By Joy Lifechangers
E-mail: joylifechangers@gmail.com
Hello everyone. May I welcome you to my debut column today with a rumination on the value of productivity.
There’s something I believe that anyone who aspires to be successful in life must add to the list of things to practise in order to achieve their goal, and that is to understudy greatness in great and successful people.
Great people are so, not necessarily because they were born with any kind of spoon in their mouth for it is a path that must be followed even if it is shown to you. Some people misunderstand inheritance for greatness or success. No, they are not the same! Inheritance is handed to you while greatness or success, on the other hand, is developed within you. Inheritance is what you have, and greatness is who you are.
It is worthy to note that in the long run what you are is more important and rewarding than what you have. No wonder we see people who all they have is an inheritance and they just squander it away because inside of them there’s no ability to create or develop anything, so they diminish instead, but a great person on the other hand will take something little and turn it into an empire. The difference here is what’s within and not what’s at hand.
So, what do successful people do that keeps them going strong that we need to consider? One major thing I have observed is their consciousness and use of TIME.
Let’s consider this for a moment. People like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet, TD Jakes, Rick Warren Myles Munroe, etc., all have the same twenty-four hours that you and I have but, what differs is how they used theirs.
What’s the real difference between developed countries and the “third world”? It’s all in the use of time; whilst people get paid by the hour in these countries referred to as developed, their counterparts do so by the month.
I often wonder why there’s less productivity from someone who has a whole month to accomplish a task, while someone on the other hand has a few hours to do the same and yet gets the job done. Why is it that people who are fond of saying, “Oh, we still have time” or “Let’s take our time” always fall short of time and are full of excuses rather than results? On the other hand, those who are always conscious of time get more done!
Successful people don’t wait till the end of the month to find the problem, error, or missing link; they stay on it for as long as it takes until they find it and then they fix it. They don’t procrastinate because they budget their time, so procrastinating really does not have space on their schedule.
Some of the things others take for granted, they take into account and often time profit from. The average doctor in the United States does not spend more than 15 minutes with a patient. An appointment to see a lawyer there requires a consultation fee, the marriage counsellor charges by the hour, the motivational speaker gets paid by the hour; in short, nothing is free, every hour must count because that’s how they earn a living.
And so I realised that most of the things some parts of Africa take for granted are the reasons why we suffer from lack and poverty. Even though we offer the same services, yet we do not demand accountability of ourselves of the twenty-four hours we have been given like the rest of the developed world does.
I know it’s easy to begin to say, “Oh yes, my country needs to do better for me, my company or boss needs to do this or my clients better get ready for change.” But then you’ll be missing out on the whole point of this piece. You know why? The aim here is not what needs to change around you; the aim here is all about what needs to change within you.
Yes, inside of you. Demand accountability from yourself on the use of your time. When given a task, time yourself and improve on your speed and techniques on the job.
Develop your people skills and communication skills which add natural favour to your relationships, thereby increasing your positive feedback and the cooperation from colleagues on getting your job done.
Seek to increase substance for what takes others days to deliver will only take you hours because of the knowledge you have garnered. So then your productivity will speak for you and raise the platforms of your relevance, because the truth is, the better you are, the more in demand you will be and the more in demand you are, the more people are willing to pay to have you and the more people are willing to pay to have you the better your options become, the more you dine with the high flyers, the more your dreams come through, the more your dreams come through, the more greater and successful you become and the more successful you become, the more you’re able to effect change in the society and make other people’s dream come through.
So here’s the question of the day: how am I using my time? Am I spending it wisely or am I wasting it by idling away on irrelevant issues?
Decide to begin to make your day count by the hour. Be a life changer!