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1-Page Summary of 18 Minutes
Time Is Ticking Away
Time is the most valuable thing that you have. You can make more money or repair relationships, but you can’t get back time. Therefore, spend your time as productively and mindfully as possible. If not, you will end up asking yourself where did the day go? Where did those years go? And if you don’t figure out how to manage your time better soon enough, then you’ll wonder where your life went.
Don’t spend your life trying to get everything done. Just focus on the most important things and plan how you’re going to achieve them. Start by managing your year, then days and finally moments. Look at what you’ve been doing lately and figure out what needs to change in order for it all to be better.
Pause
Often, people need to step back from their lives and assess where they are. They can do this by taking a tip from Google Earth and “hovering above” their life to see if it’s what they want. If not, then the person should make changes. To change your life, you have to slow down your forward momentum and start over by asking yourself some questions about how you would live if you could begin again. Pause for a few seconds when something angers you so that your brain can regain control of its logic center over the emotional area of the brain called the amygdala.
Don’t push yourself too hard. Take some time off to rest and think about your work. Question your assumptions, don’t take anything for granted, and be open to change. Think of yourself as a complete person with many interests outside of work. Integrate those things into who you are at work in order to become a better employee. Acknowledge that you have the potential to do more than you’re currently doing; recognize that full potential within yourself by being the best version of yourself possible both inside and outside of work
Sometimes, you have to take a risk and do something that will be good for your career. Susan Boyle was unemployed and from a small town in Scotland, but she still believed in herself when she auditioned on Britain’s Got Talent. She got through the auditions because of her courage to try out and because of her belief that she could succeed in front of millions of people. It is important not to let negative events bring you down or cause you to act irrationally; instead, think about what would make things better, even if it means taking risks.
“What Is This Year About?”
To find out what’s important in your life, you need to figure out what you’re good at doing and then try new things. Don’t worry if the path isn’t clear; it didn’t matter to Mark Zuckerberg when he started Facebook, because he just wanted to make something that would be interesting for his college roommates. Similarly, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google didn’t know how they were going to make money from their search engine when they first started working on it. You should experiment with different things until you find a way that works for you. It will help if you have strengths (what are yours?), weaknesses (how can those be improved?) differences, and passions.
1) Start with a Yearly Plan
“Find your strengths and use them to win.” – Oakland A’s baseball team was able to beat teams that had twice the money because they focused on different, but equally critical skills. They were able to hire players for less, too. Decide what you’re good at and play off of it in order to win.
Embrace your weaknesses and use them to reach goals. Use your flaws as a way to run your business in an efficient manner, and show that you’re willing to embrace those flaws. If you are cheap, make it work for you by being frugal with how the company is run. Powerful people do not try to fix their problems or hide them from others; they can integrate these issues into their daily lives so that they become part of who they are. Assert yourself and focus on what makes you different than everyone else. In today’s competitive world, standing out from the crowd is vital in order to succeed at any endeavor. Don’t be afraid of being different – instead, find ways to make yourself stand out among the rest through whatever means possible (e.g., using a heated seat during winter).
