100% All the Time?

When I was growing up, there was a saying that many of my Sunday school teachers and youth group leaders would use: “It’s a sin to do less than your best.” I want to focus on this as we continue our week talking about numbers.

The original concept of the week was to see what numbers really matter to people in life. We looked at the money numbers over the past two days and some of us thought, “Yeah, if I had more money I could do more with my life. Just this or that amount of money and I would be all set.”

Well I want to ask this: if you are in need of money, how much time do you waste each day? A great book I read within the past two years was Tim Ferris’ The 4-Hour Workweek. It really got to me in a powerful way when he asked how many hours a day would it take to do the work I do? If we took away the coffee breaks, if we took away the time we waste going to take a smoke break or surfing the internet.

Years ago, I was working a sales job and noticed the differences between those who took many breaks and those that made many sales. With an inside sales job, you can get so frustrated that every now and then you need to just walk away. In fact, in life any job can get you frustrated to where you walk away for a break. But how many times do we do that and lose our momentum then have to restart when we get back.

Imagine if you were to give 100% effort to the things that you are doing. How much time would it take if you would focus and just get the task at hand done?  Imagine how many things in life we put off and put off when, if we just kept at it, we would get it done.

This week I have been pushing to get a lot done myself. We are putting together our first RockStar Life workshop. I have put off getting this workshop together for almost a year. But now in a matter of three weeks I have almost all the writing done for it, all the planning and just a few meetings left this week to get it all done. When I actually got to work on it, in a matter of no time at all that the project was set up.

Now think of all the things in your life that you are putting off. How many things are you just doing the bare minimum on to get by? I have crafted my own set of RockStar Rules, or Dude Rules, as I call them. I first started to set up my rules based on my love for the character in the movie, The Big Lebowski. Then I realized one day that I was setting myself up to do the opposite of what I wanted to accomplish.

If you come to my workshop you will get to hear me explain Dude Rules as part of building your RockStar dream. Today I want to tell you just one of those rules. Wherever you are at, be there. I need to be in the moment in my life. I need to be doing the best I can with the exact time I have, and that is now. We are not guaranteed the next second.

Are you doing everything you can to achieve your RockStar dream?  It’s time to realize where you want to go and find a direct path to get there. I mentioned how in three weeks’ time I put together a workshop I was planning to do. I got up and got focused to do it. I have had many distractions along the way; I have had to stop and handle a few things while still moving forward towards this getting done. But the focus on the goal, the idea of giving 100% of the time I have to work on it today, is making it happen.

So what in your life is not getting the full attention that it deserves? I want to leave you with three things that keep us in failure; they all have to do with getting out of focus, doing less than our best and wasting time. Ready? Here are the three things that lock people in Failure.

1.  Procrastination. It’s time to stop putting off what you need to get done and just do it. If you have put off trimming those trees around your house, you may actually find out, like I did last week, it only took 15 minutes to do. Stop putting it off.

2.  Perfectionism. You are not perfect; you will never be perfect; you can never design the perfect business, life, home, or family. We are human and it is not possible; everything and everyone has flaws. I know you are thinking we are talking about giving 100%. Well, even when you give the best you can, you can always improve and that is another blog in itself.

3.  Details, Details. If you’ve known me long, you know that was the name of my last business. I worked for years to perfect the details of cleaning a car. Well, getting caught up in the details of life will keep you locked in a failure pattern. Just today I was making some copies at the Law Library of our local courthouse and wasted $2 making copies I did not need. Rather than get caught up in losing $2 I just walked away and left my credit in the machine to a poor lady who was behind me. Rather than get caught up in details, I got caught up in blessing someone else’s day.

We need to work to improve. 100% is about working to do better and giving the best that you can do with talents God gave you. So what are you going to improve on this week?

I’m Tim Gillette, The Rocker Life Coach. It’s time to live your dream, to love what you do and those you share life with. Learn to do and give the best you are able to do in the moment you can do it, then you will be the RockStar in your world.