Enjoying true business success requires you to set careful priorities. Sometimes priorities are determined by the season. For a farmer, the season dictates his most important activities. During the spring, a farmer must work around the clock, burn the midnight oil, and keep the equipment running because he only has this small window of time for the planting of his crops.
One of the difficulties of living in an industrialized society is the loss of the sense of seasons–when to pour it on, when to ease back, when to take advantage. It’s easy to keep going from nine to five, year in and year out, and lose a natural sense of priorities and appropriate time. Don’t let one year just blend into the next. Keep an eye on your own seasons lest you lose track of values and substance.
Part of setting priorities is learning to separate major activities from minor activities. This is a whole skill in itself, but once you have learned it, it will pay dividends you won’t believe! So learn to put everything on your mental scales to be fully weighed before you spend time or money.
And here’s a good question to ask yourself constantly: is this a major or minor activity? By asking that question, you will reduce the amazingly natural tendency to spend major time on minor things. In sales training, we are taught that major time is the time spent in the presence of the prospect, while minor time is the time spent on the way to the prospect. If you’re not careful, you will spend more time “on the way to” than “in the presence of.” So in sales, we teach, “Don’t go across town until you’ve gone across the street.” Wouldn’t it be wise to ask yourself, “How much time am I spending ‘in the presence of’ and how much time ‘on the way to?’ Majors and minors. What a great discipline to exercise.
You also don’t want to spend minor time on major things. It’s easy to get values mixed up. If a man spends three hours watching TV and only thirty minutes playing with his kids, something is probably out of line there, right? Don’t spend major money on minor things. If you spend more on candy than on programs or books, wouldn’t that be foolish? So set careful priorities. Do it like your life depends on it… because it does.
* Source: Leading an Inspired Life by Jim Rohn