Time Management - A Fresh View
Last week I had the privilege of spending some quality time with
a dear friend. Unfortunately we live on opposite sides of the
world, so we do not spend a lot of time together, but when we do
get together it is an uplifting experience.
Paul and his wife, Glenys have just finished moving into a
beautiful new dream home that they have built. It was the first
time that I had seen it, and after showing me through the house
we went outside and looked out over their land. Paul pointed out
where the large spa pool would be, and how there would be a lake
over there, where the Monet bridge would be, and how the paths
would be laid out.
I recalled how when we had last met, almost a year before, Paul
told me that they had found a piece of land and bought it, and
they were going to build their new dream home, a Quaker barn on
it. He had described to me how it would look, what it would be
made of, and especially how his new workshop would be laid out,
and now he had just shown me through the actual completed
building.
It reminded me of something I first heard from Jim Rohn, many
years ago. Jim said something to the effect that humans were the
only species that could start something after it was finished.
What did he mean by that? He meant that we could completely
build something in our mind before we started physically
building it.
So how does this relate to time management? Imagine if someone
had visited Paul when he was just starting to build the house.
All the materials are there on his land, and the visitor asked
Paul what he was building. Imagine Paul had answered that he
didn't really know, but he would just see what it turned into
when it was finished. Do you think that Paul would now be living
in his dream home? I very much doubt it.
But many of us live our lives by just seeing how it turns out.
We would never just collect up some building materials and start
putting them together and see how it turns out. But we do get up
in the morning, do whatever we are in the habit of doing during
the day, and then go back to bed, and repeat the process day
after day. We build our lives by taking whatever comes to us
each day, and putting it together to see what it turns out to be.
Consider how much more productive it would be if we didn't get
up in the morning until we had decided what we would build with
our day. We would usually move ourselves a step closer to our
goals each day, in spite of what the day threw at us.
When we are born, we all start out exactly the same, with
essentially the same potential. From then on we use that
potential differently, and achieve different results. By
understanding how and why we achieve different results, we can
take control of our results from this day on, and change the
whole direction of our lives.
The 'Power of the Mind' training gives a deeper understanding of
how we can establish worthwhile and meaningful goals, and then
move toward achieving them day by day.