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A Personal Tune Up
If you ignored the fact that your car required an oil change, what would happen? It's not a tough question to answer, is it? Eventually, the engine would be ruined.
However, it's not just cars that require tune-ups. Ultimately, just about everything requires some extra attention. We wouldn't wash a car once and expect it to be clean forever. We wouldn't go to the gym to workout for a week then expect to be fit for life. And we certainly wouldn't take vitamins once and expect our bodies to be eternally nourished. This is all common sense.
But why then, do so many people get unpleasantly surprised when they feel unsatisfied with their life or don't perform at the level they're capable of? I guess we'd have to look at the source: ourselves. That's right, just like a car, our dirty laundry, or our computer, we too, need a "personal tune-up" every once in a while.
I'm not sure why we do it, but it seems to be human nature to wait until something is not working in our lives before we change our priorities. But when we stop and think about it, why wait until something disastrous happens before we take a step back to consider changing our approach? Sure, we may not be able to control everything that happens to us, but we do have complete control of what we think about and what we do-and that's the most important part. By intelligently choosing our behavior and our thoughts, we can consistently create much more of what we want in life.
The question is: How often do we stop to think about ourselves? Wait... don't just skim over that question. Allow me to repeat myself: How often do we stop to think about ourselves? I'm not talking about shallow thoughts that indicate what we need in the moment, such as a bite to eat or maybe a shower, but instead, really digging down deep within ourselves to find out who we really are and what we want our life to be about. If you're anything like me, these personal tune-ups probably don't take place as often as they should.
For some reason, over time we come to believe (often unconsciously) that designing our lives is not as important as completing our day-to-day chores. This couldn't be further from the truth. Of course certain day-to-day tasks and commitments must get done, but if we don't take a time-out to plan the big picture of our ideal life, then it's like driving in the night-we can only see as far as our headlights will shine (which isn't very far). Chances are, we'll find ourselves somewhere we don't want to be. Unless we have a destination and a plan, who knows where we'll end up?
One of the most devastating feelings is working really hard to climb the ladder of success only to find that it's been leaning up against the wrong wall--meaning you wake up years from now only to discover that everything you've done to this point did not help you create the life you really desired. Not a good feeling. Anybody who has experienced this is quick to learn the difference between being efficient and being effective.
Efficiency is the ability to do things right,
but being effective is doing the right things.
There is a big difference here. When we're effective, everything we do is planned out--it has a purpose that moves us closer to our "ideal life." Effective people create self check-ups to make sure they're on track. Efficient people on the other hand, focus on getting the task in front of them complete. BUT, they don't question whether or not its the right thing to do. Doing something well does not justify it's importance.
Don't wait until January 2011 to finally step back and look at your life objectively to question your overall direction. You wouldn't wait until you saw smoke coming from your car before you checked the oil, would you? Of course not! So why wait until we burn ourselves out before we evaluate our objectives and motives? In fact, how are your New Year resolutions are coming along? "New Years what?" Several people I spoke with explained how they hadn't given up on their goals they just became busy and got "caught up." This is a common situation for too many people. But it doesn't matter how good our intentions are if all we do is "talk" about our goals, dreams, and desires.
Sometimes the best solution is scheduling an appointment with yourself away from all distractions. If you can schedule an appointment with the auto mechanic to change the oil in your car, or your hairdresser to cut your hair, you can certainly schedule an appointment with yourself. Priorities, remember. Someone once said, "If you talk about it, it's a dream, if you envision it, it's possible, but if you schedule it, it's real."
Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself during your personal tune-up:
- What were my New Year resolutions? How is my progress?
- If you didn't write any New Year resolutions you can ask yourself this question: When would now be a good time write some new goals? (wink, wink)
- How would my life be better if I accomplished my goals?
- Am I living up to "the best I can be?"
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how would I rate my _____? (E.g. Physical Health, grades, job performance, personal happiness, relationships, financial situation, etc.)
- What would it take to make this area a 10?
- What time should I schedule my next personal tune-up?
These questions should get you off to the right start. I hope you find this experience as powerful as I did. Good luck!
Much success to you,
- Kent
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Content Copyright "Cool Stuff" Media, Inc. 2010 Reproduction is prohibited without permission
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