“I have a memory like an elephant. In fact, elephants consult me.” ~Noel Coward
I recently wrote a blog post about creating time in your schedule to work ON your business instead of always working IN your business. Let’s face it: we’re all time-broke – and nobody sees that changing any time soon. Strategic planning is critically important for any business, but there’s one aspect of working on your business that often goes neglected: working on YOU.
I want you to do a quick exercise, and it would be best if you grabbed a notepad and wrote down your answers. Quickly answer the following questions:
- What are the 5 TV shows (including sports, news, etc.) that you watch most often (and how long do they last)?
- What are the 5 magazines you read most often?
- What are the 5 most recent books you’ve read?
- What are the 5 podcasts you listed to most often?
- What are the 5 blogs you read most often?
- Who are the 5 people with whom you spend the most time?
Look at all of your responses as one, big group. What does it tell you?
Next, I want you to think about an average day in your life and write down how many minutes you typically spend do the following activities:
- Watching TV
- Getting ready for work (shaving, brushing your teeth, getting dressed, etc.)
- Driving in your car (work, grocery store, gym, picking up the kids, etc.)
- Exercising
- Minutes spent sleeping more than 8 hours
Add up all of your minutes?
Are we all time-broke? Or are we spending our valuable time doing things that create very little value? Stephen Covey calls this “getting caught up in the thick of thin things.”
Do you wonder why you feel like your life is running you instead of the other way around? Do you feel like you’re constantly “stuck in a rut?” I think your answer is probably found somewhere in what you wrote down on that piece of paper. Let me assure you where it is not found. It’s not found in watching an hour of the evening news followed by 3 hours of television dramas and reality shows every night followed by an hour of news in the morning as you get ready for work followed by the grooveyard of forgotten favorites on your trusty 70s radio station in your car followed by Miley Cyrus and Katie Perry on your iPod at the gym – and then getting together with your spouse or friend to talk about how bad life is and that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. It isn’t, by the way. The world is getting better and there are opportunities to create greater outcomes every day and everywhere.
The first part of running a better business is being a better YOU. And being a better you means finding the time to invest in personal development. Can you find 60 minutes over the course of a typical day to listen to an enlightening podcast or quality audiobook? Can you reallocate 30 minutes away from watching or listening to the news and read a book about personal or business development that might actually help you build a better business?
We all have priorities in life and we all make choices every day to fulfill those priorities. At the beginning of 2016 I decided that I was going to change a few priorities in my life. I quit watching or listening to the news and I committed to reading 15 books. I cancelled all of my newspaper subscriptions and turned off the nightly news. In place of that I found the time to read 21 books and listened to another 4 on audio. Honestly it changed my outlook on life, business and family – and I feel better for it. And I’m no different than you.
We have a quote on one of our walls here at TUSK World HQ that reads: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
Granted, Gandhi’s intent was in fact to change the world, but I bet he still had to start with himself.
And I doubt he ever subscribed to any newspapers in the first place…
To continue discussion on these topics or any others related to trends in our industry, please feel free to contact me at perrin@tuskbrokerage.com. TUSK is a M&A Advisory Firm in the dental market providing Buy-Side and Sell-Side Advisory Services along with Strategic Consulting and Capital Solutions for Groups and DSOs.
TUSK will be a featured presenter at the DEO Associate Summit in Houston, TX on November 4th where we will share “Compensation & Equity Structures for Associate Retention.” We hope to see you there as well!
