Prime Time (goals)

Lee Fowler's Weekly Newsletter (visit his page to subscribe to his newsletter) brought another Denis Waitley article today:

Start living in prime time

Prime time is that period between 6 and 10 p.m. during which most of the general public watches television. Commercials in prime time are the most expensive, approaching a million dollars per minute. Your real success in life will take a quantum leap when you stop watching other people making money in their professions performing in prime time, and start living your own dreams and goals in prime time. Time is the ultimate equal opportunity employer. Time never stops to rest, never hesitates, and never looks forward or backward. Life's raw material spends itself in the now, this moment, which is why how you spend your time is far more important than all the material possessions you may own or positions you may obtain. Positions change, possessions come and go, you can earn more money. You can renew your supply of many things, but like good health, that other most precious resource, time spent, is gone forever.

Each yesterday, and all of them together, are beyond your control. Literally all the money in the world can't undo or redo a single act you performed. You cannot erase a single word you said. You can't add an "I love you," "I'm sorry", or "I forgive you", not even a "thank you" you forgot to say. Each human being in every hemisphere and time zone has precisely 168 hours a week to spend. And some of the most precious hours occur in prime time.

Consider this: most of your daytime hours are spent helping other people solve their problems. The little time you have in the evenings and on weekends is all you have to spend on yourself, on your own dreams and goals, and personal development. Some thoughts to ponder:

• Have supper with your loved ones at least two to three times per week. It's the best time for casual conversation to listen to what those close to you feel is important in their lives. Mealtime is a time to dialogue.

• A television set is an appliance. It should be used, at most, for two hours at a time. It should be off, unless specific programs of interest are selected. It should not be used as a one-eyed baby sitter. For the most part, TV exposes us to negative role models.

• Instead of watching television why not read a good fiction or non-fiction book, write a letter, engage in a hobby or craft, call a friend or someone in need of encouragement on the phone, network on your computer, go out to an ethnic restaurant, a home show, an entrepreneurial show, a musical recital, a play, a fitness class, or cultural event. Take an art or photography class. Use prime time to live the kind of life others put on layaway.

Action Idea: If you and your family/friends watch TV, try not turning it on for one week. When you do watch TV, reduce by 50% the amount of time you spend watching it. Concentrate your evenings and free time engaged in hands on, real life experiences, you can touch, feel, smell and engage all your senses in. Instead of virtual reality, insist on the real thing.

(Denis Waitley)

Especially the part about 'yesterday is beyond your controle' brings my Gotta Get Goal point 5 to the forefront.

Comments

[Sylvia C.]

This is a great post.

Thanks for sharing!

truly,

Sylvia C.

[Karin H.]

Hi Sylvia

Glad you like it, I am all for sharing good and interesting articles.

See you write children's books and that you like a good cup of coffee. My kind of person ;-)

Karin H

[Pete Aldin]

Yeah that's "timely" (whoops, bad bad pun). Taking control of our lives and our time is the ultimate leverage point ... and one that we seem so averse to doing.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Karin H.]

Hi Pete

True. We seem to set more score on filling every god given hour with trivia and forgetting the most important things: caring and showing we care, learning and teaching.

But, you better thank Denis Waitley, it are his words I've posted

[Lisa Gates]

Sylvia, this is a great post. Time is probably the biggest non-problem problem my writer clients live with. In a post a while back, I captured a conversation in which a writer finds that issues of time are more easily solved by creating space. I'll send you the link if you'd like...

[Lisa Gates]

oops, I called you Sylvia. And Sylvia is the only Sylvia in the room, as you know. Sorry.

KARIN!!!!

[Karin H.]

;-)
No harm done Lisa, I 'read' between the lines anyway ;-)

Yes, please add the link because I'm very curious (being pressed for time at the moment and too many items on too many lists still to do - customers keep interfering with me! ;-)) how time can be a non-problem?

(Side-note: just copy and paste the link, HTML like 'a href' doesn't seem to work quite so well I'm afraid)

[Lisa Gates]

Dear Karin Sylvia Not,

Thanks for being willing to take a look.
Personally, I hate it when people tell me to "breathe" when I'm busy--just makes me want more coffee and a boxing glove--but it does help...

Here's the link, love. You can leave the comma in or not. ;-) (Sassy Friday, eh?)