Put Your Minutes Where Your Mouth Is

A HUGE difference between the leaders who make things happen and those who do not is how they prioritize their time.

Leaders who make things happen schedule their lives around what needs to get done. Leaders who don’t make things happen do the exact opposite, scheduling what needs to get done around their lives.

The difference is priorities.

If meeting your deadline isn’t more important than going to the football game or getting eight hours of sleep, then you probably don’t have what it takes.

I’m not saying that football is bad. I’m just saying that I simply cannot go. I just can’t get it all done in time and still catch a four-hour game. If you want to lead a team of people who are so invested in your vision that they are willing to sacrifice certain things to help you accomplish it, then the sacrifices must first start with you.

Ask yourself this question: What are most people spending time on that I could probably live without?

You must be intense about finishing on a deadline, and that might mean sacrificing a lot of recreational things.

The key is to know thyself.

You know what you need to get done, and you ought to know how long it will take you to finish it. If you’re serious about making it happen, you must design days around completing what you know needs to be completed in order to make things MOVE.

Here’s another hint: 40 hours a week won’t cut it.

If you’re spending half the “workday” cleaning out your inbox, maybe it's time to start waking up at five. Leadership is not exclusive to eight-hour windows. You have to set the tone. If you possess a 9-5 mentality, so will the people you are leading.

Every leader I’ve met who is really killing it puts in an average of around 80 HOURS PER WEEK!

Leaders have to think like entrepreneurs. It’s funny to me that I’ve never seen an entrepreneur just standing around the water cooler with a cup of coffee. The doers don’t have time for that; they’re too busy grinding away.

The bottom line is that success is built by chunks of time. And a successful leader has that time built in.

If you’re truly serious about making it happen, put your minutes where your mouth is.

Of course, if you are that serious, you probably already do. Keep it up!

What techniques do you have for blocking out distractions and getting things done?

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Robert D. Smith is the author of 20,000 Days and Counting, a crash course in living each day with maximum purpose and intensity. He also writes about entrepreneurship, personal growth. Most people measure their lives in years. But how would our thought processes change if we measured our lives in days? The average American lifespan is 28,649 days. He asks, "What if you were able to accomplish MORE TODAY than most people accomplish all year?" Decisions you make right now can change your life forever. …We do choose how we will live. May you have a glorious ending by beginning today.

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:46 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | This post is about Personal Development