Page 40 - Standard Workbook 8-27-18

TOPUCU Standard Workbook
LESSON 6: PART 2
HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR 168?
In Part 1 of this lesson you learned the value
of time. You also learned that there are
only so many hours allotted to each of our
lives. In this part of the lesson you are going
to learn how to persist as you anxiously
anticipate your desired results. Then we’re
going to discuss a technique you can use
to manage your busy times and more
importantly maximize your down time. Let’s
get to it.
Whatever your habit change or goal is
it won’t happen overnight. And this Starter
Program never promised that it would. There
are no shortcuts or magic pills. No matter
what you’ve heard, no one is an instant-
success. No one wakes up in the morning
and says, “By the end of today, I’ll be fit,
in-shape and have better eating habits.” Or,
“By the end of the day, I’ll be a successful
famous person.” “By the end of the day I’ll
have dropped that bad habit.” It’s impractical
to believe any of that. But somehow, so many
of us believe that if success doesn’t come
instantly or in the timing that we expect,
then it’s not meant to be. We find ourselves
hoping and wishing for change to happen
immediately and sometimes we even act
unreasonably in hopes of hurrying things
along. It’s like watching someone hit the
elevator button a dozen times thinking that
the elevator will get there any quicker.
Sometimes in our impatience we even try
shortcuts to get to our goal faster, only to
find that we have actually set ourselves back
a few steps.
The techniques and formulas that you’re
learning through this Starter Program will
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help you along the way, but the bottom line
is: true lasting transformation takes time.
And accepting that truth is an important
step to achieving success. The second step
is learning how to use that time wisely. There
is a principle called Parkinson’s Law. The
definition is, “work expands so as to fill the
time available for its completion.” In other
words it simply explains the difference
between an efficient life and an effective
life. Let’s take a look at an analogy. Imagine
a one-room apartment. It’s easy to take care
of. If you’re having company it doesn’t take
much time to prepare and afterwards
clean-up is fairly simple. Day in and day out
life goes on and you do what needs to be
done. It’s an efficient apartment. Most people
live an efficient life. But Parkinson’s Law
explains that you can live an effective life.
We’ve all had an effective day, haven’t we?
Let’s say you live in a house and you wake up
one day knowing that tonight there will be a
birthday party at your place. You prepare by
mowing the grass, weeding the flowerbed,
cleaning the garage, straightening up the
basement, setting up chairs and tables and
getting the grill prepped. By the time the
party begins everything is ready.
After the party is over, you clean up and
when you sit down to rest, you think to
yourself, “Did I mow the lawn this morning?”
You’ve accomplished so much during the
course of the day that you can’t even
remember what you did in the beginning.
That’s an effective day.
Most people live efficient lives, but if you
want to become a champion or to see
true transformation you need to live an
effective life. You need to plan for effective
days, even if you’re not having a party or
planning for a major event. We’re not saying
you shouldn’t have any efficient days. Every
so often, you SHOULD plan to have days
when you can relax and do only what has to
be done and nothing more. But these kinds
of days can’t dominate your life if you want
to see change. If you don’t see immediate
results, you can’t allow yourself to become
discouraged. You must continue to strive for
as many effective days as possible.
Let’s consider the life of Harland David
Sanders; better known as Col. Sanders, the
founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC
as it is called today. He was not an overnight
success. In fact Mr. Sanders was at the age
of retirement before he became Col. Sanders.
But from the time he was young he never
gave up and he never stopped trying to live
an effective life. In the early 1900's he had
several odd jobs, working as a fireman, an
insurance salesman and eventually running a
filling station. When he wasn’t pumping gas,
he decided to use his spare hours to cook
chicken on a skillet he kept in the back of the
station and sold it to his customers. People
liked his chicken so much that he was able
to open up a restaurant. After experiencing
several ups and downs in the restaurant
business, including the great depression
in the 1920's and 30's that forced him to
close down, and catastrophic fires that left
his properties in ashes, Col. Sanders was
finally able to establish a steady business in
Corbin, Kentucky. But soon, he experienced
another setback when the new interstate-75
was built in 1955. People were no longer
stopping through to check out the Colonel’s
chicken. They were now just passing by.
Sanders was forced to sell the restaurant
and at the age of 65 he had to start all over.
He took off on a road tour trying to sell his
Lesson 6: Part 2
secret recipe of pressure frying chicken in
his own special mix of herbs and spices to
different restaurant owners. Col. Sanders
visited over 1,000 locations before someone
finally bought his recipe. It was at the age
of 68 that he had his first franchise and
the rest, as they say, is history. Today KFC
is a household name. It took time for Col.
Sanders to achieve ultimate success. And
notice his story is full of effective days in
which he filled his downtime with activities
that promoted positive transformation in his
life. And what we’ve spoken about today is
only scratching the surface. If you look up
the story of Harland David Sanders you will
find a man who spent his life trying to live as
effectively as possible. Yes, it took some time,
but it paid off!
So how do you spend your 168? Is it efficient
or is it effective? Are you cooking chicken
in your spare time or just eating it? Every
hour you have; every minute you have is an
opportunity to make that choice. Let’s look
at another individual who made the choice
to live effectively and examine the technique
he used to accomplish great things.
At the turn of the previous century Andrew
Carnegie was on his way to becoming
the richest man in the world. As he was
building his steel empire he was challenged
with prioritizing his tasks and creating the
most effective days possible. He contacted
a man by the name of Ivy Lee who is
widely considered to be “the founder of
public relations.” Mr. Carnegie felt Mr. Lee
could teach him how to use his time more
effectively. He was right! Ivy told Andrew
to make a list every night of the things he
wanted to accomplish the next day.
Then he told him to prioritize the list from
the most important to the least important
and do the six most important things on
the list. As Andrew Carnegie began to use
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