Real Internet Success

What would it take for you to be able to do the things that you enjoy the most?

Well, what do you like to do? Some of my favorite hobbies include scuba diving, photography, computer, mountain biking and motorcycles.

I am sure most of you can generate your own list of things you enjoy. So take a moment and make a list. After all, it helps to know what it is you are fighting for.

Your List:
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Now that you have your list of things you like to do, lets think about what you need to have in order to do them. I will use my scuba diving example.

If I want to scuba dive, then I need to have equipment. Tanks, regulators, buoyancy vest, fins mask snorkel and a host of other gear. That covers the gear, but I also need a very important element. Water.

Yep, I need to have someplace to actually get wet. So my options are a pool, rivers, lakes, or the ocean.

Pools are great if you’re still training, but not so good for a weekend retreat. And most rivers, aside from the Mississippi River or the Nile are really large enough to get in good diving. Now lakes are not too bad. But I live near them. That’s no getaway, and the water is often murky, cold and uneventful here in New England. So the best place to go scuba diving is in the warmer ocean waters of the south. Of the coast of Georgia there are sunken ships to explore. In Gulf of Mexico I might see dolphins swim by. The water is crystal clear blue. You can see the colorful ocean for as far as you can see.

Now if you were scuba diving, which option would you prefer? Yeah, me too. So let’s book a trip to Florida and go get some time underwater.

What? You can’t go? Why not? You have to work this weekend? Well that just kills the whole mood right? You bet it does.

So the most important part of being able to do this trip is not even the money. Heck, the gear can be rented, the plane tickets are only a few hundred bucks. But we need to be able to go.

We need time. Time as you may have heard is the great equalizer. No matter who we are, we only have 24 hours in a day. No one has any more or any less then anyone else. Not me, not you, nobody.

So what is the difference? How does one person become more successful then another? The difference is how we use that time. To be successful, you have to be able to manage AND leverage your time.

In order to be able to spend your time the way that you want to, you have to learn the value of your time, and how to delegate things to other people. I am not talking about passing the buck.

But the actual value of your hour. Lets say for instance you work and are paid $20 per hour. Would you take a day off work to mow your lawn? Or would you pay some neighborhood teenager $10 per hour to mow it?

If you took the day off, then you’re not properly valuing your own time. Why lose $40 for 2 hours work when you can spend $20 to have someone else do it. If your lucky, you can even get it done cheaper then $10 per hour.

While you still need to get stuff done, it does not always need your direct attention. There are things that you can do, and things that you can have other people do.

In part 3, we take a look at some ways to determine which is which.

To quote a famous Disney cartoon duck “You have to work smarter, not harder”

To your future success.

Derek Wood

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This entry was posted by Derek on Sunday, May 27th, 2007 at 5:55 pm and is filed under All About Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.