We’re all aware that many people feel that we must be careful
when focusing on money or affluence or abundance
; that in the
pursuit of those things, there is danger. If you pursue money and
affluence to the exclusion of other values in life, you have lost,
not won.
However, let’s consider this question: If you
could do
better financially,
should you? In the time you have
allotted to labor, economics, success, achievement, productivity, the
creation of value, the development of skills and creativity, if you
could do better, should you?
I believe one of the greatest satisfactions of living life to the
fullest is doing the best you can with whatever you have. Doing
anything less than your best has a way of eroding the psyche. We are
creatures of enterprise. Life seems to say to us, “Here are the raw
materials your creativity, and 24 hours to use it. What
splendid things can you produce?”
The Enterprising Person
Enterprising people are those people disciplined and dedicated
enough to seize opportunities that present themselves … regardless
of the current situation, struggles, or obstacles.
Think of a few people you know who are enterprising. Think of
people in the news, in your office, in your neighborhood, who manage
to succeed regardless of the obstacles. What do these people have in
common? They’re probably always on the go, developing a plan,
following a plan, reworking the plan until it fits. They’re
probably resourceful, never letting anything get in the way. They
probably don’t understand the word
no when it applies to
their visions of the future. And, when faced with a problem, they
probably say, “Let’s figure out a way to make it work,” instead
of, “It won’t work.”
Enterprising people see the future in the present. They will
always find a way to take advantage of situations, not be burdened by
them. And enterprising people aren’t lazy. They don’t wait for
opportunities to come to them; they go after the opportunities.
Enterprising means always finding a way to keep yourself actively
working toward your ambition.
However, we humans can be particularly creative at working at less
than our potential.
Work Smarter
It’s an obvious, yet often overlooked truth:
rich people have
24 hours a day. And, poor people have
24
hours a day.
The difference between the rich and the poor is in the management
of that time. Successful people often work harder and longer than
most, but they almost always work
smarter.
If we get more from ourselves, if we can make an hour as valuable
as 10 hours used to be, we can get as much done in a day as we used
to get done in a week. Imagine the potential compounding effect of
working smarter.
By practicing a few simple disciplines every day, you can use time
like the rich with focus and effectiveness.
1) Run the day, or it will run you. Part of the
key to time management is staying in charge. Some will be masters of
their time, and some will be servants. Enterprising people become the
masters of their time.
To master your time, you must have clear written goals for each
day that you keep with you at all times. It helps to create each
day’s list the night before. Prioritize your goals for the day and
constantly review them.
And here’s a good question to ask yourself constantly: Is this a
major activity or a minor activity? By asking that question, you will
reduce the amazingly natural tendency to spend major time on minor
things. In sales training, we are taught that major time is the time
spent in the presence of the prospect, while minor time is the time
spent on the way to the prospect. If you are not careful, you will
spend more time “on the way to” than “in the presence of”
your goals.
Before you answer an email, ask yourself if this is a major
activity or a minor activity. Before you make a phone call, ask
yourself if this is a major phone call or a minor phone call.
Enterprising people don’t let the minor activities distract them
from the major activities the ones that hold the keys to
their success.
2) Don’t mistake activity for productivity. You
probably know some people who always seem to be busy being busy. To
be successful, you must be busy being productive. Some people are
going, going, going, but they’re doing figure eights. They’re not
making much progress. Don’t mistake activity for productivity,
movement for achievement. Evaluate the hours in your days, and see if
there is wasted time that you could manage better.
Remember there is an opportunity cost to
every single activity
you do. The time you spend doing one thing is time you could spend
doing something else. Before investing your time in anything, briefly
ask yourself if this is the highest leverage activity you could be
doing to accomplish the most important priority on your list for the
day. And, make sure the activities on your list for the day are the
highest leverage opportunities to accomplish your short- and long-term
goals.
3) Focus. The third key to time management is
good concentration. You’ve got to zero in on the job at hand and,
like an ant, let nothing stand in your way and let nothing distract
you from the task. Assuming this is a major activity in pursuit of
the highest leverage opportunity available, there should be nothing
more valuable to invest your time in.
This is easier said than done. Concentration takes a lot of
discipline. It takes discipline to demand privacy, to not react to
the minor activities that try to demand your attention, such as new
emails and ringing phones.
If you have a long list of things to get done within one day, do
the toughest one while your concentration is at its peak. If you’re
a morning person, get the job done in the morning. Don’t wait until
the evening when your energy is all spent. Do the jobs that need the
most concentration when your body is best able to handle them.
One of the greatest enemies of this sort of concentration is
worry. Worrying about your future can prevent you from being where
you are right now. We all have worries, and they are useful. But,
don’t let worry distract you. Stay focused on changing what you can
change — that is the only true way to overcome the source of
your worry anyhow.
Enterprise is always better than ease. Every time we choose to do
less than we possibly can, we limit our possibilities — we
stifle our potential. You can alter your life by doing a little more
each day to work smarter, by developing a habit of
efficiency
rather than the habit of
activity.
The Ant Philosophy
When was the last time you saw ants reach an obstacle and give up
with their heads down and head back to the ant hole to relax? Never.
If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they will
look for another way. They’ll climb over, they’ll climb under,
they’ll go around — regardless of the effort involved. What
a neat philosophy, to
never quit looking for a way to get
where you’re supposed to go.
Here’s another question. How much will an ant gather during the
summer to prepare for winter? All that it possibly can. Ants don’t
have quotas or “good enough” philosophies. They don’t gather a
certain amount and then head back to the hole to “hang out.” If
an ant can do more, it does.
Imagine what you could accomplish if you
never quit and
always did all that you could do.
Learn more about
Jim
Rohn and his audio series
The Day that Turned Your Life
Around.
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