When I graduated from the University of Minnesota in
1968, my dad pulled me aside on graduation day and
asked me to promise him one thing: that I would
never work for a living. "Let your vocation become
an avocation. Let it become an extension of who
you are," he said. "If you do, you will never work;
you will live, and you will make a difference. Get
your priorities in order. Work to live, don't live to
work."
Too many of us try to pigeonhole our lives into what
Daniel Stamp calls, "The Workplace You, The
Intellectual You, The Physical You, The Family You,
The Social You, and The Spiritual You." Too many
people stretch themselves thin trying to cover all
the "Yous" separately. In effect, we give
ourselves IOUs and as a result we never make the
time; and, therefore we never pay ourselves back.
We, too often, personally and professionally are in
a "deficit time spending" mode.
Whenever I ask clients, colleagues or friends what
they would like more of to help them be more
successful in whatever they are doing, the answer
most often given is, "more time." Unfortunately,
you have all the time you will ever have or get, 24
hours a day no more, no less. It is what you do with
the time that is at issue.
The key is to find balance between the roles we've
chosen. I focus on the adage "what you see, is
what you get." I try to be true to myself and those
who count on me.
Here are some hints that can help in our quest to
gain some control of the time we have.
-Determine what is urgent and what is important. As
Stephen Covey says, "Do first things first
and second things not at all."
-Assess what affects your "bottom line" in
profits, love, health, etc.
-Evaluate what you have committed to.
What have you promised a colleague, friend, or family
member? Focus on following through on your
promise.
-Choose organizing over agonizing. Don't
separate your personal life schedule from your
professional. Keep one agenda, the one that keeps
you in mind, first.
The average person in our society lives to be about
74 years of age. During the 24 hours of every day,
of each of those years, the average person spends
about 1 percent in free time, 11 percent in
maintenance, 33
percent sleeping and 55 percent at a place called
work. Now do you see why I think integrating your
life as a whole is better than one that is pigeonholed?
My dad died 3 years after giving me that wisdom.
But I have never forgotten the promise asked and
given. I have probably only worked 4 years during
my 35-year career. I know the struggle to make time
work for me, and I have failed more often than I like
to think about. Through those failures, though, I've
learned to work on balance, focus and wholeness. It
is still hard, but it is worth it. Life is better-and
more enjoyable-when what you preach is
practiced.
