It matters to focus on what matters.
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Sid Savara of Analysis Driven Personal Development.
In my life I’ve gone through periods of intense, driven productivity – months where everything fell into place, and my goals almost seemed to accomplish themselves. At the other extreme, there have been times in my life where I was completely overwhelmed, burdened by my different projects and responsibilities – and frustrated because so many of them not only challenged me, but didn’t matter to me. There were days when I asked myself how did I end up here? How did I end up working on all these things that aren’t who I am, and that don’t represent where I am going?
Some of our projects are extremely important to us, some matter a little – and some simply don’t matter to us at all. In this guide I’d like to discuss how to define and focus on what truly matters – and then discuss some strategies for making time for them.
Breaking It Down
Here are a few question to help you focus on what truly matters – and cut from your life items that don’t.
What does my life look like ten years from now? I love projecting into the future and imagining my life: mentally time traveling to picture where I want to be. The power of this exercise is even more apparent when you consider that you are the product of where you came from. Think of your favorite memories, people and events from your past and you’ll see things that have shaped you into the person you are today. Similarly, looking ten years down the road and imagining what I want helps me focus my energies today to make it happen tomorrow. If my future daydream is filled with thoughts of spending time with my family and celebrating with friends – then that tells me I need to focus on maintaining those relationships today.
What is my purpose? Leo has previously discussed his life’s purpose and tips for finding your own life’s mission. If you have determined your life’s mission, that provides a foundation for where you should be spending your time – along with the activities, and ends, you should be focusing on. This is sometimes difficult because we may believe our life’s purpose is not in line with a “practical career” – but I disagree. There is no contradiction in using a “practical career” to pull yourself out of debt so you can be free for adventure, or perhaps to send your children to college. The disconnect occurs however, when your “practical career” is padding your bank account with money which means little to you – and you wish you were out living your true purpose instead.
What excites me? Sometimes we are scared to admit to ourselves what we really want to do, and who we really want to be because it’s not popular, or because it’s not as secure as the job we have. Deep down however, we know what excites us. We know what gets our heart pumping, and what gets us excited to jump out of bed in the morning.
What can I let slide? There are never enough hours in the day to do everything, absolutely everything, that I have some interest in doing. There is, however, enough time in the day to do everything that I am truly interested in, and that truly matters. Find what you can let slide -and then let it.
Do the consequences have meaning Every task and project has outcomes and consequences – but consequences don’t matter in and of themselves. What matters is how much those consequences mean to us. Sometimes we fight, claw and struggle towards down a path because other people want us to have the rewards at the end, or because the ends sound impressive – but if they don’t have meaning to us, then we will not be satisfied with the accomplishment. In other cases we may have initially pursued a goal, but our interests and purpose changed. If something doesn’t mean anything to you, then regardless of how important it is to others, how impressive it may be or how important it may have been in the past, it may be time to let it go.
Making Time
You may already know what truly matters in your life – but are finding it difficult to make time for it, and to focus on it. Here are some tips to help you make time for what truly matters:
Do it first. In Zen To Done Leo suggests picking your 3 Most Important Tasks (MITs) and doing them first thing in the morning. Similarly, once you find what truly matters, try to take care of it first before spending time on tasks that matter less to you. Some people have experienced significant increases in productivity when writing, working out, or meditating early in the morning. I personally believe in paying myself first with my time, and live it every day. I work on my personal goals first thing in the morning, before I do anything else. This way every day begins positively and in line with my future.
Schedule it in. I’m very busy, and so is m family. My parents and I want to make time for each other however, so I literally schedule dinner in on my Google Calendar. I treat that appointment with the same seriousness as anything else in my life. It’s a commitment to my future and what truly matters.
Treat it as an emergency. My life is booked back to back with work, appointments and various commitments – but when I had to go into surgery for appendicitis, none of the little boxes in my task list got checked off that day. Instead, my routine came to a halt as I dealt with my medical emergency. If you’re having trouble letting things slide, or aren’t sure where you can make time, then consider treating your life mission as an emergency. Clear important, but unnecessary items off your schedule for a day – and let them go. Every day that you spend on tasks that don’t matter is a day you can never recover – and that, to me, is an emergency.
What Truly Matters, Matters
We all know deep down there are different things that drive us – hobbies that excite us, passions that we wish we had more time to explore, people we wish could spend more time with. I believe that identifying, focusing on, and spending time on what matters to us, is not simply a thought exercise.
Focusing on what truly matters, truly matters.
Find out what drives and truly matters to Sid Savara at his blog, Analysis Driven Personal Development. Sign up for his email newsletter and get a free copy of The Little Book Of Big Motivational Quotes.
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生活，有時(shí)過得緊張充實(shí)、目標(biāo)明確、胸有成竹、一連數(shù)月一切都有條不紊，目標(biāo)勝利在望。當(dāng)然有時(shí)則完全相反，被各種項(xiàng)目、無數(shù)的工作職責(zé)壓得喘不過氣來，完全無法翻身，直到精疲力竭。我不禁想這是為什么?要如何擺脫那種混亂?
我們的工作中，有一些是極其重要的，有一些并不那么重要，而另一些則是完全的不重要。在這篇指南中，我想談一談如何定義真正重要的事，怎樣集中精力處理它們，以及時(shí)間分配上的一些策略。
剝離
下面的幾個(gè)問題可以幫助你從無關(guān)緊要的生活瑣事中找出并關(guān)注那些真正重要的事情。
十年后你會有怎樣的生活?我喜歡規(guī)劃未來，憧憬生活：將自己置身于腦海中浮想的畫面里。當(dāng)你認(rèn)為你就是被自己所創(chuàng)造出來的，那么這樣去做則會收效更甚?；叵胍幌履切┰?jīng)最珍愛的記憶、人物和重要時(shí)刻，你就會發(fā)現(xiàn)一些東西，它們影響你，把你塑造成了如今的你。同樣的，順著這條路展望未來十年，設(shè)想自己的追求，這會幫助我們把握當(dāng)下，實(shí)現(xiàn)明朝。假使我幻想自己的未來是與家人其樂融融，和朋友把酒歡慶，那么這就意味著我現(xiàn)在就要好好維護(hù)著親朋關(guān)系。
你追求什么?一旦你認(rèn)定了生命中的使命，這便為你在時(shí)間分配上奠定了基礎(chǔ)，所以你應(yīng)當(dāng)重視這個(gè)問題。這有時(shí)很難，因?yàn)槲覀儠J(rèn)為自己的使命與現(xiàn)實(shí)中的工作并無關(guān)聯(lián)，我并不同意這種看法。當(dāng)我們通過現(xiàn)實(shí)中的工作還清債務(wù)，大膽冒險(xiǎn)投資，或是把孩子送入大學(xué)進(jìn)修時(shí)，沒有人對此產(chǎn)生異議。但當(dāng)現(xiàn)實(shí)中的工作用錢填加著你銀行的戶頭，而那些錢對你來說已經(jīng)并無多大意義了的時(shí)候，你便會不滿，并開始希望能夠活出真正的追求。
什么能讓你興奮?有時(shí)我們不敢對自己承認(rèn)自己真正想要去做的事和真正想要去成為的人，因?yàn)槟窍敕ú⒉槐淮蟊娝邮?，或是并沒有現(xiàn)在的這份工作來的安穩(wěn)。但在內(nèi)心深處，我們知道是什么能讓我們激動，是什么能讓自己心跳加速，而又是什么能讓我們興奮得從早晨的被窩里一躍而起。
你能忽略什么?從來就不可能有足夠的時(shí)間去做每件事，去做每一件都你感興趣的事。但你卻有足夠的時(shí)間去做那些你確實(shí)感興趣，并且真正重要的事。就把那些不重要的都忽略掉吧。
結(jié)果是否有意義?每項(xiàng)工作和任務(wù)都會產(chǎn)生結(jié)果，但結(jié)果本身卻并不重要。重要的是它們對我們有多大的意義。有時(shí)因?yàn)閯e人希望我們最終取得成就，或是這結(jié)果會令人贊嘆欽佩，我們便拼死拼活努力掙扎走下去。但如果這些對我們毫無意義，那么我們是不會滿足于結(jié)果的。另一種情況，或許一開始我們?nèi)〉昧顺删?，但我們的興趣點(diǎn)和追求卻轉(zhuǎn)變了。所以如果一件事對你沒有意義，那就別管它對其他人是多么重要，它會多么值得贊嘆或是曾經(jīng)它多么重要過，是時(shí)候放手了。
安排時(shí)間
或許你已經(jīng)知道了自己生命中真正重要的事，但是否又在為如何安排時(shí)間，專注于此而發(fā)愁?下面就給你一些小建議：
首先去做。在《簡單做》中，作者Leo建議挑出三件，放在早上先做。同樣的，既然你找到了生命中真正重要的事，那就嘗試在花時(shí)間做其他事情之前最先去關(guān)注它。已經(jīng)有人證實(shí)過在一大早寫作、工作或思考，效率會明顯更高。我個(gè)人則崇尚先花時(shí)間用在自己身上，這樣去過每一天。早上第一件事就是為個(gè)人目標(biāo)而努力，然后再去做其他事。 那么每一天都會有一個(gè)積極的開始，并一直通向理想的未來。
制定計(jì)劃。我很忙，我的家人也是。但我和父母都想花時(shí)間互相陪伴，所以我寫下家庭晚餐計(jì)劃，并備忘在我的Google日歷上。如同對待生活中任何其他事一樣，我很認(rèn)真的看待這個(gè)約定。它是我自己對未來的一個(gè)承諾，并且它真的很重要。
當(dāng)作緊急的事處理。我的生活被一個(gè)接一個(gè)的工作、約會和各種承諾所填滿，毫無喘息。但當(dāng)我不得不因?yàn)橐认傺锥鴦邮中g(shù)時(shí)，查看當(dāng)天的工作列表卻一個(gè)任務(wù)都去不掉。然而因?yàn)樾枰o急治療，我的日程安排還是為此停滯了下來。如果你正苦于無法擺脫瑣事，或不確定去哪里找時(shí)間，那么就把你的人生使命看成緊急的事來做吧。從你的工作日程中去掉那些重要但非必要的事，嘗試一天，不要再去想它們。那些你荒廢于不重要的事情上的每一天，是你永遠(yuǎn)也無法補(bǔ)救的，對我來說，這就是緊急的事。
真正有意義的事，才是重要的
我們都深深懂得有不同的事物在驅(qū)使著我們——使我們興奮的愛好，讓我們付出更多時(shí)間去探索的激情，還有那些我們希望可以與之長久呆在一起的人們。我相信發(fā)現(xiàn)、專注于有意義的事，并對此傾注時(shí)間，并不是僅僅是停留在思想上。
專注于真正重要的事，去真正認(rèn)真地對待吧。
