He asked me, “How many hours a day does a happy, successful, and financially independent person have?” I thought about it for just a few seconds and figured that it had to be a trick question. But I decided to play along. “24 hours a day,” I responded; waiting to hear why that was the wrong answer. To my surprise, my coach said, “Correct.”
And then, with a serious look he asked, “How many hours a day does an unhappy, unsuccessful, and financially broke person have?” OK, this time I knew it had to be a trick question; so I quickly tried to figure out the answer, but couldn’t. So I said, “24 hours a day,” looking at him; waiting for the unexpected. “Correct again,” he said.
My expression to his questions was a ‘so what?’ expression; as if his questions were unimportant and insignificant. But by the look on my coach’s face, I could clearly see that this was no joke; nor was the discussion one to be taken lightly.
“Do you know that the ONLY DIFFERENCE between a happy, successful, and financially independent person and an unhappy, unsuccessful, and financially broke person is what they do in their 24 hours? You see, it’s not hard to figure out that rich, successful, happy, and influential people do not read the same things as those who are struggling just to make it through the day,” my coach lectured.
“It’s not hard to figure out that rich, successful, happy, and influential people do not dress, use the same language, or hang around with the same kind of people as do poor, unhealthy, and unhappy people who are constantly struggling to get through the day.
“It’s not hard to figure out that rich, successful, happy, and influential people do not watch 6 hours of television a day, do not allow themselves to be influenced by the media or voices that thrive on negativity and pessimism, and do not allow themselves to give up on their dreams, expectations, and goals; while underachievers and life strugglers always seem to settle for less and blame everyone but themselves for their misery and despair.”
As I heard my coach’s words of wisdom, I realized he was right. It’s not where we were born, what our childhood was like, our education, or our environment that determines our success and happiness. What determines success is our inner drive, our commitment to our values and our dreams, and how we integrate that into the 24 hours a day we have.
“Here are 8 tips,” my coach said, “that will help you get FROM the day; not just through it. Follow these tips and you will achieve all that you want for yourself and your family.” I did, and they worked miracles for me. So let me share them with you so they work miracles for you too.
- Learn how to identify the important things you need to accomplish during the day that will lead to achievement and success. Then, spend most of your time on that. Poor people and underachievers ‘major in minor things;’ meaning they spend too much time on things that don’t matter, and too little time on those things that do matter.
- Beware of distractions. TV, phone calls, text messages, and social media like Facebook can be distractions. Don’t allow people or circumstances to distract you from your daily tasks to achieve your goals and objectives. It’s easy to be distracted. Be disciplined and when necessary, just say “no.” Do the minor things after you’ve completed the major things.
- Sometimes you need to stay in touch but be out of reach. Especially when people see you happy and achieving success. Envy, jealously, and resentment will result, even with well-intentioned people; as they will sabotage your efforts – even at the subconscious level. So be aware. Often you need to stay in touch; but from a respectable distance.
- Be the master of your 24-hours not a servant to them. Have defined, specific, and noble goals for each day. Don’t start the day without them, and don’t leave the day without achieving them. In other words, control your time; don’t let it control you.
- Don’t mistake movement for achievement. In other words, it’s the productive work you put in the hours that makes all the difference; not just any kind of work. It’s easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: Busy doing what?
- Be organized. Use your resources of money, time, and energy wisely. Instead of going to the store three times a day for three different items, go once and get all three at the same time. Same for responding to emails, voicemails, text and twitter messages. Have systems of organization that fit your schedule, not necessarily that of others. And then, stick to the systems.
- Allow yourself to rest to invigorate and rejuvenate. But be careful… don’t make rest an objective; make it a necessity. The best time to rest and rejoice is after you have put in a good day’s work and optimized your time to the fullest.
- Don’t procrastinate. Tackle what needs to be tackled and get through the tough stuff first. Don’t put off a task for another 24 hours that could be completed in these 24 hours. Beware of that enemy called procrastination… and then slay this dragon.