How many of us use each of our days wisely? I know I don't. Oh, I do have an occasional day that I planned and used wisely but many, in fact, most of my days are random happenings, un-directed, un-thought-about, un-planned, sometimes un-noticed and often un-remembered.
It's funny how something you read can suddenly make you think about making serious changes in your life. Today I read a quote that I'm sure will change the way I do business. I am suddenly looking at my life in terms of how I spend each day. The quote that started me thinking is attributed to Hugh Mulligan who was a correspondent with the associated press.
"What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it."
"Wow" I said to myself; "when looked at from this point of view how I choose to spend my days are indeed important. What I do on any particular day should be important enough to give it a day of my life."
So I looked at how I am spending my days:
The days I spend marketing homes, showing homes and helping people are days well spent. One of those was the day I helped a widow who was in dire straights sell her home so she could move and be closer to her daughter, that day and the days spent marketing the home were well spent.
The days I spend with family and friends enjoying life in Sunny Southwest Florida are days well spent.
The days I spend just relaxing around the house doing little chores, watching TV, are days well spent because I need days to relax.
The day I spent last week going to the office for a class then stayed to talk and putter about was only partly well spent, I can't even remember what I did after that.
And of course the day's I don't remember at all....?
Reading that quote finally convinced me that I do need to manage my time better. Even though I have been told over and over again in every business planning session that I have ever attended that time management or time blocking is the best way to succeed, for some reason I have resisted fully embracing the concept. Perhaps it is my adult onset ADD that craves flexibility. Perhaps it is a resistance to being controlled even if the control is imposed by me. However, after reading that quote, I have become determined to make my work days important enough to count. Embracing time management is the only way I can think of to make sure that happens.
Is it fate or coincidence that I found this quote right now, when next years business planning is in full swing? It made me remember the old saying "when the student is ready the teacher will appear". Now instead of just putting numbers together for my business plan I am incorporating (and this time will stick to it) how I will use my days to make those numbers happen. This year I will try to make each work day important enough to spend a day of my life doing it!
This quote is my gift to you, as food for thought or not, it's up to you to decide.
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