Honest Self Assessment Is The First Step Towards Having The Impact You Want In Life:
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Let’s ask ourselves the slightly disrespectful question, “so what?” If the path to hell is paved with good intentions, you will find, if you look closely at that path, that those good intentions are neatly arranged in a “To do list” format.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in planning. Planning is a key to success but used wrongly it is also a cause of delusional thinking. At the end of the day, you completed your to do list. All those items checked off and finished! What a good feeling, now you can sleep in peace. Are you sure your list adds up to a hill of beans?
At the end of the day when we review the many completed tasks, let’s ask ourselves the question “So what?” What results come from your activity? What would happen if you left these tasks undone, delayed or delegated? Did you do the most important and highest return activities for this day?
Try this exercise; in a journal format, write out your completed projects that you accomplished on this day. Then, do this potentially painful self examination: was this what really needed to get done? Was this the best and highest use of your time for this day? Is your intense and disciplined work to complete your list masking cowardice and avoidance regarding high risk, high return items? What is behind the façade of carefully orchestrated busyness? Ask yourself “so what” and when you get a satisfactory answer that money was made, relationships mended, performance improved, profit generated, costs cut, then you can be at peace, at least until tomorrow.