How You May Be Guilty of This Goal Killer

On my way to an appointment this morning, I did what I have done for many, many years – I popped in an audio cd from a very successful businessman on one subject that every single person on the planet has in exactly the same amount.

Rich or poor, successful or not; tall, short, black, white, green, polka-dotted or striped. Gojillionaire womanizing athlete or stay-at-home lioness, Internet marketer or corporate executive…

We all have exactly the same amount of time every single day.

Nobody gets more or less; you can't "save" it – regardless of what some people might say – you can only "spend" or "invest" time.  You can't even "manage" time because that would mean you could somehow get time to improve it's performance or, somehow, you could influence it.

You can't.  Time passes at the same pace, day in and day out.  All YOU can do is surf it, like a wave at the beach.  That wave is going towards the beach whether you ride it or not; either way, it is not going to slow down, speed up, wait for you, make it easier or make it harder.

It is just going to go.

When it comes to your goals or resolutions – and the reasons you DON'T achieve them – one of the Goal Killers is time.

Either you do not assign a "to-be-accomplished-by" deadline, which makes it a wish and not a goal; or you do assign a deadline to it and either A.) it is too short a time, or B) you assign too much time to accomplish it.

What happens in the case of not enough time is that you are now up against an unrealistic timeline.  This turns on the stress jets and immediately makes the achieving of the goal – which was supposed to bring you a sense of accomplishment and joy – into a negative.

When you miss the deadline, now you feel badly about yourself, you start to lose confidence and your self-esteem drops.  Now you are hesitant to set any more goals or resolutions, which keeps you from challenging yourself and growing, which makes you feel badly about yourself…It is a downward spiral.

The other side is when you assign too much time.  There is an old business rule that says "work expands to the time allotted to it."  It is funny how the day before vacation, we can get a week of work done, all jammed into eight hours but, give us a week to something that will take one day, and it takes a week.

In each situation, the proper investment of your time, including the setting, following and achieving of reasonable deadlines is crucial if you are going to achieve anything.

This is just one of the Goal Killers you have to watch for.  I didn't even get into the ways that we waste time or worse – allow it to be stolen from us.

For now, take back your power in the time department.  Start to look at how you are investing your time and how you can get a better return on your investment.

There is much more to come on this subject – and others – in the very near future.

Stay tuned.

Take back your power,

Sensei Huff

P.S. – Keep those comments coming on why you think I said NOT to set goals.  Post them to the blog at http://www.harrisonhuff.com or send them in to Sensei@bullyproofkids.com.

P.P.S. – Even if you think I'm crazy, send in your comments.  I love to hear from readers.