*Secret #127 Succeeding at the Wrong Things is Failure

*Secret #127 Succeeding at the Wrong Things is Failure

Not all the "plates" in your life are of equal importance.

If you want to make the most of your short life and time, be sure you "spin" only the most important ones... even if it means some of the lesser important "plates" fall to the ground and break into a thousand pieces.

Why?

To succeed in the wrong things is to fail.

Which truly important "plates" in your life need you to give them a good spin right now?

Which lesser important "plates" in your life should you quit spinning altogether?

Just a thought.

Secret #130 The Right Tools

Secret #130 The Right Tools

For some strange reason, the house we moved into a couple of years ago had a one ton safe in the garage. The safe door was open... and my wife and I lived in fear that one of our six kids might accidentally get locked in that safe. So I began a frantic search--trying to find someone who would come and take this unsafe safe off our hands for free. An antique collector showed up with a truck, a cart, and a big burly guy. But the three of us couldn't budge it. So I was stuck with the safe.

One day I mentioned my dilemma to a creative friend--a retired man--who collects stuff (including worthless one ton safes). He said, "I'll be over in the morning to pick it up." The next morning I expected to see him, a hydraulic lift, a flat bed semi truck, and a small army of buff guys. But when he showed up with his wife and his old pick up, I was more than a little surprised... and full of doubt. All he had with him was a very thick board about the size of a surf board and some contraption he called a "come-along."

He backed the truck up to the garage, placed the large board on the back of the truck angling it down to the garage floor. Then he anchored the come-along to the back of the truck and, unreeling the wire of the come-along, he wrapped the other end of the wire around the one ton safe. He started to crank the come-along, and much to my surprise and delight, the safe began to inch toward the truck. We took turns cranking the come-along until the safe reached the thick board angling down from the back of the truck. That's when he and his wife got on the sides of the safe--and he instructed me to keep cranking the come-along. Pretty soon that one ton safe was inching it's way up that thick board toward the back of the truck--sticking out precariously on either side of the thick board. A few more minutes of cranking the come-along and the one ton safe was safely in the back of that old pick up truck--heading out to a farm--and away from our garage.

I'm always amazed when I think of that day. And to be sure, I learned some really important lessons about life and time management:

Lesson #1. You gotta have the right tools.
I had all kinds of tools, but I didn't have the right tools to deal with this situation. Without the right tools, you can't do what you need to do well.

Lesson #2. You gotta know how to use the right tools.
Having the right equipment is not enough. It's using the right tools in the right way that makes the difference. If my friend would have dropped off the tools at my house expecting me to do the job, I'd still have that unsafe safe in my garage. I didn't even know what a come-along was before this adventure--let alone how to use it.

The same is true for you when it comes to managing your life and time. The questions are...
* Do you have the right tools?
* Do you know how to use the right tools?

Secret #131 A Time Management Secret from My Three Teenagers

Each summer, my three oldest kids (current ages 14, 15, and 17) spend a week having the time of their lives camping at a certain Christian music and arts festival. Before they leave, they find out when the festival will take place in the upcoming year. When they get home, they write the name of that festival over those dates on our family calendar. From that point on they rabidly guard those dates like a starving Pit Bull protecting a juicy piece of red meat. If anything else attempts to land on those dates... even good things... these kids start showing their teeth and growling. They're so serious about carving time out their busy lives for this festival that they take off work, quit working out with the football team, and even fly back home from summer missions trips!

I think they're on to something. (I said "on to" something... not "on" something.)

Here's something possibly even more insane: I think you and I can learn a very important time management lesson from my teenagers. (Now you might think I'm "on" something.)The fact is: If you don't proactively write priorities into your schedule (like my teenagers), life will always live you instead of you living life.

Aren't you tired of that?

So instead of just hoping you get around to the important things in your life, why not schedule them into your life?

Here's a wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee moment: It's all mere conjecture until it's written into your schedule. This goes for your relationship with God, your spouse, your kids, and anything else you deem truly important... like, say, an annual Christian music and arts festival.

So what major priority is being squeezed out of your life these days by the Anaconda death grip of busyness?

Here's a thought. Why not do something crazy? Why not write that priority into your schedule RIGHT NOW?

Now, if I can just get my teenagers to write "clean up my room" into their schedules. Hmmm. Now I may really be "on" something.

 

Secret #132 Prioritize Well

The question is NOT: How can you spin all the plates that are screaming for your attention?

The better question is: What plates in life are really worth spinning and what plates should you dare to let drop to the ground?

Here's a message I gave last weekend titled, Live Like You Were Dying: Prioritize Well.

It's FREE and it's for YOU. All you have to do is GO HERE and click the play button.

For FREE follow through materials (downloadable articles, audios, and Bible study guides) click on the message title, "Prioritize Well."

Thanks for stopping by Amazing Time Management Secrets! Hope this post encourages and equips you a little on your time management journey.

 

Secret #133 It's Not About How Many Plates You Can Spin

We all have the same problem: the number of plates screaming for our time and attention is beyond our human ability to spin them all. There’s not even enough time to spin all the plates that we’d like to spin.

This being the case, many of us spend a good deal of our lives embracing the erroneous belief that if we can just develop the skills necessary to spin more plates better and faster, then we will be able to spin all the plates screaming for our time and attention. That approach to life might look like this.


But is this realistic? Not for most of us. Very few of us attain a Chinese acrobat type of mastery over all the plates in our lives.

The reality is that many of us live life like this next plate spinner—my personal favorite because I identify with him the most. This guy honestly believes that not only is he able to spin all the plates of life that are screaming for his limited time and attention, but he also lives under the delusion that he’s really good at it too!


The question is NOT: How can you learn to spin all the plates in your life that are screaming for your time and attention? That’s the wrong question and if you ask the wrong questions you will always get the wrong answers, and life’s too short for that.

The better question is: How can you figure out what plates in life are worth spinning… and what plates you should stop spinning and dare to let fall to the ground? That’s a toughie. But again, life’s too short to NOT figure out what plates are worth spinning and what plates aren’t. Think about it. How pitiful will it be to get to the end the journey only to realize that we wasted a good portion of life spinning the wrong plates?

Secret #134 Face the Fear Factor

One reason we don't take control of our life and time is fear. I mean, if we really take control of our life and time—and live our lives instead of letting life live us—then we start to imagine how such a change could effect everything and everyone around us. That's where the fear—often unconscious and unspoken--sets in.

Think about it.


If we dare to jump off the rollercoaster of time insanity by saying NO to everything that is GOOD but not God's BEST for us...

• we fear what people will think—especially our friends and relatives.
• we fear leaving the old life of hurry to embrace a new life of priorities and a sane pace--even though we like the thought of priorities and pace.
• we fear being different than everyone else in this hurried and harried culture.
• we fear that others will interpret our life of clear priorities and sane pace as laziness—or that we're not important.
• we fear... you fill in the rest of the sentence.

But what of this fear?

A University of Michigan study about fear shows:

• 60 percent of our fears are totally unwarranted--they never come to pass.
• 20 percent of our fears are focused on our past--which is completely out of our control.
• 10 percent of our fears are based on things so petty that they make no difference in our lives.
• Of the remaining 10 percent, only 4-5 percent could be considered justifiable.

Message? There's a 95 percent chance that your fears will never come to pass.

Why, then, would you let fear keep you from taking control of your life and time?

There are 366 "fear nots" in the Bible--one for every day of year--including leap year.

Hmmm. I wonder if God is trying to tell us something? You think?

 

Secret #136 Dare to Ask Yourself Questions that Make You Reflect Deeply

If deep and honest reflection precedes life change, then, from time to time, we should engage in deep and honest reflection—especially if we want to make the most of our lives and time. Here are some questions to get you thinking... reflecting... and changing.

1. What is my single greatest strength?

2. What three decisions are causing me the greatest stress?

3. What is overwhelming me?

4. What impassable roadblocks have me stuck?

5. If I could only do three things in my lifetime, what would they be?

6. What should I resign from or drop out of?

7. What can I postpone?

8. What things on my to-do list can someone else do at least 80% as well?

9. What are the elephants in my schedule?

10. What three things could I do in the next three months that would make a 50% difference?