When you are successful you manage opportunities and your problems are problems other people would kill to have.
When you are struggling you manage problems. When you manage problems your progress is stunted and your resources (time, energy, money) are scarce and you feel harassed, underappreciated or worse.
Managing problems eats up time, you are far better off to innovate and solve the problem so that you can focus on what matters most to your life. When you manage problems you have to deal with a lot of stress.
Stress Kills. I’m not kidding check this out. Throw a bad diet on that stress, add some salt, a coffee, some booze and a little bit of pressure and you better look out that thing is going to blow. As they say, something has got to give. Or, it won’t blow. It will just simmer away in the background as you grind it out and along the way you might do alright, but you may not describe it as happiness necessarily.
Successful people hate wasting time, energy or money. They are always looking to improve, to be more efficient, to eliminate anything that is yielding a poor return.
Problems are time wasters. Problems wear people out. Problems distract us and wear us out.
I know what the three things are I need to do every day, and every day I do two of three of them. I speak to rooms full of people. I speak on the telephone. I write. That’s it, two of three. I spend a lot of time, way more time than you can imagine (unless you have made the shift already yourself) thinking only about how I can those three things better.
Start with this question … What do I do. What do I really do? Then make a list of everything you do every day, and then go through the list and ask yourself “Does this help me accomplish what I really do?” If the answer is no, stop doing it. I started with a long list, I ended up with a list of three things
I do what I like to do, which is what I am best at and also which generates the most revenue. Generating a lot of revenue in a short period of time, consistently, is very important to me. Doing what I like to do, most of the time, makes me pretty happy.
Don’t manage problems, get help. If your problem is that you keep doing what you shouldn’t be doing then stop doing that. If your problem is that you need help … then either get help or clam up about it until you are ready.
Think big. It’s not just your work, it’s your life and how you want to live it that you are fighting for. Living a life less ordinary. Living a life with less stress and more control.
Think outside of the box. Ask yourself why not. Why does it have to be the way it is? Why can’t it be something more? Why can’t you live a happier life, do less if not none of anything you consider BS and spend all your time doing what you like for who you like under your own terms?
Seriously. Are you going to be a disorganized but loveable idiot your entire life? If you have a problem that you are working on, but its been a problem for years now then fire yourself. You’re great but you are obviously not the right person for that job.
Get help. Take action. Don’t talk about it. Do something about it.