Completely out of the blue I asked my son this question...
What's the best thing I've ever shared with you?
We both moved on to other things & frankly I thought he'd forgotten. Eventually, he came over to me & said the best thing I'd shared with him was.........time!
Well, needless to say, this blew me away. We all search for things in which to be proud of our kids but this simple answer struck me as profound for a teenager.
The only thing we all have in common is time. A few years ago I was speaking with a great friend about this subject & he said he explains it to his university students in this way: "Time is like having to spend all your money every day, it's a precious commodity, use it wisely!" -Dr. Joe Spaniola
Think about it, if you were given $1K & had to spend it in 24 hours how would you distribute it? What are your essentials? How do your decisions line up with what's important to you?
Love this quote, we lost a great one when Muhammad Ali passed. His ability to connect with people through his larger than life personality & gracious spirit was invaluable. Above all, he gave them some of the most precious gift he had...his time. He famously didn't count the repetitions of exercises during training until nearing exhaustion because those were the ones that really counted for breakthrough growth. Don't just get through the days, get better.
The Live Your Legend folks challenge us with this question...
On your very best day at work; the day you came home & think you have the best job in the world; what did you do that day?
In answering this question we connect our passion inside our chosen profession & reconnect with our effortless intangible qualities!
TIME vs ENERGY
Is there another approach besides looking at time management? A few years ago I stumbled on an article in Harvard Business Review that proposed focusing on our "energy" instead of time management. How & when we use our mental, physical, emotional & spiritual energies can be just the switch needed to feel great about our choices. Here it is for reference...
manage-your-energy-not-your-time
ACTIVITY vs ACHIEVEMENT
Coach John Wooden speaks to this very eloquently, check out his great TED Talk here for his awesome insights. Are we being compensated for the stuff we do or are we valued instead for our ideas, creativity, mentorship & development contributions? As technology advances the jobs humans do will get increasingly more demanding in the "soft-skill" areas. Work in these aspects will help bring the "beautiful" nature of our talents to the forefront!
BUSY is a CHOICE!
We always find time for the things that are important to us & we always show up for the things we believe in. This is the bottom line; try to spend less time on the less important stuff. Although these are sometimes essential to any enterprise, getting back to the aspects only we as unique individuals contribute leads to accomplishing the right things. And, it creates opportunities for others to grow & excel with their unique gifts.
Thanks for the inspiration son!
Comments (2)