is, you can change it.
The ability to live a full and rewarding life is in each and every one of us. Understanding that we are unique from each other, and therefore, have the capacity to think unique thoughts and create ideas uniquely our own, is the foundation of successful living.
James T. Moore’s “One and Only You” is one of those ‘unique’ illustrations of possibility.
One And Only You
Every single blade of grass,
And every flake of snow—
Is just a wee bit different …
There’s no two alike, you know.
From something small, like grains of sand,
To each gigantic star
All were made with THIS in mind:
To be just what they are!
How foolish then, to imitate—
How useless to pretend!
Since each of us comes from a MIND
Whose ideas never end.
There’ll only be just ONE of ME
To show what I can do—
And you should likewise feel very proud,
There’s only ONE of YOU.
That is where it all starts
With you, a wonderful
unlimited human being.
~James T. Moore
