Are you familiar with the situation of racing through life breathlessly for years? Do you constantly ask yourself why time passes so quickly and why, no matter what you do, you simply never have enough time? It occurs to you that years ago you attended a workshop on time management and bought five or six books on the subject, including one entitled "How to put this into practice."
So you are fully equipped and also have theoretical experience. Yes, you even understand why you did it. You wanted to finally have more time to manage your employees and finally have more time for your family. You didn't want your children to know you only as a stressed-out bundle of nerves. You didn't want your employees to experience you as someone who is physically present but has no time for their concerns or suggestions.
What is your result today?
Is your mailbox overflowing with unread emails? Is your calendar littered with appointments? Are you rushing from one meeting to the next? Welcome to the advanced hamster wheel. Let's take a step back and think about the following metaphor: What does a mountaineer need to do if they have professional equipment, a route plan, and the necessary fitness to climb a five-thousand-meter peak? Quite simply, they need to "start walking." There is a magic word for achieving a set goal. You probably know it: "DO."
Do you know what is really exciting, but also a sad fact: people think that when they spend money on something (audiobooks, books, DVDs) or attend a workshop, their time problems will disappear into thin air. They leave the seminar highly motivated, with the following written on their foreheads:
"Now everything is changing."
Full of enthusiasm, they take their first steps and realize that it's not as easy as it was in the seminar. In everyday life, people notice how they fail for the first time with their newly acquired tools. Nevertheless, they bravely continue. A second, third, and maybe even a fourth time. If there is no positive result, they do exactly the opposite of what a child does when it stands on its feet for the first time. It falls down, gets up, keeps going, falls down, gets up, keeps going, and so on.
Adults think they can do the same thing for 20, 30, or 40 years and bring about change and achieve success with just three or four attempts. Then, in most cases, one of the most ridiculous excuses follows:"That's a bad author," "The DVD shows a pipe dream," or "The seminar didn't do anything for me." On topof that,they add, "I did try." The scapegoat for why it wasn't implemented is sought externally. The blame lies with the bad speaker, the lousy author, or the complex DVD. Are you familiar with these statements? Was the whole thing perhaps just a means of appeasing a guilty conscience ("I should do something")?
You yourself bear the responsibility for being caught up in the rat race.
Are you familiar with the mantra of the working world? Know everything, be indispensable, always look good, and be available 24 hours a day. Does that sound familiar?
Who bears responsibility for you being stuck in the rat race? Is it the company, which focuses solely on profit? Is it your boss, who always wants more? Is it your colleagues, who simply don't perform well enough and responsibility —in short, is it the circumstances? How many times did you nod your head?
Do you want to get out of the rat race? Then stop focusing on external factors. Instead, look for the cause within yourself. You got yourself into the rat race, so you also have the power to get yourself out of it. How you do this is basically simple. Think about the actions that led you to end up in the rat race.
Before you continue reading: pause for a moment!
I would like to ask you something. Before you continue reading, pause for a few minutes. Make a few notes about how you got caught up in the rat race, and only then continue reading. There is a specific reason for this. Those who do so will realize that they understand the next section not only intellectually, but also emotionally.
Were you able to resist reading on? To quote Boris Grundl, one of the supreme disciplines in leadership is that leader be able to persevere. This is also part of our leadership training.
The following questions are designed to help you slow down the hamster wheel for advanced users. So that you can eventually get off it altogether.
- How often do you say yes when you mean no?
- How many plates are you juggling, and how many could you give up?
- How many of your tasks are based on the idea that only you can do them 100 percent?
- On a scale of one to ten, how crystal clear are your priorities?
- How many goals are you pursuing at the same time?
- How do you feel when employees are in the spotlight instead of you?
- How much time do you invest in developing your employees?
- How often do you do things yourself because you think it's quicker?
- Which tasks do you take on from others, even though they could do them themselves?
- How many emails are you CC'd on?
- How often do you put off unpleasant tasks?
- How many meetings do you attend that you don't need to be at?
Perhaps you can think of many other points now, which is even better. If you want, you can also go one step further. Put a time behind each point that applies to you.
Change your perspective
After this exercise, what is your perspective on the advanced hamster wheel? How much time could you gain? Those of you who are really serious will ask themselves the next question: What will I DO now, specifically?
Once again, it's all about self-management and personal responsibility. You decide whether you want to stay on the treadmill or whether you want to start making changes today and get yourself out of there. Remember: what does the mountaineer have to DO in order to climb the five-thousander?
I wish you every success in reclaiming your time.
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