If Only You Had More Time…

You, like everyone else, are always trying to find more time.  More time to exercise.  More time to cook healthy food.  More time to relax.  More time to hang out with family and friends.  More time to travel.  More time to read.  More time to try new things.  The problem is there is no more time to find.  You only get 24 hours in a day.  No one can get around this – not even the wealthiest and most successful people in the world can buy more time.  Therefore, what you really need to do is learn how to maximize your time.  You need to learn how to prioritize things in your life so they allow you to live the life you want to lead.  And also, so they allow you to achieve the level of success to which you aspire.

Since I’m always looking for better ways to manage my time, and life, here’s a technique I recently came across for prioritizing your to-do list.  Now this assumes you have a to-do list, which whether you have it written down or not you still have one.  However, it just may be in your head with no formal organization.  Now is the time to get your to-do list out, and if you don’t have one you need to make one, then continue reading…

The following is compliments of John Maxwell.

1. Rate each task on your to-do list in terms of Importance:

Critical = 5 points
Necessary = 4 points
Important = 3 points
Helpful = 2 points
Marginal = 1 point

2. Now determine each task’s Urgency:

This month = 5 points
Next month = 4 points
This quarter = 3 points
Next quarter = 2 points
End of year = 1 point

3. Lastly, multiply the rate of Importance by the rate of Urgency:

Example: 5 (critical) x 4 (next month) = 20.

Now take the score for each task on your to-do list and reorder your list from highest to lowest using that score.  You will see all the things ordered on your list in a much more effective manner as opposed to putting 15 things on a to-do list and then starting at number one with no consideration for importance or urgency of the task.

What you may also find is that some things you are spending your time doing fall to the bottom of the list.  And the things that you have not had any time to do find their way to the top of your list because now you’re giving them the importance they deserve.  With exercises like these you will often notice the following:

• You’re wasting your time doing things that are not important.
• You have things on your to-do list that really never need to get done and can be taken off the list altogether.
• You are ignoring, or putting off doing, the things that could make the biggest positive impact on your life.

This exercise will take ten minutes out of your day but could save you hours of time that are being spent on unimportant tasks.  So don’t let another day drift by without a plan to maximize your time.

Happy Wednesday!

(Chad)

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In Search Of Momentum

Momentum is defined as an impelling force.

Do you have an impelling force driving your life’s path?

If you don’t, you need to get some momentum!

Don’t overlook or take for granted the idea of momentum in your life.  Taking action creates momentum.  Today’s opportunities have been shaped by your past actions.  And what opportunities you have tomorrow has everything to do with what actions you take today.

Simply put, taking action creates momentum, which leads to opportunities.

Your level of momentum will directly correlate with the energy around you and the opportunities you will create for yourself.  If you feel like you’re stuck in the mud, it could be because you’re not taking any action and, therefore, you have no momentum to carry you through it.

It is impossible to determine how significant one action will or won’t be to creating momentum for your future.  Sometimes something insignificant can make all the difference.  Therefore, do what you think is right no matter how big or small it may seem to keep your momentum moving forward.  Keep taking action.  The more action you are taking the more feedback you will get and the better your decision-making process will become.  And soon, you will find yourself with the momentum to create a future filled with amazing opportunities.

Now go get some momentum!

Vesel Sreda!

(Chad)

Find A Way!

A lesson from Find A Way by Merril Hoge

One of the things I loved about my brief stint playing for the Bears was having the head trainer, Fred Caito, tell me Walter Payton stories while he was taping me before practice.  One morning, I hopped on the training table and said, “Okay, Fred, fire away.”

A teammate named Maurice “Mo” Douglas then piped in.

“I got one for you,” he said.  And he told this story: “I was just like you,” he began.  “I loved Payton and wanted to be just like him.  So when the Bears drafted me, I wanted to meet him right away and when I did, the first thing I asked is if I could train with him.

“Walter said, ‘Sure,’ so we set a date and a time and I showed up early, I was so excited.  Payton then pulled up in his red Ferrari and stepped out wearing his Roos sweatband with matching sweats and wristbands.  He looked sweet.  The first thing we did was warm up, and then we walked over to the famous hill he trained on.  He explained the goal was to run up the hill as fast as you could and then rest on your walk back down.  So we exploded up the hill.  My heart was beating out of my chest as we reached the top.  I could barely breathe.  I looked over at Payton and he was breathing with ease, like he’d never taken a step.

“On the way back down I caught my breath and asked him how many we were going to do.  Payton looked over and said, ‘Ten.’

“As soon as we reached the bottom, we turned around and headed back up.  I got halfway up the hill and turned around, walked back down, puked, and then got in my car and went home.”

When Mo finished telling his story he said something I never forgot.

“The difference between Walter and me,” he confessed, “was that he wanted it more than me.”

—

Every day you are faced with challenges that test how much you really want to achieve the things you are working towards.  How hard are you really working towards these things?  Are you willing to outwork the guy next to you?  Do you want it more than anyone else?  If you don’t, then stop wondering why you haven’t achieved your dreams.  If you do, then stay focused.  Great will is worth more than smarts and skill.  Change and adversity will become your greatest teachers.  And remember, victory is never the absence of failure – it is the will to be the last one standing.

The path to your dreams will not always be a straight line.  There will be times when you think you don’t have the strength to go on.  There will be times when you want to give up.  There will be times when you don’t want to run another hill sprint.  When this happens, remind yourself of how bad you really want it and remember these three words: find a way.

Happy Wednesday!

(Chad)

What Can I Do To Make This Better?

Imagine it’s New Year’s Eve.  Every restaurant you want to get into is going to be packed.  You know this so you prepare for it by making a reservation.  You make a reservation for 7:00pm with the expectation that when you show up at 7:00pm the restaurant will have a table ready for you.  That’s the whole reason you make a reservation, right?!  Well, some restaurants must have missed that memo.  Instead, what a 7:00pm reservation means is you show up at 7:00pm but you will be seated in the order that you came in the door, the same as every other customer that walks in and didn’t make a reservation.  So instead of sitting down at 7:00pm to eat, you don’t get seated until well after 8:00pm.  So what this basically equates to is this: you tried to do what was right and make the restaurant’s life easier by letting them know when you were coming and how many people you would be with, but they don’t care that you made the extra effort.

It doesn’t end there.  Once you’re finally seated you then get lucky enough to wait another hour before they cook your food.  By the time you eat it’s 9:30pm, recalling that your reservation was for 7:00pm.  Over the course of this 2.5 hour time frame you asked more times than could be counted, when are you going to be seated and when is your food coming out, and not one person took ownership and gave you a direct answer.  Instead, their answers were, “I’m not sure, it’s really busy, maybe in like 10 minutes?”  And you have to accept that answer because that’s the best you can get from a poorly run establishment such as this one.  Nevertheless, you eat your food and enjoy the time you have to spend with your friends and family as the new year comes to an end.

At the end of the night, you get the chance to put the icing on the proverbial cake when you ask to speak to the manager.  This time you get one better.  The owners are there!  Wow!  Think about this for a moment.  The owners of the restaurant are at the restaurant and you just experienced one of the worst levels of service imaginable.  Sad and unbelievable!

So you get your opportunity to speak with the owner.  You explain what happened over the course of the night, because out of compassion for them you think that as an owner you would want to know if people had a bad experience so you could do everything in your power to improve that experience.  So yeah, you are trying to be nice, even though it seems they are doing everything in their power to ruin your last night of the year, and what does the owner do?  They argue with you!  Holy Jesus!!  They argue with you and tell you all of their problems!  News flash!  Customers in your restaurant could give two shits less what your problems are!  They are paying you money.  You should be doing anything in your power to fix any negative experience they have.  You should be bending over backwards to right any wrongs.

But alas, I digress, because some people just don’t get it.

Despite this being a largely negative experience all the owner had to say after listening to everything you had to say was, “what can I do to make this better?”  Wow!  That’s it?!  It’s that simple?!  With those 8 words she could have taken a situation that was bad and made you feel like you really mattered.  She could have offered you to come back for a buy one get one free meal.  Or she could have comped part of your meal that night.  Anything.  Something.  And that is what would have given her an opportunity to create respect and loyalty for her establishment, but she flushed that opportunity down the drain.  Just like her employees she chose to rent the problem instead of owning it and fixing it.  And now it should make more sense why your night was what it was, the owner created a culture inside that restaurant that was just like her.  That of a renter.  And the renter attitude shined like the lights of Times Square.

It’s 2011.  You have a new year ahead of you.  Don’t be like every person in this restaurant – a renter.  When you have problems don’t mope and groan and make excuses about why things are not right or ideal or perfect.  Ask yourself, “what you can I do to make this better” then get to work.  Put yourself in the right mindset to move in a positive direction and to create positive change.

Happy New Year!

(Chad)