Tag Archives: time

Digging in to Overcome

Yes, there are going to be bad days. Yes, we’re all going to feel like we’re diving into the deep end. Overwhelmed. Stuck. Frustrated.

It all happens. To the smallest pea in the pod to the largest pumpkin in the patch.

What also happens is time continues to tick on, unrelenting.

So, as to not remain in a rut of overwhelm, give up the habit of waiting and pick up the habit of keepin on.

Keep doing. One step at a time. If it helps, sure, think about what’s getting at you as you keep on too.

One trick that I habitually adapt is to find a creative outlet to contemplate the rut. I write sad and lonely heart felt poems, I sing the most heartbreakingly slow songs I know. The list goes on, because as a human being, the ebb and flow is continual, thus the need to just keep on trying is continual.

Some tips I’ve learned over the years:

nobody is to blame, not even yourself
nobody is perfect, there are no exceptions
you learnt from old mistakes, remember?
is that an excuse running through your mind? Oh no it isn’t!
waiting does not solve anything

To add some comedic inspiration, here’s Mike Falzone.

Far Too Easy Doesn’t Get You Far Enough

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It is far too easy to get caught in a tunnel and keep pushing on according to the latest thing we read on best practices: 10 tips of how to get people to (insert marketing goal here).

Far too easy.

It’s far more smarter – and a little bit harder – to develop a strategy that makes sense to you, and your goals.

It’s time to project our thoughts to the long term.

Case Study Time

So we make this newsletter and send it out quarterly, and in 4 years, after we’ve sent out 16 of them, what will that look like and how do we define success? If we assume that each newsletter is carefully crafted for 3 days (24hrs) by our well paid interns at $20/hr, are we finding a return on investment for one newsletter at $480? After 4 years $7680? After the newsletter has been crafted so meticulously and sent out, where does it retire to?

It’s your answer, not mine.

It’s foolish to think that just one is all that’s necessary: just one newsletter will capture their hearts and they’ll be fans forever; if I make just one widget that sells millions, I’ll be set for life!; I’m going to buy just this one last laptop and make sure it’s the best I possibly can buy and it’ll last me a lifetime.

Sure, just 1 may be all that’s necessary about 1% of the time, but in investments, we want to do everything we can to increase that percentage.

Yes, your time is an investment, and so is the time of every person whose employ you are responsible for.

I’ve talked about this before in a personal mission statement. We define what we want life to look like in 10 years, then we define missions to live by for the next 5 years that will drive us in that direction. Then we break down each one of those missions into critical tasks to focus on day in and day out that when adhered to will find us rolling down in the direction we have planned for all along.

This is not the easy way. This is not reading an article on a cool website with Chinese symbols and following a top 10 things to do to make life count list.

This is pounding the pavement, doing the due diligence. This is planning for success.

This is being aware of the habits you’re getting into and asking yourself why?

Why am I doing this?
Why has this been integrated into my life?
Why do I think this is a smart investment?
If I do a case study from my own life, does history prove this logic correct?
Does this align with my goals?

The more you ask yourself this question, the quicker you’ll get at identifying whether it does align or not. Further, it helps to remind us to consciously think about our direction in life, and encourages us to go forth with fury because we are certain it is our quest. With this confidence, it is impossible to hold back.

Perhaps you have a strategy you use to identify the why that works great for you? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

…because time

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Because we can only do so much in the day, there is a problem.

You see, to do everything one must do in the day, every day must be filled with what we must do. In order to fill every day with what we must do, we must do it, every day, always.

What I’m trying to point out here is that there is no rest. No time off. No pause button. No: “Can I get that back?”

Time has been fairly accurately divided into 24 equally spaced sections – let’s call them hours – for your organizational convenience, not to mention planning helps reduce anxiety and the feeling of overwhelming.

Now: do.

🙂

Don’t Say You Don’t Have Enough Time

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You have exactly the same number of hours a day as Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.

I just read this on a website that, in spite the few spelling corrections I made, I have quoted word for word.

Time is something we cannot control. Time is just a scale that has been conveniently used to organize schedules for our industrial world. But time becomes irrelevant when life is at hand, save for the simple fact that at the end of a stretch of time our human existences will expire.

I know very well the feeling of setting time related goals for myself and getting anxious and angry that I haven’t completed them, which overwhelms me and then pushes me to abandon the goal entirely.

Step away from a time frame. Set goals but let them be quests, not burdens.

So, you want to write a book? Then write it, whenever and however you can. Scrap paper, the back of envelopes, a computer at the public library, or your girlfriends second computer. When it’s out, it’s out. That is the time for it to be completed, and not a moment too early or late.

Or, perhaps you enjoy the daunting feeling of looking at a days to-do list and the impossibility of it all?

Take Your Time

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With the advent of all our technology over the last 50 years or so, we still haven’t been able to invent a device that can stop time. I’m fairly certain this wont change any time soon either (see what I did there?).

So, each moment does count. Whether it’s spent lifting weights, stretching, baking a cake, or typing away at your latest proposal, time is constant and cannot be won back.

Enjoy it.

I encourage you to enjoy every single moment of time that flicks on by no matter what today brings. Taking out the trash? Be aware of the silhouette the trees play against the sky. Typing up a long report? Make sure the soundtrack to your life is set on repeat. Studying for finals? Feel those neurons building mass through knowledge.

See what’s happening here? Awareness.

Passion

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Passion is what life is. No two people have exact same passions, but many people can have similar passions, which provides some sort of connection for us with other beings in this world; some sort of grounds to communicate on and relate.

The secret is to understand what your passions are, study them, learn from them and grow with them in a positive environment.

For myself, to find what my passion is, I need to really understand what my goals are, and what I am trying to do with my life. In reality, the goals and passions kind of sit hand in hand. When I start thinking about these things, my mind naturally flows into the areas of my most passion. Curiously, there are always ideas and thoughts that my passion digs up that are out of this world, while others are logical, standard, and perhaps even productive with any luck!

Without that main effort though, the initial thought: “What is it that I want to do? Where does my mind lead me when I think of tomorrow?” there is no chance at even understanding your true passion.

Passions aren’t just a girlfriend, or love, passion involves hobbies, quests, goals, and accomplishments often summed up in a personal mission statement. They involve anything that when thought about, all other troubles in the world seem to fade away. One believes that to just follow this journey along the passion quest to the end, the world will be complete and fulfilling.

Me? Yes, I truly believe this. An example for me is when I think about photography. Initially it started with a wanting a digital SLR (DSLR) camera, picking out which kind I wanted most, and then having to keep using my old point and shoot camera until I could gather up enough money to get my DSLR. Then it turned into going places to get spectacular photographs that would blow the doors off of National Geographic Magazine. After this, my passion soon turned to how to edit these photos, which format I should be capturing the images in (RAW, JPG, TIFF, etc.) and how to edit them. Learning Photoshop and testing out Paint Shop Pro and all the various builds of each of them was also involving, learning layers and levels and brightness and contrast all turned into one big giant passion soup, something which I enjoy immensely.

For me, it’s easy to identify a passion; it’s something that consumes all of my time. I naturally fall into searching out new ways to do what I’m passionate about, how to become successful; how to grow.

I firmly believe that to be inwardly happy; to be proud and supportive and attentive in every day of your life, one needs to pursue their passions. Once the passions have been categorized or identified then is when the real work starts with brainstorming ideas on how to actively grow and build and master that passion. This takes a lot of focus and positivity to stay aligned with your goals that come with it. One thing to definitely not be afraid of, is when you learn more about your passion, when you grow with your passion you may find that your goals tend to change slightly to align more effectively with your new path, or train of thoughts.

A quote I will leave you with from Gandhi is: “No matter what it is, I make judgment based on the best of my knowledge. If that knowledge shall change and my stance also changes as a result, I will be the first to admit my mistake, and proceed aligned with the new knowledge.”