There is never a shortage of time. Instead, there is a confusion of priorities. – Unknown
This quote was in one of my favorite personal finances blogs: http://financialmentor.com/
If you’re feeling busy, is it because you are doing busy-work?
Can you step back and clarify your priorities and invest your time with your true priorities?
The other stuff will likely take care of itself.
You can either look for reasons to succeed, or find excuses to fail. What are you searching for? – Desmond Howard
Are you looking for the obstacle or the opportunity?
Can you replace, “Here’s why it can’t work” with “How CAN I make this work?”
Instead of NO, what can you say YES to?
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are – Eleanor Roosevelt
What can you DO today?
Which talent, skill, or expertise do you HAVE that everyone seeks your advice on?
Start from where you are. What FIRST STEP can you take?
No choice is a choice too – Yiddish proverb
When you don’t act, you agree to stay right where you are.
If you mean to look for a new job but don’t, you accept your old job over again.
If you mean to get fit but don’t change your exercise routine or diet, you choose the health you have now.
Are you satisfied with your choices?
Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun. – Christina Rossetti
What have you always wanted to do but didn’t?
Start that now.
I did what I understood, and what I was interested in, and what I loved. It was not reckless, as I secretly worried it was, but neither was it as brave as some people have suggested. It was urgent and irresistible – like falling in love with exactly the wrong person by all objective standards and exactly the perfect one by the only standard that matters to you. – Martha Fay – on buying a house in Italy
I might be closing on some property myself in a few months. Nothing as exciting as a house in Italy, but exciting for me nonetheless. Fay’s description of “urgent and irresistible” is exactly how I feel about my passion for real estate investing.
What are you passionate about?
What hobbies or goals make you feel like you’re falling in love?
Are you able to dismiss naysayers who might say you’ve picked the wrong one “by all objective standards” and instead stick to “exactly the perfect one by the only standard that matters to you?”
The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
That successful people create their own love, meaning and motivation implies it’s all up to you. How will you create your next opportunity?
The notion of having two “main philosophies” to drive your decisions is interesting. What are your main philosophies?
My main drivers are fun and money on the professional side. Not as altruistic as deGrasse Tyson, but authentic to me. When I’m considering a work project, I ask: 1) will I enjoy this, regardless of the outcome; and 2) will a positive outcome have enough of an upside to say NO to other things. What are the questions you ask yourself to decide on a commitment or goal?
If you want help staying focused on your big goal for 2015, I will be co-presenting a webinar on Focus with peak performance coach Renita Kalhorn (she coaches Navy SEAL candidates on mental toughness!). Full details on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/focus-make-2015-the-year-things-happen-tickets-15308583385
After you’ve done a thing the same way over two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over. – Alfred Perlman
End of year is usually when people get introspective. Take advantage of that reflection and ask the big question Perlman implies. What do you need to throw away and start all over?
This might be difficult to admit – it could be a relationship you’ve outgrown. It could a belief that is preventing you from making a change or taking a chance. It could be a habit that you do by default.
Make a list of any areas you’d like to improve. Try to think of at least 5 alternatives to take in each area.
Don’t assume you need to more of the same thing.
Time has a wonderful way of weeding out the trivial. – Richard Sapit
We’re almost at the end of another year. What did you spend it on?
Did you worry about things that didn’t happen?
Did you complain about slights that no longer matter or problems that worked themselves out?
What do you want to carry over into next year?
What do you want to discard?
“Now” is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream. You don’t need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating. – Barbara Sher
What could you do right now that moves you toward your goal?
Set a timer for 15 minutes so it’s not a big block of time, and just do something. If you mean to do more networking, email people in your contact list that you haven’t connected with in the last 30 days. Do part of that exercise routine you mean to do regularly. If you want to do more reading, pick something up and read as far as you can in 15 minutes.
Stay at 15 minutes for at least a week so you work on consistency and routine and not just duration. You also now build you goal into a daily habit.