We all are only given so many hours on this earth, and none of us knows when the end will be upon us. So, live life as if today was your last because once your gone, you’re gone. We spend countless hours acquiring and protecting our wealth, but we can’t take it with us. Why spend so much of your allotted time accumulating things you’ll never use? Be protective of your time. Invest it in building memories that will last, and enjoying what God has granted us.
I’ve often said, in my dozen years owning a funeral home, I never once saw a U-Haul hooked up to the back of the hearse. We can’t take it with us so why try? This brings me to your cache of time and how you are protecting yours. One of the most common excuses heard regarding my clients’ abilities to make their dream lives come true is the lack of time. We all have 24 hours in a day, so why can some find the time and others cannot? I believe it comes down to choice. We must choose if we are going to protect our time or not Are we going to allow the “evil of the day” to steal our time away, or are we going to fight for it, put up defenses around it and guard it as our most prized possession that it is? I too had excuses for not managing my time correctly, and then I learned that if it was going to be, it was up to me. And I decided to protect my time.
Today, you can’t get me on the phone without an appointment. And if we have an appointment, you’d better be on time or have given me enough notice that you’ll be late, or we’ll have to reschedule, because I will have someone else booked immediately following our time. I only answer my e- mails in batches. If you drop by my office to see me, I’ll be polite, but I won’t ask you to sit and talk, and you’ll probably get the impression that I’m busy, an ogre, or simply downright rude. I never intend to be, but if you begin to think that my time is more important than an unexpected drop-in visitor at the moment, you will be right. If you’re a staff member and you decide to be reactive towards me or any other team member, you’re going to see the East Coast in me come out. And if I should, for whatever reason (and yes, I make mistakes too), interrupt you as a member of my team, you are absolutely allowed (and expected) to put me in my place. You won’t find me running to the mail box like a kid on Christmas morning. And I’m more likely to be caught eating my lunch at my desk while catching up on reading than you are to see me going out. This way I can get everything on my list done for the day and still be home for dinner with the family.
What are your rules for protecting your time? If you don’t have any, I suggest you review your priorities again. If you do have rules, are you following them? Managing yourself to follow the time- based rules you created is not a “sometimes thing”, it’s an “all the time thing”.
Don’t learn these lessons after it is too late to do something about them. Take action today – you’ll be happy you did.
If your running your law firm is sucking your time away, take some time to read my book, The DNA of the Autonomous Attorney. Find out how to have the firm that supports your lifestyle, not undermines it.
