The Newsletter dedicated to Managers and Business Owners

Get More Done, Have More Fun – Part 2

Part 1

Have you ever noticed the difference between an Olympic sprinter and a marathon runner?

The sprinters are pound for pound, some of the most in-shape athletes around. They are lean, muscular, and quick. They have muscles that I didn’t even know existed.

Marathon runners on the other hand look skinny and malnourished, like walking toothpicks.

Why is that?

Well, sprinters train hard and they run hard. They exert an enormous amount of energy and then they rest. Marathon runners continuously run at an even keel pace. If your life were an athlete, would it look like a sprinter or a marathon runner?

Is your life malnourished and moping along at a boring and steady pace? Or are you fully engaged like a sprinter, muscular and fit?

Now you and I both know that life is a marathon, but did you know that you could be much happier, feel better, and have more energy if you lived your life in mini-sprints?

Our bodies aren’t designed to live the way most of us currently live right now. We aren’t supposed to run at 50% one hundred percent of the time.

When we work, work at 100%. When we relax, relax at 100%.

This is where we get things confused. Do you find yourself thinking about work at night when you should be sleeping? Do you find yourself sluggish and nodding off at work?

Well this happens to us when we aren’t fully focused in what it is that we are doing. Many times we have way too much on our plates and we don’t have a predetermined plan for getting any of it done. We just do it as it comes to us.

Well imagine if we nailed down the 3 major things that we have to do each day, before the day even started. In reality, 3 things is more than we’re getting done now, but we like to lie to ourselves and say “we’re soooo busy”. It’s actually a good thing in our society to say we’re slammed.

Your district manager walks up to you and asks, “how are things going?” Your response of course is, “busy man, runnin’ around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

“Keep up the good work!”, they reply.
Imagine the next time they ask you that same question. Only this time you reply, “Well, I’ve never felt more relaxed in my life. The store is running smoothly and I’m getting so much done that I actually have free time at the end of the day to add to our customer experience.”

Then what happens? Your boss thinks you’re lazy!

There is something terribly wrong with this picture. We are all becoming masters of appearing busy, but are getting nothing done.

So hopefully this has sparked some ideas to help you with your life. Remember to focus your time. Instead of doing fifty things at once, try to focus on one thing fully, and get it done with the best of your ability.

Multi-tasking is evil and is just another word for doing everything and nothing at the same time.

Remember to relax as much as you work, so that when you are working, you can give it all you’ve got. Work hard and focused for an hour and a half, and then take a nice walk or something to wind down. Do this for thirty minutes and get fully focused for another hour and a half.

Stir and repeat, cool then eat?