“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” ~ John Wayne
As leaders all too often we can be consumed by business, our career, team and our own self-importance that we miss out on what is important. What is really important and what truly matters to us. We compromise too much and sacrifice what we shouldn’t. And why do we do it?
We have deadlines, targets, cashflow, clients, stakeholders, mortgages and competition to manage and the list goes on. We can get caught up in the ferocity and the adrenaline that business is. Some of us love what we do, which is fantastic and can also be an excuse for avoidance of other things!
My question to you is “What are you missing out on right now, compromising and sacrificing and is it worth it?”
It’s a pretty big question and one I asked myself while I was overseas away from all of the craziness that can be my world. I encourage you to step away from the craziness of your world and ask yourself the question too. You may be surprised by the answer!
When I ask my clients that question, the most common answers are health and fitness, family and themselves. When ironically these are the critical things you should be prioritising or at least balancing.
So why don’t you:
- Spend more time with those you love and be ‘present’ when you do
- Go and get that health check
- Have the tests done you’ve been putting off
- Join the gym and commit to going at least a couple of times every week
- Put your phone away at a certain time of night. Allow yourself time to rest
- Get home for dinner and genuinely connect with your family
- Make time to reflect, re prioritise and reenergize
- Say no when you know you should
- Stop eating junk food and fuel your body with healthy food
- Read more books to nourish your mind
- Stop sweating the small stuff and focus on the big things
- Decide everything isn’t urgent and things and people can wait
- Take the kids to school or pick them up
No doubt you can add to this list and perhaps tick off those items you’ve already nailed. The important thing is to know what’s important and where to spend your time. Remember, you’re creating your legacy every day, in every way.
You’ll never get the time back to do it again. And your work will still be there waiting patiently for you!