Continuing the theme about fluffy tails. After working with the list of your unfinished tasks, you will clearly find those that do not fit into the period of half an hour or an hour. They require significantly more time and involve multi-step actions. They are so voluminous that we sometimes don’t know which side to approach them from. Sort of elephants. And since they are not particularly urgent, interaction with them is postponed and postponed.
As a rule, these are the things that are actually important. Yes, they are not on time, but they can qualitatively change our lives. They can take her to new level. They require us to overcome and make efforts. And that’s why I always want to allocate more time for them in order to deal with them properly, with feeling, with arrangement. We kind of prepare ourselves internally for them. We are gaining strength.
Yes, we are preparing to eat the elephant instead of already starting to eat it. Or more precisely, we are preparing to live, instead of already living.
This is also very familiar to me. And now there are several such elephants standing in front of me. And for the second week now I’ve been “keeping them in the freezer” instead of starting to “butcher the carcass.” And this is the second week when the outside world with its affairs controls me, and not I control outside world based on your goals. Sad? A little bit yes. What motivates me when I do this? My desire for thoroughness. Sometimes too much. For you it may be something different, something of your own.
Why am I sharing this? Besides, elephants arise in each of us. More precisely, for everyone who wants more from life. Because we strive to swim against the current. And sometimes the current turns out to be stronger, and we allow it to carry us away. As in my example. The main thing is to catch yourself in time and start rowing in in the right direction. Toward your goals. And if we want more, then our goals are usually ambitious. Ambitious for ourselves at this stage of life. It's like we're challenging ourselves. Challenge, can I overcome this elephant or not?
So, let's go back to big things(to elephants). You can master them if you absorb them piece by piece. Break a large project into a number of large pieces. And then divide each large piece into several smaller ones. And each small one for several small tasks. You will get a diagram in the form of a tree. And every small tasks- these are specific things or actions that can be done using a quick shooting method. And there, in small pieces, you yourself won’t notice how big elephant begins to decrease in size.
The main thing is to start by finding a little time every day to think through a plan for “cutting up the carcass”, and then to complete tasks on the elephant. Give this task priority status and complete it as soon as possible before other tasks. Then you will feel that you are living based on your interests.
How often do you hear the denial “This is unreal” from your own “I”...? I am sure that for the majority, this statement is best friend and an advisor in life... I confess to you honestly, up to a certain point, I was also one of them, until one day I decided to change my psychological attitude to a new, beautiful, successful one: “I CAN!!!”
This skill does not come easily... Echoes of past thinking often try to break out and convince: “You don’t need this, relax, don’t read books, you can’t step into the same river twice, watch TV, everything is fine with you anyway...” But... All my adult life I have been accompanied by an important rule:
YOU MADE A PROMISE - KEEP IT. IF YOU CAN'T FULFILL, DON'T PROMISE!!!
Lack of motivation in life turns a person into a spineless creature, lying on the couch with a remote control in his hands all day and evening, wasting his life on his inaction... Take a close look at this picture:
Your life belongs to you... Those who have already dealt with goals clearly know: “Convincing your own “I” of the reality of a goal is much more difficult than achieving it...” So, one of the components of the “”© method is that the goal must be BIG (You must have ambitious goals)… And at this stage, many begin to experience discomfort, looking at the target as if it were a HUGE ELEPHANT, the weight of which is several times greater than your own:
Scary…? How did the primitive ancestors of humanity, with primitive weapons in their hands, manage to “overwhelm” a mammoth...? The answer is simple, they are very wanted eat and feed their family, and, most importantly, they never had the thought: “It’s unrealistic to kill a mammoth with your bare hands...” They took it and did it... So, we already have the “elephant” (our global one)... Oh, of course eat it...? We call on all our culinary abilities (), and we come to simple solution: “In pieces”... The letter “A” in the method of setting and achieving goals “”© means “Algorithmic” - breaking the global goal into subgoals... Let's look at it with an example. Let’s say that a sales representative’s sales level over the last six months has been fixed at $20,000 per month; moreover, he believes that it is already unrealistic to increase it... Having carefully studied and analyzed the situation, you have come to the conclusion that you can increase 25% to the “ingrained” figure of 20,000 dollars, it’s quite possible... So, let’s look at the conditions:
- Sales volume = $20,000 per month;
- Number of clients = 100;
- Working week = 5 days;
- Number of clients per day = 20;
- Number of manufacturers in the portfolio = 5.
Goal = increase sales volume per month to $25,000... The most interesting thing begins when we voice these plans to our subordinates... The image of a “HUGE, IMPOSSIBLE, Irresistible ELEPHANT” immediately appears before our eyes. How to prove that the ELEPHANT is not as terrible as they portray him...? Let the animal welfare society forgive me, but my answer will be this: “Chop the elephant into pieces...” Our task is to switch thinking from... So, the figure of $25,000, at first glance, looks scary... And if you break it down into weekly subgoals (4 weeks in month)…?
As a result, we divide $25,000 into 4 weeks and we get sales volume per week = $6,250... It is perceived easier, but it still looks not entirely optimistic... Continue, don’t stop... Now break the weekly plan down into each day...
What does it end up...? We divide $6,250 by 5 working days a week, and we get a figure = $1,250 a day... That’s already better... I think visualization is enough to avoid turning the “elephant” into a mass of cells, we’ll figure it out further without pictures... How many clients do we work with per day...? That's right, 20... What's stopping you, divide 1250 by 20, and you get 62 dollars per client... Is that all...? And there are 5 manufacturers in the portfolio... Yes, yes, divide 62 by 5... What do we get...? Absolutely right, some 12 dollars per manufacturer. Now compare the two numbers and listen to the psychological reactions:
$25,000 = $12
Surely your own “I” will answer: “What’s left of the elephant is only the legs and... the trunk.” I gave an example of how this method works when setting a monthly goal to demonstrate its effect. You can apply it to goals for the year, breaking them down into quarters - months - weeks - days, etc. Remember the only person The person you need to learn to negotiate with is YOU!!! If you can do this, the word “unreal” will leave your vocabulary forever. One more thing IMPORTANT NOTE to working with this method: “If for some reason you did not achieve your goals during the day, then transfer this difference to the next day, and, without fail, try to fulfill them... Don’t let your brain convince you of the unreality, the ultimate BIG GOALS".
So, in my " cookbook recipes for success" add one more:
- We take a “fresh elephant” (global, big goal);
- We check it using the “ ”© method (well, so that it is GMO-free ());
- Finely chop it into pieces (sub-cuts). The fractions should be as small as possible;
- We season it all with DESIRE, BELIEF IN YOURSELF AND RESULTS;
- Close tightly with a lid called “I CAN”;
- And simmer until completely cooked (we limit the goal to a specific time);
- After the specified time, you will have the opportunity to inhale the aroma of VICTORY (primarily over yourself), SUCCESS, INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION, thereby increasing the degree of FAITH in your abilities.
- BE HEALTHY and bon appetit...
Looking at this photo and applying it to our topic today, I want to say the following: “If you want to prove to yourself that the goal (elephant) is unrealistically large, put it in the foreground, and be content with excuses in life (for breakfast, lunch and dinner) ... » In order to become Successful, Abilities, Talent, Healthy Self-Esteem, Determination, Desire... Compared to such priceless gifts that a person is awarded, no elephant can compare, at most, he will be on an equal footing with you, which means it’s really possible to defeat him...
Finally, a little parable... Having created Man, God said to the apostle: “If we give Man all our Wisdom, he will waste it in vain during his life. So I made a decision, we will hide it securely. But where...?" The Apostle suggested: “Let’s hide it at the top of the high mountain“... To which God replied: “No, sooner or later, man will overcome it”... After thinking, the apostle said: “Let’s lower it deep to the bottom of the ocean”... No, God answered, man will find the opportunity to sink so deep...” After some time God said: “Let’s hide Wisdom far in the depths of Man’s soul, and only the one who gets it will be able to dispose of it with dignity...”
Always remember this... Before every GOAL, before every obstacle, firmly declare: “I CAN DO THIS!!!” Be HAPPY!!!
Thank you for your invaluable time spent in my company!!!
Best regards, Andrey Zhulay.
Life balance! How to balance your life...
After working with the list of your unfinished tasks, you will clearly find those that do not fit into the period of half an hour or an hour. They require significantly more time and involve multi-step actions. They are so voluminous that we sometimes don’t know which side to approach them from. Sort of elephants. And since they are not particularly urgent, interaction with them is postponed and postponed.
As a rule, these are the things that are actually important. Yes, they don't, but they can do it well. They can take it to the next level. They require us to overcome and make efforts. And that’s why I always want to allocate more time for them in order to deal with them properly, with feeling, with arrangement. We kind of prepare ourselves internally for them. We are gaining strength.
Yes, we are preparing to eat the elephant instead of already starting to eat it. Or more precisely, we are preparing to live, instead of already living.
This is also very familiar to me. And now there are several such elephants standing in front of me. And for the second week now I’ve been “keeping them in the freezer” instead of starting to “butcher the carcass.” And this is the second week when the outside world with its affairs controls me, and I do not control the outside world based on my goals. Sad? A little bit yes. What motivates me when I do this? My desire for thoroughness. Sometimes too much. For you it may be something different, something of your own.
Why am I sharing this? Besides, elephants arise in each of us. More precisely, for everyone who wants more from life. Because we strive to swim against the current. And sometimes the current turns out to be stronger, and we allow it to carry us away. As in my example. The main thing is to catch yourself in time and start rowing in the right direction. Toward your goals. And if we want more, then our goals are usually ambitious. Ambitious for ourselves at this stage of life. It's like we're challenging ourselves. Challenge, can I overcome this elephant or not?
So, back to the big things (elephants). You can master them if you absorb them piece by piece. Break a large project into a number of large pieces. And then divide each large piece into several smaller ones. And each small one for several small tasks. You will get a diagram in the form of a tree. And every small task is a specific task or action that can be done using a quick shooting method. And there, in small pieces, you yourself will not notice how the big elephant begins to decrease in size.
The main thing is to start by finding a little time every day to think through a plan for “cutting up the carcass”, and then to complete tasks on the elephant. Give this task priority status and complete it as soon as possible before other tasks. Then you will feel that you are living based on your interests.
Close running programs
We checked the time and took a snapshot of the day. Today we will conduct an audit of what invisibly poisons our lives and robs us of energy.
Imagine: you want to watch a movie on your computer. But at the same time, you left a bunch of programs open: a visual editor, a browser with a bunch of tabs, Skype and several documents. You open the film, but for some reason it goes in fits and starts - it slows down. The computer hums, overheats, trying to cope with many parallel processes, but ultimately burns out.
Few people thought that the same thing happens to us when we open and do not complete many tasks. Our brain remembers each one, because what we start needs to be completed. Give a book to the library, alter your favorite dress, repair your boots... These “dangling” tasks include everything that is labeled “postponed for later.” These are not tasks of the first importance. But we keep them in mind in case free time. And even when it appears, we don’t want to deal with them.
What to do?
Set aside an hour, no less. Take a notebook and write down all the tasks that you have set in anticipation of free time. Everything, everything. You will spend the entire hour remembering something else. But don't stop until the hour has passed. All. Now assign a deadline to each task on the list. and figure out the easiest and fastest way to get rid of it. Delegate whenever possible.. Build it into your schedule. Do what you want, but you have a month to get rid of this list.
Delegation is not a luxury
IN last article we took a snapshot of the day. This is a very important exercise. In addition to helping us find holes in our schedule, snapshots also help us see the activities on which we spend the most time. He also shows us how we delay preparing for things, unconsciously trying to delay them in time. They are the ones who need to be delegated whenever possible.
It is believed that delegation is a financial opportunity to hire an assistant. But that's not true. In fact, the first people to whom we can delegate are our inner circle - our relatives. As a rule, they are happy to help us, because for many, what is a difficult routine for you is not at all burdensome.
Connect the kids and in general everyone who has a lot of free time. You can also connect your friends. Using the theory of six handshakes - you can always find the right specialist and use its services with a big discount or barter. Mommies can unite and take turns to arrange at home kindergarten. Today she sits alone with the children of all her friends, giving them the opportunity to spend the day the way they want, and tomorrow they change.
Eat a big elephant
When we unloaded our heads from small background tasks and delegated some of the routines, the time came for those big things that we hadn’t gotten around to for a long time.
Psychologists call such problems elephants because of their immensity.
It is not at all clear which way to approach them and how to start. We'll eat this elephant piece by piece, then it won't seem so big.
The first thing we do is this is choosing a task and setting a deadline for it. Now you need to break the task down into stages. Then we divide them by tasks and describe each task in points and so on until we reach monosyllabic actions. For example, a “go to the dentist” project could for many years hang in your memory until your tooth hurts. But in our method, in order to get to the dentist, you need to schedule a visit to the doctor point by point. For example:
1. Select five dental clinics in your area.
2. Call a friend who recently recommended a dentist friend of hers. Call five clinics and a friend’s dentist friend.
3. Compare prices and level of guarantees.
4. Make an appointment.
5. Go to an appointment.
In this form, the project has a much greater chance of coming true than if it is just an entry in the diary “Go to the dentist.” In order for everything to work out, each of these six points must have its own deadline. And note: some actions take 5 minutes. But all together they amount to a whole task. And so, in segments of 5 minutes or an hour, they can be scattered for each day of the week, and already in a week we have eaten an elephant!
