That is the point today and tomorrow. In my social media classes that I teach for community education I tell my class that what do you have to lose by just doing it. For some reason it is the cobbler’s kid’s shoes. You see in the story of the cobbler he makes the best shoes around for everyone, but himself and his children. Too often we do this in our own lives. We forgot to do things for ourselves that truly matter in the lives of those around us, but also in our own business as well. I find that I am constantly telling others to make the changes in their marketing or do this or that because it is too easy to tell others to make the changes for themselves and not look at the changes we need to make. I have however been giving this a lot of thought recently, I have been reading, and also listening to some amazing thought leaders and have come to understand that urgency has to be stopped.
We get sucked into urgency as it is easy. We feel like others are asking of us something important and it must be done to keep the client, to make the sale, to keep moving, to complete the task. What however I have been really looking at is what if I as a cobbler started by making my shoes first? What would happen to my life if I began to make the priorities my own instead of others? What if I stopped putting others first and began the process of setting my process and goals in place first and placing others into these times?
The reality is that we place time priorities as if the day has to be filled with the emergencies and urgencies of others, but there has been study after study from productivity experts that push us to delegate, to prioritize differently, to automate, and in the end just put our priorities first that have shown to be far better productively.
It is important to note here that I am not talking about making your life only about you. What I am talking about is the opportunity to start with your why. Start with your why and make it become important to you and begin to make your why a reality.
A why is a tricky thing because it is a very scary thing. It involves taking a look, as Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy talk about in their new book Living Forward, at writing an obituary at the end of your life. Not in a morbid way, but in a way that you want to be honored by. What do your family, friends, kids, community, or others say about you? What does that look like and then taking that and creating a life plan around it.
What if you stopped living your life in the chaos and urgencies of others, but began to live it for yourself? I would hope that those around you see how much better you are living your life and would support you. I know for me this has been a process I have struggled with and know I will struggle for the rest of my life. I do know that as a part of this process though my wife is a part of my why and we will be doing this together, and hopefully in time we will so become in tune with what each other wants that we will help keep each other on track.
That is my reality. Each week I am living for me which means my clients/customers will be treated better and get better results because I am living my life for the things that matter the most which is God, family, and those that I surround myself with. For me digging in is living my why and not living the why of others. For me digging in looks like the work that I have been doing in the last week of making a difference in others’ lives and beginning the process of telling my own story within this.
Just dig in and begin.