Doing the Right Things at the Right Time
Our world seems to go faster and faster every day. We are more connected and more aware of what our friends and business competitors are doing today because of connectivity through social media. The pace seems to increase all the time and I constantly hear, “I don;t have the time to get everything done. I am so overwhelmed by how little time I have.” Here is the secret truth many of us don’t want to hear: you are not going to get everything done.
True success lies not in doing everything we can do in a day, but rather in doing the things we should do. All things are not equal. We think success is striking a balance between competing activities or efforts. The challenge is understanding that not all activities being performed at a particular time are worth our efforts. Sounds strange, right? There are moments or periods of time which require a heavy workload and focus. If you have a major project at work that will take months to complete, it may not be a good time to start a remodeling job of your home.
The questions should really be: “What should I be doing right now?” and “What are the right things I need to be doing?” The successful person understands focusing on the right things at the right time. Their efforts are not wasted on things that are not important at that moment. Experience and wisdom play a big part in understanding what are the “right things at the right time.”
I have a friend who wears basically the same combination of clothes every day. He wears khaki slacks and a white or blue button-down shirt. If you were to look in his closet, you would see all of his pants and shirts hanging by the day they will be worn. He has a schedule and little time is wasted in trying to figure what he is going to wear for the day. He has the mental toughness to know his overall success is not about wasting time picking out clothes, but focusing on important things that need to get done that day or the major project he is working toward completing.
Having a schedule and learning to stick to it eliminates wasting time about what is next and what you may have to do. A big “time loser” is thinking about what is next or what you should be doing now. If you are bouncing from idea to project and you are stopping and thinking about your next step, you could be wasting time and effort. Having a “schedule mind-set” is a game changer. Zig Ziegler scheduled his mornings so that he would be at his first sales call appointment by 9:00 AM (every Monday), regardless of how he felt or how things were going.
What Zeigler discovered early in his career is that by maintaining a schedule, he was able to achieve his goals, not only in sales but in making money. Ziegler believed in making a plan and working a plan. Emotions and feelings were taken out of the equation.
Are you doing the right things at the right time?
See you in McAllen!