Having enough bandwidth to complete your daily tasks let alone EXCEL is a tough proposition. When so much is already on the to-do plate daily, how do you find extra energy / motivation / time / perseverance / dedication to conquer your reading list, start a business/side gig and get in the best shape of your life?
It’s easy to fall into daily routines and habits to get you by. Life already carries needs and responsibilities enough to fill anyones plate between providing a living, commuting, eating 3-5 meals a day, doing laundry and having some time with friends on the side time to time.
But that’s never enough for you. That’s never enough for me. We try to twist and bend time and willpower in achieving and seeking just a bit MORE out of our lives. More relationships. Better fitness. More money. More Meaningful work. We read and buy books on how to optimize for each one of those. With just a few simple twists and hacks we CAN all get into the best shape of our lives while simultaneously working on your novel, putting in 60 hour work weeks and picking up and dropping of kids from school daily (while miraculously packing nutritious lunches for all upon waking up!). Oh you’re tired? F That – and push through that! There’s no time to focus on your energy reserves.
The truth is – whatever you set out to achieve, and twist, and bend – all needs to come from somewhere. Somewhere on time.
Somewhere on willpower. Somewhere on motivation. Each day allows a certain number of tokens to be spent on those categories – and for most of us (if not all) – those precious magic tokens get depleted rather fast. But yet we try. We get frustrated. We try to circumvent and bend and twist reality to create tokens where they don’t exist. And we keep bumping into a wall, and jamming and stabbing our toes along the way. Each day you must choose on what’s important, what’s worthy. Something to have a HIGHEST value. And then make a conscious choice to actually carry out those values.
And then there is the question of greatness. No – we’re not OK with just the process, or the time we dedicate. We also want our results, and we want them quick. We want progress shown. Progress on our bodies, our minds and our bank accounts. There is no time to make iterations, to suck, to learn to improvise. To give ourselves space to fail, learn, fall down and repeat (who’s got time – energy – motivation) for all that? You are already tapped out as is. How can you give MORE? Surely you’re just not doing enough.
You were able to get in an hour of cardio today – but you still yearn for more. You make a great paycheck – but the bigger corner office is still appealing.
So how CAN we increase or allocate more bandwidth towards accomplishing , doing and skewing the odds towards making progress in any area of our choice? How can be comfortable getting uncomfortable and sacrificing either our free time, our nonexistent energy, time away from our family /friends or simply away from things we already enjoy doing? Where is that allocation going to come from? While I don’t have the exact right answer the truth is you only you know what you can/should stop doing and how to allocate resources to any achievement / improvement you are trying to make.
You certainly can not cheat the progress and process of achievement. No course and no shortcuts will give you the ’15 minute’ abs. Process, dedication, long term commitment – is the only way to come out ahead in the end. You need to be careful, insightful and consistent in delivering your execution. The achievement will come, if the process is in place.
What are some of my action items and achievements to strive for?
– More Action / Less discussion , philosophy and thinking
– Specifying and being direct with what I want and need
– What Achievements are still important to me (on 1 / 5 / 10 year schedule)
– Where will I steal and reshuffle ‘BANDWIDTH’ from – to accomplish what I want
– Being OK and having ‘enough’ in areas deemed to be left alone or ‘good enough’. Some actions, thoughts and habits are not meant to be optimized or improved.
– Re configuring what I would like to promote and sell. It fulfills my needs AND the markets.
– Aligning achievement with values / passions / motivations (what to sell, promote and distribute)