Pro-activism and Essentialism
I’ve been reading some books (self-help books some like to call them) during my Janes Agenda Masterplan Class on productivity and I realized that two concepts really tie together for me to help me understand myself better (and maybe even more about other people and the world in general).
The first of these is being pro-active. This is the first habit in Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It means that we are each responsible for ourselves, for our actions and our feelings and we have an obligation to own up to that responsibility. We need to remember that we cannot control other people or most situations for that matter. We can control our actions, our thoughts, our way of life and our choices.
The second book I just started reading is Essentialism, by Greg McKeown. The phrase that stuck with me is that we are very powerful because we have the superpower of choice. We have the ability, the right, if I may, to choose. In essence, he talks about choosing to do a task over some other task. (In a course about productivity, you really need to narrow your focus so that we do one thing really well instead of doing 50 things half-assed).
Each month, when I determine my goals for that month, I have to visualize what I can accomplish in that month. We only have 24 hours in each day, and 7-9 hours of that time is supposed to be spent sleeping. Of course, my sleep habits are closer to 5-6 hours per night which is not enough for me. I do that on purpose so I can get more done in one day.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself this question: who am I helping? If I get x, y and z done, who is that helping in the long run? I’m not just talking about the next load of laundry or the millionth load of dishes I’ve just loaded into the dishwasher.
As a small, online business owner, it is up to me to determine what is important and what could be put on hold. What sort of activities do I need to work on to make money? As we all know, when you start a business and you work alone, you do all of the things. I’m my own CEO, marketer, analyst, director, creator, treasurer, advertiser, writer, editor, blogger, you name it. If something needs to be done, I’m your girl! This also means doing the background tasks like checking e-mail, and determining what to keep and what can go, or keeping track of income and expenses.
Starting out as a content creator, it’s highly unlikely that one would be outsourcing any of these tasks - you do them all yourself, and it can be quite time consuming and stressful. I still believe this is why many people don’t make it in online business, because there is little gain at the beginning. You work hard for basically nothing.
In the end, you need to make a choice. Do you outsource some of these things to save time, (possibly putting the work in jeopardy), or do you take it all on, hoping that you get it done by the end of the week so you’re not stuck working on the weekend again?
That is the great thing about choice - if you make the wrong one, you can learn from your mistake and start over. Eventually, you’ll find that more and more, you will end up making the right choices, because you’ll develop instincts for what will lead you in the right direction.
The point is, and the parallelism between these two ideas is that when you make a choice, you are being pro-active. You are taking action and taking charge; doing something about your situation.
There are countless times when I hear “ I don’t have a choice - I have to do such and such”. The point is, you don’t have to do anything. However, if you choose not to make a choice, someone will make it for you. For example, if I had two invites from friends, if I couldn't make a decision, and don’t go to either one, the choice is made for me.
In the book Essentialism, the author is saying you should choose one thing - the most important thing, and cut out the non-essential things. This means you not only focus better on that one thing, but also, you have the option of choosing that one thing, so you are more committed because it was your decision.
When it comes down to it, you picked this one thing to work on because it’s important to you because it may reflect your values, or, your identity. You’re doing this project or task because it is of value to you and perhaps moves one of your goals forward. This is being pro-active! You’re choosing to be someone or do something on the basis that it’s going to help you become a better person…the best you that you can be!
Thanks for reading!
Sandra
