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Achieve Your 10-Year Plan in Next 6 Months - Part 1


My mentor once  asked me - How much  time does  it really take  to  accomplish something ? Before I could answer that question, he asked another (better)  question - How much time do you actually have ?

It took me some time to answer that second question. I always thought that I have the rest of the life to accomplish something.

As I was thinking of the right answer to this question, I got this thought, more like a next question - Where is the bulk of my time being spent ?  Only then can I determine how long something will really take to accomplish. You need to ask yourself this question too.

How Much Time Do You Have ?
The average month has 720 hours (30 days X 24 hours). If you sleep for 8 hours a day, you have 480 hours left. If you worked 40 hours per week, 4 weeks a month, then you have 320 hours left. Maybe, working 40 hours per week is optional, but certainly not optimal. And may be not necessary. In the knowledge economy, our best work generally happens while we are away from work. Research shows, that only 16% of creative ideas happen while we are at work. Most happen while we are relaxing, commuting, traveling, spending time with loved ones, etc. Take another 2 hours per day for eating (2 hours X 30 days = 60 hours), and you have 280 hours left.

So, the question is, what are you doing with those 280 hours ? If you spend those 280 hours listening to audiobooks or reading a book, you could listen to or read about 45 books ! An average book being 6 hours.

280 hours X 12 months = 3,360 hours. What are you doing with those 3,360 hours ? If you spend those 3,360 hours on books, you could go through about 560 books !

Of course, all 560 books would probably not be the best use of your time. Going through even a 100, though, would probably be life–altering.

Reading books should stimulate new ways of thinking and acting in the world. If we’re not acting differently, we’re not actually learning and thus not changing. Our behaviour is what shapes circumstance, confidence, personality, and relationships.

For most people, learning has become an escape from doing. Filling our head with useless information is the opposite of hard–won wisdom and understanding, which can only happen through the application of knowledge and re–application based on experience in the real world.

What do we do with our 280 Hours ?
Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.
If we don’t know we have a problem, it probably won’t change.
If we don’t believe we have a problem, it probably won’t change.
If we can’t admit we have a problem, we are living in denial.

We all have problems. In today’s society, we’re all addicted to something (may be even many things !). We can’t purposefully change what you’re unaware of. Hence, the pressing need for accountability (to self and others). If we track and are required to report something, we will become heavily conscious. If there are immediate consequences to not performing, performance will rise even more.

The moment of awakening happens when we
ü  Acknowledge to yourself that we have a problem
ü  Openly admit we have a problem
ü  Begin seeking out information and help
ü  Become Accountable
ü  Create an environment that facilitates our desire to change
ü  Begin investing in more healthy alternatives & solutions

With that said, let’s take a look at our current use of time. Where are we spending it ?  Be completely honest – we have no idea where it’s being spent. That’s because unless we are conscious of where it’s being spent, we can’t track the time spent. Which for most people isn’t fun. It’s hard. It’s a chore. So, we give up after 1 – 3 days.

In the next part, we will examine what we need to do, if we want to start achieving our 10–year plans in the next 6 months.


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