HOW TO FIND TIME FOR YOUR DREAMS

(ACTION 4: PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT SERIES)

WHERE ARE YOU BUSY, DEAR?

Recently I happened to meet a young boy who has come from a small village to a big city in order to make a good future. He is working during the day to earn a living and doing his studies part time. On examination, I found that few of the days in a week he is free for about 3 to 4 hours. He told me that he is willing to achieve big in life but has no guidance. I offered to guide him and he was ready. I asked him to use the spare time wisely and assigned him some simple tasks to be performed during this time. But guess what! When I called him after about a week, I found that he had excuses for being so busy even during the time that he himself had confessed that he remains free during that time span. Now, just see! He has dreams, he wants to achieve big, good intentions are there; but he is too busy to make efforts for that. What do you think friends! Will he be able to make it big if he does not learn to use his time wisely? In fact, this is the situation with most of the population, especially the millennial or Gen Z, today. If you are busy in building your future extra ordinary and impactful, it is ok. But if you are busy, just to stay in the rat race, it is time to take a step back and keep reading this post further.

Well! I am not talking about time management. As, time take its course automatically at a constant speed. And, no one can manage time. This is we who have to learn to adjust ourselves with the ever passing time. 

EXAMINE YOUR BUSYNESS:

I have a friend, who is working in a private company. During this Covid 19 situation he is working from home. His wife is working in a Government Organization. The couple has a small cute baby. They wake up at about 6 AM in the morning and start preparing for the day. In the morning they spend 4 hours to meet their every day routine requirements. At 10 AM they start working for their job. How the whole day is gone in their job, they just do not know. They are free mostly after 7 PM. But by that time, they are not left with any energy. And after all they have to look after their home activities also. So, where is the time left? Yes, of course! They are very busy.

There is nothing wrong, if with this schedule they can accomplish their dreams and have a great lifestyle. But, in case they feel exhausted at the end of every day, are far away from their dreams, and are making compromises in life, they must analyze why they are doing what they are doing. Of course, they will reach to a conclusion that their ladder is leaning against wrong wall.

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I have observed that these are the common mistakes that people make which stop them to correct the position of their ladder:

1. Being too much occupied in their current profession, and not knowing as how to save time from occupation to build their dreams.
2. Spending lot of time in household activities to keep the house in shape.
3. Giving too much attention to children and over spending time with them and that too only for school education & not for life building education.
4. Unable to change their routine activities viz. sleeping duration, news paper reading, TV watching, social media etc.
5. They get involved in too much social activities viz. being active partners of several social forums, participating and arranging picnics or other social gatherings, daily or week-end parties etc.
6. Not understanding the principle of delayed gratification. They love to enjoy just today and fail to build their future. In the process, they keep putting brakes on the path that may lead towards their goal and break momentum.
7. Discussing too much about their problems with others. This deviate their focus from solution and bind them strongly with problems.
8. They think too much about how to do rather than breaking the inertia and taking the first step in right direction.
9. Due to lack of vision and not having non negotiable goals, they feel happy in their present achievements and keep riding the ladder placed against the wrong wall.
10. Finally, they don’t have a strong will to change for better. They feel comfortable in their comfort zone. They keep doing the same thing expecting different and better results.

A person can remain busy for the whole of the life doing some of the above activities, but would not be able to achieve an attractive life-style.

EXERCISE TO IDENTIFY YOUR HABITS:

Friends! Let us be sincere and true to ourselves and examine above points. Is your busyness caused by any of the above points?

Take a pen and a diary and read above points one by one, once again.

Write notes about your own behavior or habits related to each point.

Finally summarize and see where you need to change your habits.

HOW TO GET TIME?

Change is the most difficult but most important aspect of personal growth. But change is required only if you are willing to make your life better. If you are satisfied with your current achievements then continue doing what you are doing. Otherwise, you must make changes in your routine, so that you get some time to take steps to achieve your goals. Tata, Birla, Ambani and Adani, all have the same 24 hours in a day that God has given to us also.

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Let us now learn about the actions that you may take to find time from your busy schedule for achieving big in life:

1. You must learn to improve your efficiency at work so that you can save some time. Dr. Hall Newball, was a Cardiac & Thoraic Surgeon in John Hopkins Hospital. He was very busy 24 x 7 with his patients. But he saved some time from his lunch time to build an asset based income.Once, I had to prepare & present some important documents to my boss by late evening so that he could use them in the next morning. But I had some important meeting in the evening with my mentor for achieving my dreams which continued till 12 in the night. I went to my office after that and finished my task by 2.30 AM and presented the documents to my boss at 8 AM. If your dreams are your priorities then sometime you can manage that way.

2. Household activities are such that you can spend whole of your life keeping it in order. But there is a saying that, “Keep your house clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be wealthy.” Don’t overwork to keep the house beautiful. Once you achieve your bigger goals you will find ways to keep your home lovely without working yourself for the same.
3. Children need to be nurtured and not monitored. Give them space to grow. Don’t be helicopter parents. Spend some quality time with them but don’t be behind them every minute. There is no need to be busy with your children whole of your productive life by putting your own future in jeopardy. Give them good values so that they become strong by character. This will help them to grow wisely.
4. Routine Power is an important power. By changing your routine of 24 hours, you can make your lifestyle much different and beautiful. For this, you need to break some patterns of habit. Any activity which will not take you towards your dreams must be stopped at-least temporarily. Consider to stop reading daily news papers, watching your favorite shows on TV and spending time on social media for non productive activities etc.
5. Sometimes people prefer to spend their valuable time in social forums which can run nicely even without them. Friends, think seriously. If you are having big dreams, then you will have to stop spending time in such activities at-least for the time being, so that ultimately you will be able to do much greater things for the Nation. You may have to postpone smaller contributions today in order to contribute at a bigger level in coming time.I used to spend Saturday evenings in the Club or with friends. But when I set my ambitious goals, I saved this time for building my future without bothering for the criticism from friends. After some time, I could earn enough free time for my family and friends.

6. Consistent efforts are required in case you have goals and you don’t want to negotiate them. Once, when I had put about 6 months of my time to build my asset based business, I took a break for about 10 days to visit my hometown as usual during the summer vacations of children. But to my utmost surprise, when I returned from vacations, I found that my business had gone down. I had to put lot of efforts and it took more than a month to reach the level again where I had left before vacations. It was then that I understood the importance of consistent efforts. And this has later resulted in enjoying vacations with friends and family at-least once a year by visiting foreign countries.If you have taken a task, do whatever it takes. Don’t procrastinate. Save time from wherever you can. Your sacrifice will not go waste. Ultimately you will get bigger rewards and better lifestyle. This is delayed gratification.

7. Problems or challenges are part of everyone’s life. There is no fun in talking about them all the time with others. Spoken words are powerful. If you keep speaking about problems, you will stay with them. Always think about solutions. Learn to overcome challenges. Take guidance from a successful mentor. Use prayer power. Pray God to give you enough strength to get rid of challenges. Nothing stays forever. Believe: This too will pass.
8. Sometimes you don’t know how to get started! The first step seems so difficult. For every new task, this may happen. If you have to climb a mountain and you start looking at the top, it may frighten you. But if you look a little over your head, you may get started.One of my friends was taking training at Indian Military Academy, Dehradun during the extreme cold weather. I asked him how you learnt swimming. He told me that he had to wake up at 4 in the morning and was just pushed inside the swimming pool. Then there was no other option than to learn swimming. Friends! Gather courage and just get started. Your path to success will welcome you.

9. Your present achievements are great but believe that you can do much better in future. Don’t think that whatever you are doing today is the best & be prepared for a change. Your ladder of success may not be lying against the wall of your uncompromised dreams. Develop a long range vision and prepare your non negotiable goals. Based on your vision, check whether your ladder is leaning against the right wall. If not, place it correctly now. Your goals need to be non negotiable and this will automatically help you to find out time from your busy schedule.
10. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things and expect different results. For achieving bigger things in life you must come out of your comfort zone. Your job may be your comfort zone but if you want to have your own start up, you must find out ways to build your own business. Develop a strong burning desire to move out of your comfort zone. A good mentor can guide you properly.

YOU ARE AN ACHIEVER:

Dear friends! I was also extremely busy in life and had all the great excuses. But once I developed a vision for my life and set some non negotiable goals, I learnt to use my time wisely and productively. I have given some tips here, based on my own experience. I hope that some of you will be able to use them to come out of your comfort zone and will make your life loving, beautiful and purposeful and will serve the humanity.

Dream big, use your time wisely and enjoy life.

Dr. Lokesh N Rai

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