Words of Wisdom 23: Productivity

People always ask me a question: "Al, where do you find the time?"

They want to know how I am able to have over 100 speaking engagements per year, write dozens of articles, maintain two blogs and two websites, run two businesses (currently starting a third), serve on two boards, chair a steering committee, volunteer for over hundred hours per year, mentor students one on one, and make time for my family. The answer is simple: I don't try to find time; I make time. For example:

• By spending 1 less hour per day surfing the web or watching TV, you will have an extra 28-31hrs. every month to work on achieving your goals. That's 336-372 hours per year!
  

Related Articles:

A State of Mind Called Time Pt. I
Prioritizing and Time Management
Struggling After Blowing Deadlines
Study Skills for a Successful Semester

Words of Wisdom 31: Productivity

“Plan tomorrow’s actions today.”
- Al "The Inspiration" Duncan

Before you go to sleep every night plan (in writing) the ACTIONS you will take tomorrow. This increases your focus and productivity because it keeps you from thinking about what you’re supposed to be doing and actually doing what you’re supposed to be doing.


Related Articles:
Prioritizing and Time Management
Struggling After Blowing Deadlines
Study Skills for a Successful Semester
Seize the Opportunity

A State of Mind Called Time Pt. III

“In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.”–El Hajj El Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)

Have you ever met somebody that’s always late for class, work, and everything else, but has the nerve to be mad because he or she didn’t get to leave on time?

Please tell me that’s not you. Are you one of those people that likes to be “fashionably late”?

I know this violates proper nightclub etiquette but…

In the real world, consistently being late is deplorable. It’s irritating or infuriating for the person that’s waiting on you and it’s detrimental to your reputation.

When was the last time you went to a meeting, graduation, concert, or conference that actually started on time? If your answer is: “recently”, I’m jealous.

Of course things happen, but for most people and organizations the “things” that cause them to consistently start and show up late or waste time are the result of disrespect.

Just look at the incidents involving several of the major airlines recently. Literally millions of people—unfortunately I was one of them—were stuck on runways and thousands of flights were canceled because of egregious errors in judgment and flat out disrespect for passengers’ time.

WARNING: Respect Time…or else.

If Father Time could talk he would be outraged. He’s had his civil rights violated more than anybody. If he had legs, people would be getting their butts kicked on a regular basis.

What causes people to engage in the gross misappropriation of precious moments in one instance, while pleading for “just five more minutes” in another?

It’s ALL mental. It has nothing to do with your planner, Trio, or Blackberry. I know people with all types of time management gizmos and they still waste time or show up late.

The way you treat Time is a state of mind that manifests in the form of a habit. Habits are the physical manifestation of your thinking—conscious or non-conscious.

Instead of changing their thought patterns people play ridiculous head games trying to trick themselves into being on time.

Here are some popular ways that people, including myself, have tried to cover up their disrespect for Time.

1. Set your clock or watch 5-10 minutes early.

I used to do this religiously. A lot of people do. So, I know somebody is going to swear up and down that this works. Here’s a clue:

It doesn’t.

If you don’t respect Time this little game won’t change a thing because it’s actually an excuse to be late in disguise.

You know what happens.

One day you’re running late and you realize that you really have an “extra” ten minutes because your clock or watch is fast. Or maybe you wake up and sucker punch the snooze button; after all, the alarm really went off ten minutes early, didn’t it?

So instead of being twenty minutes late you’re only going to be ten minutes late and ten minutes isn’t that bad, is it?

Garbage.

Note: The thing that really messed me up was the creation of cell phones. Does anybody know how to set a cell phone 10 minutes early?

2. Underestimation and the Idiot Driver Excuse

This is when you know it’s going to take an hour to do something or travel somewhere, but you end up convincing yourself that you can do it in thirty minutes.

Just because it took you thirty minutes during non-rush hour traffic does not mean that’s how long it takes. Of course, this has nothing to do with your disrespect for time. It’s all because of the stupid, idiot driver that was in front of you, right?

Garbage.

3. They don’t start (or leave) on time anyway.

People constantly show up late, meetings rarely start or end on time, and on-time flight departures and arrivals are endangered species.

But none of that is a viable excuse for you to disrespect Time.

You should respect Time even when they don’t respect Time because Time and Opportunity are blood brothers. Mistreat one and the other will make you pay…dearly.

Some of my most profitable business deals and quite a few a good relationships are the result of me being early when everyone else was late.

4. I work better under pressure.

Garbage.

That statement is the master procrastinator’s most powerful—or should I say weakest—excuse. I hear it from people all the time and I love it because then I get to respond with:

“Oh yeah? Well, why don’t you put some pressure on yourself to do what you need to do and get where you need to go in more timely fashion?”

The look on their faces: priceless.

Pressure can be the result of procrastination or the moment. Successfully dealing with the pressure of an important moment will help you grow. It will elevate you to a new plateau and strengthen your self-confidence.

Pressure that results from procrastination, however, perpetuates your disrespect for time and keeps you in a rut.

This type of pressure is an excuse for your inability to focus on the task at hand. People try to use “the last minute” as a tool for focusing because they have yet to develop the willpower to focus on their own.

Think about that.

5. It’s Up to God.

I grew up in the church. I love me some Jesus. But I hate these kinds of excuses:

“If God wanted me to be on time, I would have been.”

“It’s out of my hands now.”

And what about this one? “Sorry I’m late y’all…but the Devil is a liar.” (A woman really did say that at a meeting I recently attended!)

That’s just more garbage.

Have you ever heard of a little thing called free will? You should use it to make sure you do whatever you have to do to be on time and to stop wasting time.

The Million Dollar Question: What should you do if you or someone you know is consistently disrespecting Time?

Unfortunately, I don’t have any self-development voodoo that you can sprinkle on someone to make him treat time in a respectful manner. It requires something that people seem to be short on these days—self-discipline.

The only way to develop self-discipline is with resolve and consistency. If you are consistently resolved to respect Time eventually your self-discipline in the area of time mastery will improve.

One of my mentors gave me some guidelines that are very useful:

To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is unacceptable. Disrespecting Time is guaranteed to cost you opportunities and relationships.

My philosophy about time is simple:

If you disrespect me, I MIGHT forgive you. If you disrespect my family or my time, we’re done. End of story.

Related Articles:
A State of Mind Called Time Pt. I

A State of Mind Called Time Pt. II
Seize the Opportunity

(Procrastination)

Time for action

What comes first, action or motivation?

Words of Wisdom 22: Goal Getting

There's a BIG difference between goal setting and goal getting. Here's a tip to make sure you're practicing the latter and not only the former.

• Break large goals into small, easily achieved steps. This will create a pattern of success and provide you with you milestones to celebrate.

Related Articles:

Seize the Opportunity

(Procrastination)
Time for action
What comes first, action or motivation?

A Poverty of Ambition

“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself.”

–Barack Obama, Knox College Commencement Address 2005

Even after hearing the phrase “dream big” 3,297,391 times (or more) over the course of their life, most people still don’t get it.

“Don’t rock the boat.”

“Better safe than sorry.”

“A bird in the hand beats two in the bush.”

These timeless maxims are sage advice. When taken to the extreme, however, they create a certain poverty of ambition.

Of course, something tangible that is actually working or in your “hand”, is better than a wish or pipe dream. But here’s the real question: Are those birds in the bush actually attainable? If you had a rock-solid plan and the wherewithal to execute it, is it possible for you to get those two birds? Is it probable?

“I’m going to get a degree in engineering or accounting.” If you love either of those two great professions then by all means…go for it. But choosing a profession because it’s the proverbial bird in the hand is the epitome of a poverty of ambition.

A choice like that is why too many people wake up sick to their stomachs about going to work. They wake up with a bad case of would’ve-could’ve-should’ve syndrome.

I would’ve been a great writer…

I could’ve started my own company or non-profit organization…

I should’ve never married this guy. He’s not a bird in the hand; he’s a bird brain in the hand!

Could you have the business, the family, and the philanthropy? Yes. People do it all the time, but not enough people. According to the 2007 Just Start™ survey conducted by Intuit, Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) 72% of Americans aspire to start their own business. That’s almost three out of four people, but how many actually do it?

There are over 300 million people living in the U.S. An estimated 23 million of them are entrepreneurs. That’s around 7%. So, less than one in ten people actually have enough ambition to make it happen. And that’s after years of record breaking entrepreneurial growth.

Whether it’s starting a business (for profit or non-profit), looking for a promotion, or making a living doing something that you REALLY love to do, there seems to be a paucity of calculated risk-takers.

So, what’s fueling this poverty of ambition? This lack of go-getters boils down to complacency and fear of the unknown.

“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”

–W. Clement Stone

COMPLACENCY

Complacency is the ugly side of success. It’s a momentum killer and a dream slayer.

“Why can’t you just be satisfied with what you already have?”

“That’s good enough.”

Garbage.

I’ve got two words for you to live by:

Get better.

Everyday you want to work on getting better—better health, better relationships, better finances, better marketing, being a better servant to a worthwhile cause, and the list goes on. (I guess the 1.6 billion dollars people spend on cosmetic surgery per year is proof that there’s no poverty of ambition when it comes to being better looking!)

Greatness and complacency cannot exist in the same mind.

Think about that. What if Mother Teresa or Gandhi had a poverty of ambition?

What if Cesar Estrada Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Harriet Tubman, or Frederick Douglass had a poverty of ambition?

Scary thought, isn’t it. A poverty of ambition can change the world in ways I don’t even want to imagine. To be complacent is to stop striving and to stop striving is to waste to your most precious gift—life.

“I have learned over the years that once one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”

–Rosa Parks

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

I was stunned.

I looked at the students in disbelief and thought to myself, “They must not know what a CEO is.”

“How many of you all know what the CEO of a company does?”, I asked them.

A lot of them raised their hands and someone yelled, “A CEO is the boss.”

“They are the leaders”, another student added.

My next question was: “Do you all know that sometimes the CEO is also the person who owns—maybe even started—the company?”

There was a wave of nodding heads as a chorus of yeses filled the air.

“Do you all understand that the CEO makes the most money?”

More head nodding and more yeses.

By then I was flabbergasted. These were some of the best students I know—students of the historic Butler Street YMCA’s Multicultural Achievers Program of which I’m am the Steering Committee Chair and the Life Skills Coach. The students were in the middle of a project that involved creating a company. As a part of the project, they were applying and interviewing for positions in the company. Out of a few dozen high school students not one of them had applied to be the CEO.

When I started to investigate why no one wanted to be CEO I got all kinds of answers.

They didn’t know what to expect. (Fear of the unknown.) They didn’t know if it would be too much work for them to handle or if it would be too much responsibility. (Fear of success.)

If anything went wrong they would be the first ones blamed and the first ones fired. (Fear of failure.) They were worried about what might happen. (Fear of success or failure: the unknown.)

They were afraid of the unknown and it was killing their ambition.

Why?

For many people fear of the unknown is a debilitating phenomenon that fuels a poverty of ambition. Here are five questions, however, to help you deal with fear of the unknown:

1. What could happen as a result of doing (whatever the action or decision maybe)?
2. What probably won’t happen as a result of doing ______?
3. What could happen as a result of not doing _______?
4. What probably won’t happen as a result of not doing _______?
5. How will I deal with each of the four answers from those questions?

If you don’t know the answers to those questions then do some more research, get some more guidance or advice, and make the best educated answer you can.(The students couldn’t answer those questions at first, so the Program Director and I asked the CEO of the Butler Street YMCA to come in and talk to them.)

It’s that simple and, at times, that hard. But the unknown and your fear will be minimized—not necessarily gone, but minimized by answering these questions.

Let’s get back to those birds in the bush…

Here’s the interesting thing. None of this means that you have to necessarily let go of the bird in your hand. While you are looking at the two birds in the bush and squeezing that bird in your hand to death, here’s a something to ask yourself.

The Million Dollar Question: Who ever said you couldn’t have all three?

And no…that’s not being greedy. That’s called abundance.

Stop asking too little of yourself.

Lose the poverty of ambition.

Get the know-how, a good plan, and put them to use because you deserve a life of abundance, don’t you? A life overflowing with achievement and fulfillment is waiting for you if you will simply…

Get better.

Related Articles:

Setting Goals

Self-Exploration: Taking Stock of Who You Are to Make Better ...

How To Make Yourself More Marketable

A State of Mind Called Time Pt. II

“There's time enough, but none to spare.”

-Charles W. Chesnutt

How much is your time worth? If someone wanted an hour of your time how much would it cost him? How about a month of your time? A year?

Since your time is worth so much, it’s time to think about your time in a different manner. (By the way if the number you came up with was your yearly salary, it’s time to think BIGGER.)

Stop spending your time; start investing your time.

This isn’t another tired speech about not wasting time. You know whether or not you waste your time. You know you can’t get that time back. This is about carefully taking into consideration what the possible Return On Investment could be or the losses you could incur for the time that you are using.

If you were to invest $500 dollars in a commodity—let’s say it was gold—you would be expecting to receive a good ROI, right?

It’s supposed to work the same way with your time but far too many people just haphazardly spend (waste) their time (and money) on anything or with anyone. And that’s a serious problem.

Million Dollar Question: What do you get in return for MOST of your time?

Think of the last five things you’ve done. (Can you even remember?)

What was the ROI? Knowledge? Peace of mind? Money?

Proper relaxation? (Watching I Love New York II doesn’t count as proper relaxation!)

For most people the answer is usually nothing or “I don’t know”.

That’s just plain old pitiful. Pi-tee-ful.

Here’s an expression that I hate: Free time. (Not to be confused with time freedom.) Since when has time been free? Do you believe that “time is money”? Really?

I do. Time is most definitely money. That’s one of the reasons why so many people are broke or bankrupt. They espouse that principle but they aren’t faithful to it. How about you?

I don’t think of it as spending my time reading or working. I don’t think of it as spending time with my family or spending time having fun. It’s an investment of my time in the commodities of achievement and fulfillment. Think about that.

People frequently ask me: "Al, where do you find the time?"

They want to know how I am able to speak over 100 times a year all across the country, write dozens of articles, maintain a blog and a website, run two businesses, serve on two boards, chair a steering committee, invest hundreds of volunteer hours per year, and still have plenty of time for my family and chillaxation.

The answer is simple: I don't try to find time; I make time. I don’t spend time; I invest time—wisely.

By spending one less hour per day surfing the web or watching TV, you will have an extra 28-31 hours per month to invest in achieving your goals.

By the way it’s not really about the words “spend” and “invest”. Who cares which word you use? This isn’t about semantics; it’s about your state of mind.

Remember the...

Million Dollar Question: What do you get in return for MOST of your time?

Here’s the bottom line:

Every so often during the day ask yourself “Is there something else that I could be investing my time in that will produce a better ROI?” More than likely, the answer will be “yes”, so make time to do it. It’s time to invest your time and reap the rewards.

Related Articles:

A State of Mind Called Time Pt. I

Seize the Opportunity

(Procrastination)
Time for action
What comes first, action or motivation?

Words of Wisdom 1: Goal Getting

Here's something to help you out with your new year's resolutions or any goal.

• According to research, you are 80x’s more likely to achieve your goals if they are written down. Put it in writing.

Related Articles:

Seize the Opportunity

(Procrastination)
Time for action
What comes first, action or motivation?