Comments on: Get the Most Out of Each Day http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/ Take 20 minutes out of your day to improve your life! Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:57:25 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Anonymous http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/comment-page-1/#comment-1536 Anonymous Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:57:29 +0000 http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/#comment-1536 hi, i enjoyed this. But could you please change the font color to black? grey is hard to read. hi, i enjoyed this. But could you please change the font color to black? grey is hard to read.

]]> By: Rahul Bhambhani http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/comment-page-1/#comment-51 Rahul Bhambhani Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:24:02 +0000 http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/#comment-51 Derk, Thank you so much for your insightful comments on this post, as well as my 3 other posts. You have some great points. Regarding purposeful people, it all depends on what you define as "purposeful" action in your life. You say it's easy to get "distracted", but these things may not be a distraction for you if they are in line with your vision. If spending time with family, and building strong relationships with your loved ones is a part of your vision, then I do not see this as a distraction. However, if you're wasting time at a job that is making no contribution whatsoever to where you are headed in life (only to establish financial security), then I really do view it as purposeless action. I understand you when you say that these posts are targeted towards a younger population. This is because the younger population may not have fully accepted society's way of thinking YET, and therefore may be more open to these kinds of mindsets. However, I'm not intending to target a younger audience. Adults are going to require more courage to put what I'm writing about here into action. You may have a secure job, a family to support, and numerous daily "distractions" to tend to. But I really do believe all of these "distractions" fade away if you have a stronger "yes" (a purpose) in your life. This purpose should always be pulling you forward. It should be something so grand that it's almost impossible to complete in a lifetime. My uncle is the CEO of one of the largest companies in all of Asia, a great family man, and an extremely healthy person. He's contributing to society in a powerful way, and he's making progress every day. He has a very powerful vision, and he executes around it daily. People mistake this purposeful action as "discipline", and just assume it's something they don't have, and that's why he's different. They're wrong. They don't have as powerful of a vision as he does calling them to action. Essentially, I believe there may be every excuse under the sun for why we get "distracted" each day. But really I think it comes down to a lack of vision and purpose in our lives. Derk,

Thank you so much for your insightful comments on this post, as well as my 3 other posts. You have some great points.

Regarding purposeful people, it all depends on what you define as “purposeful” action in your life. You say it’s easy to get “distracted”, but these things may not be a distraction for you if they are in line with your vision. If spending time with family, and building strong relationships with your loved ones is a part of your vision, then I do not see this as a distraction. However, if you’re wasting time at a job that is making no contribution whatsoever to where you are headed in life (only to establish financial security), then I really do view it as purposeless action.

I understand you when you say that these posts are targeted towards a younger population. This is because the younger population may not have fully accepted society’s way of thinking YET, and therefore may be more open to these kinds of mindsets. However, I’m not intending to target a younger audience. Adults are going to require more courage to put what I’m writing about here into action. You may have a secure job, a family to support, and numerous daily “distractions” to tend to. But I really do believe all of these “distractions” fade away if you have a stronger “yes” (a purpose) in your life. This purpose should always be pulling you forward. It should be something so grand that it’s almost impossible to complete in a lifetime.

My uncle is the CEO of one of the largest companies in all of Asia, a great family man, and an extremely healthy person. He’s contributing to society in a powerful way, and he’s making progress every day. He has a very powerful vision, and he executes around it daily. People mistake this purposeful action as “discipline”, and just assume it’s something they don’t have, and that’s why he’s different. They’re wrong. They don’t have as powerful of a vision as he does calling them to action.

Essentially, I believe there may be every excuse under the sun for why we get “distracted” each day. But really I think it comes down to a lack of vision and purpose in our lives.

]]> By: Derk http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/comment-page-1/#comment-48 Derk Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:09:27 +0000 http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/#comment-48 You say that "Distractions are for those who lack vision and purpose in life. Purposeful people don’t waste their time, because they’re too busy making progress towards achieving their goals." Life gets very hectic as we age and get involved in more tasks. Priorities get harder to manage (between work, school, wife, kids, own business, etc..) and it becomes nearly impossible to not get distracted. How does a 'purposeful person' deal with this? Your first two items on the daily habits list equal 4 hours.. are you really putting in that much time daily? Meditating for an hour a day is easy for a week or two, but if you're in college, have a job and a relationship, and so forth, then you're going to be skipping a lot of meditating sessions if you know you're going to have to sit there for an hour. Many of your posts suffer from the same thing as Scott H Young's posts. They target the youth. I feel as if every post is directed towards young people fresh out of HS (or younger) with no vision of how things change in the future. Here's an example, the eating habits you propose are good - but how does a person who wakes up at 6AM, goes to work until 6PM, then goes to work on his own business for 3 hours and finally goes home to his wife and kids to run errands find time to eat healthy, if at all? I'm not saying it's impossible, but what I'm saying is that these types of people are the ones that NEED self development help. When I was younger, I meditated an hour a day, I was known for having an extremely strong will, and I only ate what was healthy. I looked down on people who weren't able to do what I did because I figured they had a weak will. It wasn't until after marriage and trying to start my own business did I realize that life isn't that easy. You say that “Distractions are for those who lack vision and purpose in life. Purposeful people don’t waste their time, because they’re too busy making progress towards achieving their goals.”

Life gets very hectic as we age and get involved in more tasks. Priorities get harder to manage (between work, school, wife, kids, own business, etc..) and it becomes nearly impossible to not get distracted. How does a ‘purposeful person’ deal with this?

Your first two items on the daily habits list equal 4 hours.. are you really putting in that much time daily? Meditating for an hour a day is easy for a week or two, but if you’re in college, have a job and a relationship, and so forth, then you’re going to be skipping a lot of meditating sessions if you know you’re going to have to sit there for an hour.

Many of your posts suffer from the same thing as Scott H Young’s posts. They target the youth. I feel as if every post is directed towards young people fresh out of HS (or younger) with no vision of how things change in the future. Here’s an example, the eating habits you propose are good – but how does a person who wakes up at 6AM, goes to work until 6PM, then goes to work on his own business for 3 hours and finally goes home to his wife and kids to run errands find time to eat healthy, if at all? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but what I’m saying is that these types of people are the ones that NEED self development help.

When I was younger, I meditated an hour a day, I was known for having an extremely strong will, and I only ate what was healthy. I looked down on people who weren’t able to do what I did because I figured they had a weak will. It wasn’t until after marriage and trying to start my own business did I realize that life isn’t that easy.

]]> By: Neeraj http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/comment-page-1/#comment-35 Neeraj Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:49:37 +0000 http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/#comment-35 While I do like the idea of having the time to doing what I want to do versus what I need to do, if I don't do what needs to get done, then how does what needs to get done, get done? I rarely get a sense of joy or satisfaction out of driving to work instead of taking mass transit, and I would rather spend that time reading. However, taking mass transit would involve at least two or three hours to get to and from work in addition to having to walk a mile or so through a Polish/Latino ghetto (which is not recommended at 0430). Thus, I find myself just having to play catch up to get get the things done that need to be done to keep a roof over my head and keep me a live long enough to get the next set of things done. Perhaps my mindset is incorrect in that I feel that I am doing things that I do not need to be doing, such as sweeping the dog hair every weekend (but I don't how will it get done and how will I be able to live with a dog with my allergies?) Perhaps I have put too much on my plate but I do not feel as if I can free up my schedule. I think the same idea to time management applies to budgets and money management. Once you get into a decent about of debt, how do you get out? You pay the mortgage, the utility bills, food/grocery and transportation bills, and what's left goes toward the debt. Does it make sense to put $20 in a savings account (or even an investment) yielding 2% to 10% (with transfer, setup, and other fees) when your APR is 10% (with additional fees)? The debt will grow faster than the savings will. Thus, without a signifcant change (such as outside intervention, change of income, change of housing, etc), the cycle will continue. Sure, a significant change is needed in such situations, but it comes with a cost, such as lower living standards, increased stresses, etc. I felt that your post did not recognize the give/take or push/pull relationship needed in the attempt to strike a balance between "wants" and "needs." Then again I did not read your post as detailed as I wished due to time constraints. I am still interested in learning more about your thoughts on how to free yourself enough from needs to achieve the wants (with a higher return). In the end, I believe that in order to make money, you need money and that if you start out taking care of your wants that will yield a long-term benefits to your needs you will be able to take care of more wants and those without such luxuries are usually just damned. Maybe that is why the lottery is such as successful business. Neeraj While I do like the idea of having the time to doing what I want to do versus what I need to do, if I don’t do what needs to get done, then how does what needs to get done, get done? I rarely get a sense of joy or satisfaction out of driving to work instead of taking mass transit, and I would rather spend that time reading. However, taking mass transit would involve at least two or three hours to get to and from work in addition to having to walk a mile or so through a Polish/Latino ghetto (which is not recommended at 0430). Thus, I find myself just having to play catch up to get get the things done that need to be done to keep a roof over my head and keep me a live long enough to get the next set of things done. Perhaps my mindset is incorrect in that I feel that I am doing things that I do not need to be doing, such as sweeping the dog hair every weekend (but I don’t how will it get done and how will I be able to live with a dog with my allergies?) Perhaps I have put too much on my plate but I do not feel as if I can free up my schedule. I think the same idea to time management applies to budgets and money management. Once you get into a decent about of debt, how do you get out? You pay the mortgage, the utility bills, food/grocery and transportation bills, and what’s left goes toward the debt. Does it make sense to put $20 in a savings account (or even an investment) yielding 2% to 10% (with transfer, setup, and other fees) when your APR is 10% (with additional fees)? The debt will grow faster than the savings will. Thus, without a signifcant change (such as outside intervention, change of income, change of housing, etc), the cycle will continue. Sure, a significant change is needed in such situations, but it comes with a cost, such as lower living standards, increased stresses, etc. I felt that your post did not recognize the give/take or push/pull relationship needed in the attempt to strike a balance between “wants” and “needs.” Then again I did not read your post as detailed as I wished due to time constraints. I am still interested in learning more about your thoughts on how to free yourself enough from needs to achieve the wants (with a higher return). In the end, I believe that in order to make money, you need money and that if you start out taking care of your wants that will yield a long-term benefits to your needs you will be able to take care of more wants and those without such luxuries are usually just damned. Maybe that is why the lottery is such as successful business.
Neeraj

]]> By: Rahul Bhambhani http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/comment-page-1/#comment-36 Rahul Bhambhani Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:28:33 +0000 http://www.take-20.com/2007/10/16/get-the-most-out-of-each-day/#comment-36 Neeraj, Thanks a lot for your post. Your questions raise a lot of great points, and give me a chance to cover some of the ideas I missed in the post. I'm aware that in my article I made it seem like people should put all of their urgent tasks on hold completely. However, I know this is not possible, because certain things DO need to get done. This is why I said about 80% of my daily tasks are important and 20% are urgent. I also know I'm blessed because I stumbled across this idea at such an early age, because I haven't invested myself heavily in what society believes is necessary to be "secure." In my eyes, things such as having a job, and trying to set up financial "security" are not important. Most of the time, a job doesn't contribute to any substantial human growth over a long period of time (maybe in a limited sense, but that's about it). If the objective is long term growth (over 2, 5, 10 years), then you MUST invest in the things that are important in life. In order to figure out what is important, you have to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish in life. This vision should be one independent of fear. I believe the need for financial "security" is an idea based in fear. What are you working so hard to protect? What are you trying so hard to keep? If you're not living up to your true potential and doing the great things you're capable of, in my eyes you really have nothing to begin with. If your mindset is always based in providing for yourself, and what you "need", then there will always be fear of losing what you already have. I guess this explains why 68% of people in the U.S. that make more than $39 million a year responded, "I don't feel financially secure" on a recent survey. Security is a myth, it doesn't exist in reality. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing, as Helen Keller once said. I know many are already rooted in the fear mentality of "how can I provide for myself without a job, or without money, or without sacrificing my LIFE doing something I don't love?" In order to change your life, I believe it's time to adopt a powerful vision, and then begin taking the action necessary to work towards it. This means focusing on what's important on a daily basis. Maybe you can start off with 20% important, 80% urgent tasks (urgent meaning things that currently don't serve your purpose), and then steadily increase until the ratio is 80%/20% in favor of important tasks. Ease into it. Ultimately, I believe the way you manage your time, your finances, and your relationships is a byproduct of your mentality. If your mentality is one based in fear, all three areas will be present in a restrictive, limiting way. If you're mindset is based in abundance, and you understand that all of the good things in life are already waiting for you if you're willing to take the action necessary to achieve them, then all three will be present in a affluent, abundant way. The key is to let go of the fear society has instilled in our minds, that need for "security". If this means gradually, do so gradually. But make sure it happens. <em>"Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives." - Sachs, A.</em> Neeraj,

Thanks a lot for your post. Your questions raise a lot of great points, and give me a chance to cover some of the ideas I missed in the post.

I’m aware that in my article I made it seem like people should put all of their urgent tasks on hold completely. However, I know this is not possible, because certain things DO need to get done. This is why I said about 80% of my daily tasks are important and 20% are urgent. I also know I’m blessed because I stumbled across this idea at such an early age, because I haven’t invested myself heavily in what society believes is necessary to be “secure.”

In my eyes, things such as having a job, and trying to set up financial “security” are not important. Most of the time, a job doesn’t contribute to any substantial human growth over a long period of time (maybe in a limited sense, but that’s about it). If the objective is long term growth (over 2, 5, 10 years), then you MUST invest in the things that are important in life. In order to figure out what is important, you have to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish in life.

This vision should be one independent of fear. I believe the need for financial “security” is an idea based in fear. What are you working so hard to protect? What are you trying so hard to keep? If you’re not living up to your true potential and doing the great things you’re capable of, in my eyes you really have nothing to begin with.

If your mindset is always based in providing for yourself, and what you “need”, then there will always be fear of losing what you already have. I guess this explains why 68% of people in the U.S. that make more than $39 million a year responded, “I don’t feel financially secure” on a recent survey. Security is a myth, it doesn’t exist in reality. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing, as Helen Keller once said.

I know many are already rooted in the fear mentality of “how can I provide for myself without a job, or without money, or without sacrificing my LIFE doing something I don’t love?” In order to change your life, I believe it’s time to adopt a powerful vision, and then begin taking the action necessary to work towards it. This means focusing on what’s important on a daily basis. Maybe you can start off with 20% important, 80% urgent tasks (urgent meaning things that currently don’t serve your purpose), and then steadily increase until the ratio is 80%/20% in favor of important tasks. Ease into it.

Ultimately, I believe the way you manage your time, your finances, and your relationships is a byproduct of your mentality. If your mentality is one based in fear, all three areas will be present in a restrictive, limiting way. If you’re mindset is based in abundance, and you understand that all of the good things in life are already waiting for you if you’re willing to take the action necessary to achieve them, then all three will be present in a affluent, abundant way. The key is to let go of the fear society has instilled in our minds, that need for “security”. If this means gradually, do so gradually. But make sure it happens.

“Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.”
- Sachs, A.

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