It is the time of season where the hand sanitizer is on turbo. It is really important for us to make sure we are taking our vitamins and ensuring we are at our best in order to prevent sickness taking us down.
Our preparation isn’t just physical…it also includes the manner in which we approach these activity-filled stressful holiday months.
Here are some tips for success:
It Is Not How Hard You Work; It is How Smart You Work.
A man was told that if he worked the very hardest he could, he would become rich. The hardest work he knew was digging holes in his backyard. He did not get rich; he only got a backache. He worked hard without any priorities (Maxwell, 1993). Lots of people around us are working hard, but are they working smart? Don't just tell those you influence to "work harder". Maybe that's exactly what they are doing and are tired of digging holes. Show them where the gold is in their work and perhaps their digging will become much easier.
Organize or Agonize
A life in which anything goes will ultimately be a life in which nothing goes. Find ways to help those you influence help themselves through organization. Filing systems, calendars on the fridge, even a hand held organizer...you know those you influence best. Help them work through the organization struggle to secure a victory.
Prioritize Assignments
High Importance/High Urgency
: Take these on first.
High Importance/Low Urgency
: Set deadlines and establish priorities in the daily routine. Put a calendar on your fridge. Help your student set important dates and circle them.
Low Importance/High Urgency
: Find quick and efficient ways to complete work/projects.
Low Importance/Low Urgency
: If it seems like busy work, it probably is. While we work diligently to avoid assigning any homework that fits this criteria, sometimes the “practice makes perfect” model may fit. Stack it up, and complete the tasks in one-half hour segments every week.
Ninety-Five Percent of Achieving Anything is Knowing What You Want
Read William Hinson's Poem Below:
He who seeks one thing, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life is done.
But he who seeks all things wherever he goes
Must reap around him in whatever he sows
A harvest of barren regret.
Hinson tells us why animal trainers carry a stool when they go into a cage of lions. They have their whips, of course, and their pistols are at their sides. But invariably they also carry a stool. Hinson says that it is the most important tool of the trainer. The trainer holds the stool by the back and thrusts the legs toward the face of the wild animal. Those who know maintain that the animal tries to focus on all four legs at once. In the attempt to focus on all four, a kind of paralysis overwhelms the animal, and it becomes tame, weak and disabled because its attention is fragmented. (Maxwell, 1993) (Now we have more empathy for the lions.)