What other people think can influence what you do and what you’re willing to do. It can be embarrassing to put yourself in front of others. Don’t let that stop you. Accept the discomfort and do it anyway.
Month / May 2016
Who Cares What They Think
Switching It Off and On Again
The Work Must Be Known
You cannot work without knowing what to work on.
Without knowing, there can only be the appearance of work. Without knowing, there can only be the appearance of busyness. Without knowing, you can sit at a desk and put in the time but be no further along than when you started.
To do actual, meaningful work, the work must be known.
The problem is that figuring out what the work should be doesn’t look like work. It looks like laziness. It looks like you’re not trying. It looks like you’re not doing anything. It looks like you’re not busy. And if you don’t look busy you can’t be doing anything worthwhile. It’s what others might tell you. It’s what you might tell yourself.
Put up with the discomfort. The work must be known.
Those Are the Rules
Time Creation
Many of us want to create, to make, to do.
But we don’t have the time. Our lives are so packed, so busy, that we have no extra time available. It feels like there is no way we could possibly do anything else in our day.
It’s not true though. The one way all of us on this earth are equal is that we all get exactly the same amount of time in a day. 24 hours. 1,440 minutes. 86,400 seconds. Not a one of us gets more than that.
From those hours, those minutes, those seconds, we must create the time we need. We must remove useless things from our time and use the time we reclaim more wisely.
It may be simple things like watching less tv, or spending less time on our phones. It may be changing how we commute, train instead of car, so we can do something while we travel. Whatever it is we do we must use it to create time for the thing we want to do.
If we wish to create we must first create time.
What’s On Your Mind Gets Done
If you’re thinking about something a lot, because you’re worried about it or excited about it, it’s what you’ll work on. Even if it’s not the most important thing. Even if it’s trivial.
When you get up in the morning you’ll work on that first. Because it’s on your mind. It’s what you’re thinking about, so it’s what you do. Even if other matters are more pressing.
When you get done with what was on your mind the day is mostly over. You’ve not started that important thing you should have been working on.
The only way to win is to work on the important. Either make it what’s on your mind or follow a routine so you work on the important things first.
It’s All About the Goal, Just Not Always
You’ve got your head down, working hard on that big project. When you finish it you’ll have achieved a major goal. Right now, your entire life is directed at that goal, towards fulfilling it.
But you do realise you can’t just focus on that? You can’t neglect everything else. The emails, the accounts, the sales, the budgets, eating right, exercising, the list goes on and on. If you think you’re just doing it for a little while you’re only fooling yourself. Do you think that by achieving your goal you’ll suddenly have less to do? You won’t. You’ll probably have more. If you neglect everything else now you’re dooming yourself.
If you don’t look after emails you might miss out on that big break. Maybe that big break is a sale for your company. Maybe it’s a speaking opportunity. If you don’t look after your accounts you might end up in financial difficulties. If you stop eating right you might not have the energy to finish your project.
The trick is to focus enough on the big project to keep it moving but not so much that everything else goes off the rails. It’s difficult but worth it. It’s all about the goal, just not always.