Tag Archives: time

What Success Isn’t

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A recent blog entry from John Maxwell really struck a cord today.  He talks about what success isn’t, and what people often mistake for success.  The very first point around wealth is so very true.  A lot of people have said I know millionaires, I know people with tons of money, blah blah.  That may be fine and dandy but that does not make them successful. 

To counter that and in my own opinion, do they have wealth in ALL area’s of their life?  Do they have the time to spend with their families? Do they have their faith on track? Do they do the things they want to do and have the ultimate freedom to do that?  Success is not measured by wealth no matter how you try and twist it.

There is more around this concept, so check out John’s blog.

http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/2012/05/29/success-what-it-isnt/

Distractions

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distractions2Life is sure full of them that’s for sure.  Your exposure to them and how you handle them will most certainly determine your success in whatever it is your doing.  I’ll put a disclaimer out there this isn’t JUST about our Amway business because I know some out there will try and twist it around and make it out that way.  I was thinking about it today because we are packing and moving to a larger place on the south end of town and while the thoughts are fresh in my mind I figured I’d write about it. 

Distractions or as some may call it, life, can certainly throw some curve balls and distract you from your overall goal, whatever that may be.  For us we are moving and with that comes a ton of things you need to do in order to prepare and get setup in the new place. Utilities, moving vehicle, asking friends and family to help, purchasing things to fill voids in a new place or things that broke in the move, the list goes on and on and on.  For most it can easily be an excuse to not do the things that we originally have set out to do.  What I’ve learned in the last two years is really how to prioritize things in my life and really be a master of my schedule.  A great book I read on this even before I got involved with World Wide Dreambuilders and Amway, was a book called ‘Getting Things Done’ and it talks a lot about prioritization and organization.

Continuing with my example of moving, I could easily fall into the procrastination trap and wait until the last week or two and pack like crazy.  Studying success principals has taught me that maybe I should start earlier than later.  Yet some may say that just sounds like common sense, and it is, but I can’t tell you how many people I’ve moved in my lifetime that leave everything to the last minute.  Doing things earlier not only makes it easier but it gives me time to do other things and it reduces the stress in my life significantly. 

For us those other things include continuing to build our business and sow into the people we are working with by showing the plan, doing counsel sessions, meet and greets in our own business and in our tap roots, and so on and so on.  We can’t use the excuse that we are moving to distract us from the people we’ve committed to help build their own organizations.  Other things like date night(s) which are very important to keeping our relationship on track and making sure we at minimum set some dates to reconnect.  You’d be surprised how little couples do this.  Things like family time and making sure W gets to see his Grandparents and other family members.  The list goes on but if we get distracted by things that really shouldn’t be a distraction and apply some success principals to our lives, we’d be much better off and get a lot more accomplished. 

Its easy to read some books and say you’ll put these types of principals in place, but if you don’t get around others that do the same, you could end up spinning your tires or be frustrated why you let distractions get the best of you.  Learn to control them and you’ll be that much more successful in whatever it is your doing.

Time and TV

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“I don’t have any time”, “I’m too busy”, very common phrases these days I either hear or overhear on a daily basis.  I’ve known traditionally the TV is the biggest consumer of people’s time and did a little research on just how much time TV consumes.  I think you’ll be quite surprised what I found by heading to the ultimate guide on TV watching, the Nielsen Cross Platform Report. 

I’m not going to go over the whole report, you can do that here.  What you’ll be shocked to learn is overall TV viewership has increased 22 minutes per month per person over the last year.  The highest quintile is clocking in nearly TEN hours per day!  The newest trend that is starting to take note is streaming video online and this too is measured since more and more people are doing that.

Nielsen Cross Platform Report Q1 2011

You’ll see on the above report the highest quintile in 2011 Q1 is 598 average daily minutes for 2+ people.  Divide that by 30 days and divide that by 2 and you get the nearly 10 hours per day they are talking about.  The report is quite interesting however the overall summary on time spent watching TV is that people spend a lot of time doing it!

Those who say they are to busy for the gym, to busy to hang out, to busy to change things about their life, to busy to read, to busy to cook/eat healthy, to busy to involve their kids in other activities or join them in activities, to busy to clean, to busy to walk the dog/take are of animals, to busy for your spouse/date night, and the list goes on and on.  People use this wimpy excuse of “I’m to busy” and for the most of us that’s a crock of you know what.

If you’ve ever said your to busy for whatever, check your TV watching habit and I’ll bet you you can cut out just a few hours a night or even a week and you’ll have more time on your hands for those things that are more important than the boob tube. 

Lets do a little math for fun…(I’ll round down to 9 hours and keep that constant)

  • 9 Hours a day x 7 days a week = 63 Hours a week of TV
  • 63 Hours a week x 52 weeks in a year = 3,276 hours of TV a year
  • 3,276 hours divide by 24 hours = 136.5 days of TV watching
  • 136.5 days x 10 years (10 years is within that demographic range) = 1,365 days of TV watching
  • 1,365 days of TV watching divide by 365 days = 3.74 years of TV watching in 10 years.

Now that is pretty damn scary when you get down to how many years of TV watching are in 10 years.  Something to think about, however no matter how slice and dice the numbers, people are watching WAY to much TV.

watching_tv

Rough Day

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bad_dayI had somewhat of a rough day today and while that sucks it’s more important to put the day behind you and start fresh tomorrow.  However there were two things that helped make the last part of my day really good.  One, building our business and investing time into others.  We did a follow up for someone in our business who is building depth and getting out there and getting in front of people who uplift you really turns things around.  I also love working with other leaders who take control of their lives and want to help others as well.  Such a great feeling.

The second thing that really made things better was when I got home from the follow up my wife made Pad Thai and that has to be my favourite dish she makes.  She knows how to make me happy and food is just the way.  I love the fact that my wife knows just what to do when I’ve had a crappy day.  I also know to check my crappy day at the door and not let it bring her down because she had a great day with our son.  I guess that’s also something else that makes me happy, seeing my son.  He just melts my heart and can do no wrong. :)

If you’re having a rough day make sure you leave it at the door, that’s the best advice I can give!

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

Wealthy in All Areas of Life

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MoneybagWe often equate people who have a lot of money as being wealthy.  They are typically people who own a business or are successful entrepreneurs in various fields and industries.  Wealth, depending on what your value system is, can take on many forms.  I think the average mentality of wealth is someone who is rich, has millions, has a lot of investments and owns multiple businesses.  I could be wrong but I’m going to put a stake in the ground based on what I hear from people over the years.  Wealth doesn’t necessarily have to just be money, I think the biggest thing that’s missing from the wealth equation is time.

Time is the most expensive commodity and something we can never get back once it’s gone.  Time is the most expensive resource known to man and should be included within your wealth and treated with more importance than money.  You can be rich and have all the money in the world yet if you are a salve to whatever is creating that money then to me your not wealthy at all.  What good is a ton of money if you don’t have the time to spend any of it?  Personally I’d rather have more time than money as I believe it’s more important.  I’d rather be debt free, have all the time in the world and have a small amount of money than a large amount of money and no time to do anything with it.

You hear of many parents who run a family business that are pretty much a slave to the business, they cannot step away from it and while they may have turned a profit after the initial 2-5 years, they need to continue working at it.  Not saying every business is like this but talk to your Pita Pit, Subway, or any other traditional franchise and ask if the owner is working. I’d say about 80% of the time its the owner making your food.  I love talking to these guys and have talked to many, that’s where I come up with the 80% that owners are the ones slaving away.  Its almost sad in a way because with the recession that’s still going on a lot of these businesses have had to let their staff go and the wife and husband are the ones working behind the counter. 

So money and time are pretty big in wealth, but how about your relationship with your spouse.  Is it a healthy one?  Are you constantly at battle and stressed at each other? (Top reason most couples fight is because of money).  Do you have that time thing I talked about before and spend enough of it with your spouse?  Are you doing things to ensure you work at your marriage instead of letting it slip away.  Do you respect your spouse?  I think that’s a huge one and to be honest most of us don’t respect our spouses and I’ll give you some examples right now.

  1. Calling your wife the old lady, ball in chain, etc. I used to hear “old lady” from my x-boss all the time, to me that’s just disrespectful. 
  2. When your with “the guys” and people end up talking about their wives in a negative way.  This also goes for when girls are with “the girls”.  What right do you have to put your spouse down when amongst your friends?  I see this ALL the time at lunch time or when I’m out with the guys golfing or having a drink.  You will never catch me say anything negative about my wife.
  3. I could go on with many more examples but I think you get the picture, have some respect for your significant other 24/7, regardless of who your with.

I think those three combined is what determines someone as being “Wealthy”.  It’s not just as simple as having a lot of money, as said before if you have no time to spend it, what does it matter?  When you have that time and money how is your relationship so that when you are together do you take advantage of it in a great way.  Everyone has their own opinion and really it’s based on your value system of what makes you wealthy.  More to think about I guess.

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBloggingChallenge