Not “A” to “B”, “A” to “Z”

I normally write this blog on Saturday mornings but today is different. Today is a beautiful day.

But it's a different day so I make adjustments. I have the end in mind and avoiding a little tweak to the typical schedule would be shortsighted.

You half to remember that we are here to go from “A” to “Z” not just “A” to “B”.

My Book

The great thing about today's adjustment is that it is for an awesome reason. I published my book!

Yeah, I'm looking for a virtual pat on the back maybe even some book sales.  This has been an incredibly challenging get enjoyable process.  Truthfully it's far from over.  Just the e-book has published.

There is a method to the madness of publishing multiple versions over multiple months.  I am currently in the release sales stage. 

I want as many people to get this book in their digital hands as possible and so the price point is just $0.99. It's designed to create momentum to get people’s minds and the “minds” of the artificial intelligence that runs our lives to believe in my message.

There have been many previous dates over the past 10 months to get here and there will be more to carry out the full plan.

I've had to wear many hats to get here including my current salesman hat.

Speaking of sales, check out E-Impact 64 for all my thoughts on the subject.  Some believe it to be a necessary evil but it's truly a noble role.

Time Cliches

Time heals all wounds.

Time is money.

It's about time.

Time and time again.

Timing is everything.

Time is the most precious commodity.

I know I'm missing many but there is a good list of sayings that we have about time.

Here are "15 Truths About the Value of Time".

I know some people who respect time greatly and I know others who take it for granted.  But I know no one who can truly define the value of time.  It's something that we all have but don't know the perfect way to use.

We're all given varying amounts of it but it serves that same purpose for each and every one of us.

No one knows when their time is “complete” (I supposed those who commit suicide have reasonable estimation).  And we really don't even understand when it actually began.  We are just trying to do the best as we know it.

Using Time but Not Losing Time

We know the time in something and it has some level of value.  I believe regardless of that value we should strive to use it as wisely as possible.

Students often learn to not waste time.  While I agree with this promise I think in today's world we are too quick to assume that time is being wasted.

We expect to get things too fast.  We expect immediate satisfaction yet sometimes, immediate satisfaction is bad.  

Read about delayed gratification in E-Impact 56.

Next time you feel like you're struggling with something, consider more closely if you're losing time or if you're actually using it.

I said many times that failures are hurdles of success. This time I want you to think about the times where you don't even consider a failure just something slowing down a bit.

Take for example a red stoplight. I am one of those people who get extremely antsy when I see a yellow light in front of me I know I cannot speed through. I find myself feeling stress and angst because I'll be a step behind in whatever mission I have at the moment. You could say it's my personality.  You could say it's poor time management skills.  You could also say I just packed the schedule a little too tight.

It's easy to conclude that I could've been to my destinations faster had the light not turned red.  That may in fact be true but it's also possible that slowing down at that light made my travels more smooth at another intersection or potentially help me avoid danger. This is a simple example but it's easy to understand why the time at the light was not a waste.  

Furthermore, it's also selfish for me to think I was the only one driving at the time who had a place to get to or even that my mission was more important than anyone else’s.  

The Stuff That Matters

The vast majority of my experiences at stoplights have very little significance in life.  However, there are plenty of activities that I participate in that have deep meaning in my life and the lives of others.

One big characteristic of an impactmaker is desire for positivity. Why not bring that positivity to life as fast as possible?

I'm going to let you off the hook just a little bit. It's completely natural for you to assume that even the smallest delays are amongst the biggest waste of time.

Your time as a leader, impact maker, and person in charge of just about anything in your life is extremely valuable.  If you're one of those people that respects time, it's precious to you.  Let me encourage you though to suppress the need to rush consistently and instead consider more wisely how to use time.

In certain situations rushing is necessary.  My cousin’s pregnant wife is very close to her due date (hear my cousin’s story on Speaking of Impact episode 21).  I give him permission to speed through every stoplight he needs to if she goes into labor.  I broke my collarbone 2 1/2 weeks ago.  Thankfully, it wasn't an emergency where I needed to rush anywhere.  Yet, my wife was ready to hop in the car and take me to the hospital.

Outside of those types of emergencies, it's best that we find a better use of our time than complaining about time itself.

I always encourage people to define their purpose, especially in their impact work.  A well-defined purpose will help you use the time dedicated to that purpose more effectively and to see the time that it takes to be successful as valuable.

One non-time related cliché (or is it?) is life is a journey.  I love this saying because of the new ones that we've been blessed with on earth.  Our life and time is not simple.  We can generally categorize things as good or bad but they are varying degrees.

I look at the most important things in our life as things that have the most amount of degrees and variance.  

Things that happen to your family, in your personal life, to your loved ones, and in your impact work mean the most AND have the most effect.

Making the Most of Your Time (yes, another cliche)

It would be impossible to apply the following described effort to everything in your life.  Please do not consider this an overarching principle for the entire journey.

You should understand the importance of different seasons of life and different activities.  Some deserve much thought and others are more reactionary.  With that being said, there will be instances where a little waste of time is not worth additional wasted effort.  You will naturally dismiss these instances.

You need to focus your effort to use time wisely in the most critical parts of your life.  As an impact maker, you've established a certain cause, idea, or organization to be one of the critical parts in your life. Therefore, I will use a related scenario as an example.

A start-up impact project is just like a start-up company (see Founder Jam for a great startup community that’s “starting up”).  It has a great leader, a great purpose, a great need, and a lack of experience.  The former three items will be enough to carry us through. However, the latter item is what creates time conflict.

Time conflict needs to be understood in order to avoid the fight.  It's a fight that we can never win. As described above, we don't know what our allocation of time is. Conflict is simply our fear of the unknown.  It's the unexpected things that happen and appear to delay growth.

I mentioned above how there will be waste of time and trivial things.  The difference here is that we have to put forth effort to avoid the conflict.  It's much easier to ignore or not even recognize the conflict in those trivial scenarios.

In an impact scenario we must consider the journey and find the lesson in our “poor” use of time.  If you find a lesson you'll realize that it was actually a good use of time.  There is humility involved in this process.

You cannot assume that you know everything.  You have started or are leading a tremendous effort (or supporting loved ones if not related to an impact project) because you care deeply about something that is flawed.  The things that are slowing you down are actually valuable.

You need slower times to learn how to go faster.  It’s like riding a bike.  They say you never forget (cliche again).  You'll never forget how to do something well related to your impact project.

Encouragement

You know I believe that everyone on this earth has gifts and skills that can be used to make the world a better place.

Part of our great responsibility as impact makers is to make sure people believe this.  There is a direct correlation between peoples’ beliefs and their ability to use time wisely and their belief that their life has deep meaning and purpose.

I urge you, leader, to allow your team to waste “time”.  Allow them to make mistakes because allowing them these luxuries is teaching them to be great.

Your understanding of imperfection makes you the perfect impactmaker. 

Here’s your roadmap from “A” to “Z”:

Define what is important. Take action. Slow down. Get better.

Take the time.  Embrace the journey.