Bountiful Results

Why do so many people say “Thank God It’s Friday”?  Is it because it is pay day or the day of the week that is the most rewarding.  I know that there are many reasons.

I know from first hand experience, when we are wishing for Friday to come because we are miserable at work, the paycheck will never seem like it is enough to compensate us for what we perceive to be the anguish that we have to endure.  It seemed like a never ending spiral.

One day I was at a crossroad and had a really tough decision to make.  Do I quit my job and spare my sanity or do I continue to endure the madness for the sake of providing income for my family.  Luckily, I found a third option.  I remembered something that Zig Ziglar said about making two lists – one list of the things that we like about our job and another the dislikes.  I made the lists.  I did discover that the benefits and positives did outweigh the negatives.  I then took the negatives and broke that list into two groups.  One list that I could turn into positives by communicating with someone that controlled the negative.  For example, I resented being put on mandatory overtime.  I approached my supervisor and shared with him that I was willing to work overtime when necessary and if I could get an advanced notice of an increase in the work load, we could re-prioritize the schedule and even head off some of the overtime.  It was a win-win.  The other negatives I had to accept as part of the deal.

I also realized that most are not fortunate enough to love every aspect of their job.  It is called work and they do have to pay us to do it.

Can we make the most of our time at work?  Absolutely.  Happiness is not the money we earn.  Happiness is not even the title or status in the company.  It is the experiences that we have while doing our job.  Are you leaving a legacy?  Are you able to make another persons life easier or more rewarding because of what you do?  The answer to both of these is YES.  If you cannot see it, I would love to assist you.  You can e-mail me at john@bountifulresults.com

May all your results be Bountiful.

The answer is 1,440.

The question should be – How many minutes a day do you spend improving your quality of life?

Today, we live in a time where our day is measured by minutes (1,440), not hours.  It is a slow day if we only have 20 things to do.  If I am not careful, I can get caught up in the quantity of things to do.  It is the quality of what we do that matters.

If I may go back to the farm for a minute, the health of the plant was critical to the amount of vegetables it could produce and the size of the vegetables.   Likewise, my health has to be at the top of the list for those precious minutes that are being fought over.  I would not think of depriving a plant of sunlight and water, yet I have been guilty of depriving myself of exercise and a balanced diet.  Do you see where I am going?

I watched someone demonstrate  the perfect time management example using a glass jar, some rocks, some pebbles and some sand.  He said that the rocks are your quality items, the things that are of great value to you.  The pebbles are the daily tasks and the things that may be required or have been hanging around on your list.  The sand is the unexpected and unforeseen tasks such as phone calls, e-mails, questions or “fires that need to be put out”.  If the sand starts pouring into jar before you can get the rocks and pebbles into place you are done – they will not fit.  Let me see a show of hands.  How many of you are going through this right now?

Schedule the rocks in first- the pebbles and sand will often fit around them.

Here are my big rocks:

• My health
• My family
• Quiet time for planning
• My career

That is it for today, with not a minute to spare.