Most of my friends that talk about time management say that you have to develop a good level of discipline.  I heard just last week that you can’t manage time.  Time is a constant so you can’t – but what people mean is that you learn to manage what you DO with your time.  What most people do is get excited about managing and start a plan and go for about 10 days.  Then they start slacking off.

First it’s a day, then two, and before you know it, you’re not even tracking time like you used to.  Yes, things seem to be going OK, but this is only because you’re still seeing the fruit of what you did last week.  Did you get that?

We work out a plan, and because things start going well, we get complacent.  I believe this is one of the biggest dangers of becoming successful.  You don’t drive yourself when you’re at the top of the mountain the same way you did when you were climbing up.  And because success is actually on a slope – a slippery slope, sometimes – if we don’t work hard at staying there, we slide off and begin an ugly descent to the bottom.

When you ARE working on your plan, and it is comfortable, this is what is known as the “flow”.  It is really cool to be in the “flow” of things.  You feel that you’re really effective.  Things tend to go well.  You see results.  I truly believe that you are at another “level” when you get to this point.

Another thing my friends say is that you have to create urgency.   It’s an inner drive to get the job done quickly.  Like you’re racing against… you!  So in doing this, you become an action taker.  You do this instead of talking about what you are going to do.  You know the feeling of results and you now know the formula: plan, do, and see results.  Try it for a week – but only this time – keep going after the first week.  Work through the float period and develop your “flow.”  Go for it!

Ugg.  One of the greatest fears most people have when confronting a team is having to lead them.  Face it.  Most people are followers.  My wife was elbowing me about a week ago when we were at a fair and some of the businesses had these beautiful pens laying out on the table, obviously – to me, anyway – to take as a souvenir.  I jumped right in, and after I did, many followed.  But none wanted to be the first.  We’re wired this way.

Churchill said, “Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend.”  Ah, yes.  I can hear him saying that.  And he showed how systematically developing deep down qualities of unflinching courage is probably the fundamental prerequisite for leadership.  You have to go at it like memorization.  Over and over.

It’s fear – or the lack of courage, I suppose – that is responsible for most failure in management.  Take “Kitchen Nightmares” on Fox TV, for example.  Chef Ramsay shows that most managers simply lack the courage to face up to the problems in their restaurants.  But it happens in life, too.  I see many times people slip off into depression because they don’t want to face how life is right now.  It’s the fear of reality.  But this fear is what holds you back!

So how do you get rid of fear?  How do you snap out of depression?  Let me tell you one thing I’ve found great about fear and that is that I had to learn it.  That’s right – I wasn’t born with fear.  And since I learned it – guess what?  I can unlearn it.  When you eliminate fear and doubt – you can do more (just sit and think), you can have more and be far more that you are.  Isn’t it fear that gets in the way of all of your plans?  Remember the last time you were going to do some great dream project?  Why didn’t you start?

I like what I heard at a Tony Robbins event – What would you do if you knew you could not fail?  Wow – that’s real powerful.  Think on that one – write down some of those things.  What new goals would you set?  One of my dreams is to live in one of my dream destinations for six months – then move to another, and another.  Imagine:  London, Lisbon, Madrid, then Milan, Rome, Dubai, Rio, Singapore, Hong Kong…

If you had no fears at all with regard to money or criticism of others, just what would you do differently?

So where did fear come from?  Well, I know babies have only have two fears – I can think of – the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises, no?  Everything else after that we learn as we grow up – a lot of times as destructive criticism from our parents.

How’s this scenario?  Kid is curious and messes things up.  Parent scolds kid and punishes them.  Now eventually – let me know if I’m wrong – the kid develops a pattern of fear connected with trying anything new or different.  So as adults we know this “fear of failure” right?  Fear of risking, making a mistake, of losing.

Decide today that you are going to set a goal as if you knew you couldn’t fail.  I want you to literally begin to act on this goal as if you knew for certain you would not fail at it.

You will surprise yourself how successful you can be!