My “why” is making JimRaffel.com the best blog I can. Writing for this blog everyday is following my passion. That passion is what drives my desire to find ways to make ColorMetrix more successful with less and less of my time. I’ve managed to reduce my ColorMetrix work week to about 50 hours (down from 60-70) and the extra time is spent here. That’s my why.
The extra hours will be spent writing this blog, reading more great business and personal development books. Spending time with friends and family. The activities that matter to me. Understanding my compelling why has further fueled my desire to take radical thinking to the next level. Your why is probably quite different from mine but we can both use radical thinking to get there.
This week I took a day off (well, worked 2-3 hours instead 10-12). It’s been a long time since I did that and did not feel guilty about it. This is not about time management of priorities, it’s about an overall radical shift in my thinking. Yes, it involves gaining a better understanding of time and priorities but it’s more important to understand that you can do things in very different ways then you are right now.
For me the progression has gone like this:
1. The real, authentic and sustainable methodology became the analysis tool for my entire life and all the decisions I make.
2. Realized that “working hard” had taken me as far as it could and the hours I was working would not remain sustainable for the balance of my life.
3. Understanding that I can only work on one important task at a time and can only complete one or maybe two significant and important tasks a day.
4. Most tasks not included in number 3 above can either;
a. be completed in 15 minutes or
b. don’t need to be done at all.
Number 1 above helped me understand my compelling why and numbers 2, 3 and 4 help me realize it everyday of my life. In a little over 60 days I have gone from struggling to get one blog post a week out to putting out one a day. I have three posts ready to go and a list of ideas for posts so long that many will never be completed. Oh, and ColorMetrix sales for 2010 are just fine.
So, I ask you what’s your compelling why? Please share it with me here in the comments. Let’s start a conversation about your why’s and celebrate our differences yet our common desire to achieve the why!