A
Guide for Success in 2015
By: Wayne Crumpley
As I look in the mirror
and think about 2015, it brings to mind some of the best advice I have learned
through the years. I intend to follow
this guidance myself and I thought it might be of benefit to you as well. My strategy this year, and I encourage you
to try it too, is to begin the new year by creating a “personal plan” as my
foundation for success.
When looking back at
the past five years, we can only credit the person in the mirror for the good,
the bad, and the ugly. Whatever has
happened in our past, it’s all on us! We are the architect of our own lives,
building upon the decisions we make each and every day. Most of the choices were likely good ones .
. . others, not so much. Regardless, they
were yesterday’s decisions. All we have
now is the present moment.
Some of our greatest
learning and growth experiences are when things are not going as expected. Now is the time to take advantage of
everything you have learned, good or bad.
Recognize these total experiences as an asset, and make them work for
you . . . now.
Everyone should have a
Personal Plan. When he was a college
student, businessman Boone Pickens received
some valuable guidance from his father who said, “. . . a fool with a plan, can outsmart a genius with no plan any day.”
A personal plan
establishes the path you will follow to achieve a specific goal or complete a
specific project. So, what is YOUR
goal? Don’t be shy; no objective or
idea is too large or complex! When
working toward a complicated or highly technical goal, or one that relies on
extensive funding or multiple teams of contributors, be sure to establish a
plan that is “time realistic.” For
example, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and co-founder of PayPal
and SolarCity, is building a space rocket with the expectation of sending an
exploration team to Mars, and is building the largest battery research and
production plant in the world. Each of
these projects is a multi-year (or even life-long) project that must be planned
and executed over an extended period of time.
Whether you are building a house that may take four months, or sending
people to Mars, which may take 20-plus years, it takes a plan.
Everyone has 60 minutes
in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and seven
days in a week. On the other hand, everyone
is different in how much energy they have,
and how they use that energy. If
you do not respect your own time and energy,
use both wisely, then no one else
will respect your time and energy either.
With that in mind, be aware of who you associate with, and observe how your
friends and colleagues respect their own time and energy. Then pay close attention to how they treat
yours.
Time and Energy wasters
are people who are aimlessly moving along going nowhere. Don’t let them take you along! If someone wastes your time and energy, understand that you don’t have to let
them. If you don’t respect your own time
and energy, and if you let it be wasted,
then you are responsible for letting it happen.
Negative thinkers can
be another drain on your time and energy.
They often don’t understand creative ideas, or the creative process, and
as a result they will pick apart your ideas, tell you why they won’t work, and
may even ridicule you for having an idea out of the main stream. A problem well
defined is a problem half-solved!
Remember, it is not the event that makes the person . . . it is your
reaction to the event! If you do
continue to associate with friends and others who are negative thinkers, be careful about sharing your thoughts or
ideas in order to avoid a pessimistic onslaught.
Sometimes, the person
who you might think is a time/energy waster,
or a negative thinker, is really on a mission to either steal your
energy and/or is on a “idea mining”
mission. In this case, the purpose is
not to waste your time and energy, but to “brain storm” idea seeds, and see
what and where the discussion will lead.
When two people discuss an idea, a “third mind” appears creating new
energy. The positive side of this is discussed in the book, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, in discussing his “Mastermind” principle.
Stay away from time and
energy “vampires” and choose to spend time with people who share your
enthusiasm for progress. Creative,
positive, up-beat, and goal oriented people will lift your energy levels and
will help you cultivate your own creativity and reach your own goals.
As you go through each
day it is important to have harmony in your life. Surround yourself with positive, up-beat
people, and begin moving away from negative people. A friend once told me that the beauty of
being financially successful is that you only have to do business with those
people who are pleasant. No one wants to
associate with unpleasant people. Even
if you aren’t exactly where you’d like to be financially, you still have some
discretion in choosing your customers, co-workers and even your boss; if you
sense friction or disharmony, move on . . . .
Most of us are looking
for a high quality life and a life with purpose. We forget that we have to take our bodies
along for the ride! So, if you are like me, you are constantly wrestling with diet and
exercise programs necessary for keeping our bodies functioning at a high level. This all starts with good quality
foods, lower fats, and (in my case) less food.
Drink more water, and get more
exercise. Building good health habits
is a life practice. Making time in your
schedule . . . planning time in your day . . . for exercise will help you stay
healthy and will pay big dividends! Try
to have a balanced life of meaningful creative work, spiritual regeneration,
and some play-time, too. Not only will
you have a healthier body, but your mind will be revitalized, and your life forces will be stronger.
My final tip, and goal
for myself this year, is to stay focused. Part of staying focused is knowing
yourself. What distracts you from doing
the project at hand? Start by
getting organized. Make a Master to-do list, with everything you
need to get done. This list needs to be
prioritized into time frames: 1) do
today, 2) do this week, and 3) items to
put on your calendar. Put the most
important or hardest tasks first. Do
these first. In getting organized,
consider how you are presently managing your time. How much time are you spending on Facebook,
reading Emails, writing and sending new
Emails, and talking on the
telephone? How many meetings are you attending, how long, and
what is being accomplished? Work into your
daily schedule time for something that helps you relax (maybe yoga or
mediation) and to exercise (try taking a walk or spend time at the gym). And, don’t forget to get enough, quality
rest.
www.facebook.com/WayneCrumpleywww.linkedin.com/in/waynecrumpleyFinally, take an
overall look at how you spend your time.
How you spend your time is the best indicator of what is important to
you. If your priorities and your time
allocations don’t match up, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your priorities or
re-evaluate your schedule.
