Managing Time and Your Gift

On "The Get It Done Guy's" website, he was asking about multi-tasking. I stopped what I was doing, read his question, and responded with the attached post:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060726083302.htm - Multi-tasking negatively impacts our ability to learn deeply and remember things. Additionally, multi-tasking assumes task or priority equality, which rarely exists in life or business. The classic cliff hanger "You can only save one person, who do you save from falling to their death" rarely happens in life or business. If the unlikely cliff hanger darkens your door, how much capacity will you have to respond to that scenario, when your life is fragmented by less important priorities taking valuable time and energy away from vitally important ones.

It's like a super hero stopping to chat with on lookers at an apartment fire versus saving the people IN the apartment fire. PR is important, but saving lives sits a little higher on the list. Today,our lives are ablaze with doing more and more stuff, and we're the arsonist!
We robs ourselves of capacity to actually get important stuff done and instead lament our existance or chalk it up to "It's society's fault" or anything else, as we throw one more piece of kindling on our time fire.

Time is short, as a reminder to those who forget that one day we won't have any at all. On that day, what will be said of you: This person did a lot and got things done or This person did enough, which accomplished much in and through others. Choose wisely - time is infinite, your stake in it is not. You only have so much time in this life, which is just enough to:

• discover and use your gift
• to positively, deeply impact others
• to get important stuff done extremely well
• live free of the stress an obsessed world hard wired into technology

Just Food for thought

The early bird doesn’t always get the worm. At least, it missed one worm I observed while working in the front yard one day. I was blowing lawn clippings into a pile, when I noticed a worm doing an amazing acrobatic dance on the hard dirt. The worm hopped, twisted, flipped, and spun itself frantically, in the summer sun. I was so impressed by the worm’s valiant efforts that I stopped my work, scooped up the worm, and buried him in some soft, muddy earth. Reflecting on the worm’s behavior, I think we can all take a lesson from the worm.

In today’s tough economic market, help is harder to come by. However, if you show effort or share information, first, those positioned best to support or gain from your effort will be inclined to lend you a helping hand. How much effort should you apply? Here’s the worm’s secret: Be generous, expect nothing in return, and be open to getting what you want in less than conventional ways. We exist in a new economy. A new economy tougher than any summer hardened dirt. However, consider the worm’s secret and how this little creature cuts through the toughest earth, daily, to discover a moisture rich world beneath hard pan. If he can do it, so can you. Thanks Mr. Worm!

Speed bumps don’t mean stop! If you’ve completed your driver’s education training, you probably know this little fact. However, this simple driving fact has huge life lessons, too. For instance, the speed bump’s key messages are:
1. “Slow down or I’ll make you wish you had!”
2. “Since you are driving slower, please take a moment to see why.”
3. “A school may be in session near you.”
4. “Increased perception may save yours’ or someone else’s life

If you are unsure of what a speed bump looks like, speed bumps look like:
· Financial crisis
· Deaths in the family
· Job losses
· Illnesses
· Lost love
· Relationship changes
· Conflict (internal/external)
· Debt

These are all familiar speed bumps along life’s roadway. These speed bumps can stop us cold in our tracks! These are big scary life events, which we must overcome or suffer the fate of living forever frozen or controlled by these life events. Stopping on a speed bump may make sense in the moment, because you want the discomfort of the bumpy ride to stop. However, it doesn’t allow you to:

1. Apply knowledge or perception gained while slowed on the road of life
2. Get out of harm’s way (traffic is still moving around you)
3. Keep moving toward your destination and life’s fulfillment
4. Find life’s nourishing experiences that will help you see and navigate future road bumps

Experience tells us to heed the speed bump sign and the physical bump’s message, or else. Let’s be wise drivers along life’s road way. When you approach your next speed bump:
· Slow down
· Reflect on your road conditions (job loss, lost love, debt, etc.)
· Be on the lookout for solutions in your problem (contacts, resources, etc.)
· Carefully ease over your bump – get help, if you need it or simply run out of fuel
· Gently accelerate towards your life’s fulfilling destination

The next time life throws you a speed bump, you’ll know its true purpose, which is to momentarily slow your travel, realize school is in session, and explore your solutions in the problem. It’s not where you’ll stop. It is generally a slow start to a new beginning.

While you are between opportunities, consider taking some time to reassess what fills up and energizes you at work. I share this thought, because it points back to your giftedness - the thing employers don't truly know how to identify, tap, and grow on the job, but desperately seek to hire. Examine your work and life experiences carefully for the magic thread of fulfillment running through out your life.

It shows up as career highlights, awards won, deep satisfaction, and being dubbed
"The Go-to" person for a specific skill or outcome. Imagine being fully focused on the highest return on your talent's investment at work and being filled up emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Having work energize and not drain you. So, take a moment and reflect on what you do that loves you back and consider building your career on that wonderful thing. It has worked wonders for me.

I wrote a book called "The Gift Table". You can read the first chapter in my press kit at http://www.thegifttable.com/. I want you to find within you the thing that gives back to you as much and much more than you give to it everyday of your life.