Let’s face it. A reality we’ve all got to deal with in today’s shrinking world is how do we deal with the amount of things that need to get done to move life forward when there’s more to do than time allows for. It’s a never-ending battle that’s not going to go away and is never won, only managed.
Crank Or Jettison?
Most people’s answer to the time-crunch epidemic is to work harder or jettison from their “to do” list the low impact return items or those items they’re too far behind to catch up on. Working harder has proven to be futile as lists never get shorter — they get longer and more burdensome. The cost of both options is forfeiture of energy, time, and confidence in self ability to manage life.
Unlimited Energy
The truth is there’s always enough energy to get done what needs to get done on behalf of others. Staying up late to sooth a crying baby, doing a favor for a team member, unexpectedly helping a neighbor, and all else that falls into the category of what’s not totally of self-service. These moments are an energy creation experience — not a waste of time or energy.
What depletes our energy is the frustration that comes from not getting what we want for ourselves when we want it. It’s never what we do out of service to others.
More realistically, self-serving ambition in most cases is our fear that if we don’t get done what we perceive we need to get done to reach our goals on time to get their reward (which is what we really want – not the achievement accolade itself) then we’ll never achieve them fast enough and get left behind, rejected, or loose our place in line.
History hasn’t really shown that this is the case. It is, though, the rule that acts of desperation are done to salvage something that’s perceived to be veering off course when it’s really a better option being revealed.
Twists Of Faith
Course corrections, when deliberately taken in service to others, have a remarkable architecture and outcome. It’s the magic place where working harder conserves energy and leads to a better outcome faster.
An example of this was the adoption of my daughter at age 10 when I was 58. Can you imagine adopting a 10 year old at 58! Talk about energy consumption…. I could be her grandfather.
Her adoption was more challenging than most because she was an older child, didn’t speak English, we didn’t speak Spanish, she was used to rural living rather than the LA hustle-bustle, and then there were differences in diet and cultural traditions.
The sum total of this was the time and resources required to get her up to speed to even start to catch up was herculean in every sense of the word.
Intense and relentless (times 10!) are the two best words to describe it.
My human nature response to these circumstances was to recoil; fearing not having enough time on paper to do what had to be done to service my professional obligations. Same with my personal side in having to curtail the recreational things I liked doing.
Champion’s Winning Formula
My champion’s nature had no fear of the future based on that trajectory. I knew from past experience that when service to others triumphs self-service the outcome for my personal ambitions always exceeds expectation with less effort.
I felt empowered and fully committed to what had to go right for my daughter and felt to the depths of my being that the apparent disadvantage on paper was an asset, not a liability. It gave me the focus to do most efficiently what had to get done personally and professionally to carry momentum forward.
But, more importantly, it gave the Creative Source the chance to find a faster way to get me to a bigger and better outcome than I could have come up with in my own mind. This is a universal truth.
The process continues today with my daughter, now 16.
Universal Truth
And, this universal truth is a distinguishing feature prolific performers adhere to.
Their extraordinary career longevities and ability to pump out high-level serial success for decades without interruption is a product of faithfully applying this principle.
Life’s Essential
Energy, presence of mind, and trust in process are essential to living a life of passion, purpose, productivity and prosperity. The best goals and the fastest process to that life on paper are always subject to a higher order of orchestration beyond the written plan and the external circumstance that plan needs to manifest in.
When we take the path that honors others there’s always enough energy to do what has to get done, done.
Onward & Upward!
