“I don’t have enough time.”
Bah, humbug! That is the worst excuse ever.
In a world filled with so many distractions, what we need is focus.
More time needs to be spent on:
- Legacy projects that matter.
- Working on something bigger than just yourself.
- Fighting an industry that is unsustainable.
- Doing the impossible.
- Trusting yourself to take risks.
- Becoming an expert at something.
Less time needs to be spent:
- Watching trash TV.
- Making excuses.
- Procrastinating.
- Relaxing because you are “tired”.
- Unwinding from a long day.
- Wasting your life away.
Its Time to Moonlight
I don’t care how busy you are with your job/family/video games/tailgating/shopping/fantasy sports/life: leave a legacy.
Start working on something that you can look back at when you are dying and say, “Yeah. I did that.”
Morbid? Yes. Awakening? Double Yes.
Whether you start waking up earlier or working on things at night, work on achieving your dreams. Put together an annual plan and make your life 100% better in one year’s time.
It doesn’t have to be every morning. I enjoy slowing down life by sleeping in from time to time too.
It doesn’t have to be every night. You can still go and party/drink/dance/shop/hang out with your friends.
Stop making excuses and make your life better.
This is what we’re all about. Care to join us?
Do you want your name to be known forever?
There are two ways your name can be remembered throughout history.
- Do something awesome: Einstein, Ghandi, Da Vinci.
- Do something awful: Hitler, Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible.
Let’s go with option #1.
Do you think anyone will ever write about your life when you’re gone?
- Would people riot if you were assassinated?
- Would your fans create a homage out of your creations?
Do something positive that you will be remembered for.
You don’t have to be so famous that you’ll make the six o’clock news or the cover of Time magazine, but do something that makes the world better.
***
What are you moonlighting? What are you working on that is bigger than just you? I’d love to hear in the comments.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
For me, it’s paving a way that wasn’t necessarily laid out for me. All my life I’ve been different mentally, but in the same environments as everyone else that I was supposed to be just like. Unfortunately, that environment has heavy influences on the mind and not much comes of the people who were born into it.
I, on the other hand, am learning to embrace who I am regardless of what’s expected of me. Just recently, I left the US Army after 8 1/2 years of active duty service to be a full time business student and an internet entrepreneur. Soldiers don’t do that. Soldiers serve proudly and love it to death.
Well, I served proudly, but once again I was in an environment that wasn’t for me. So now, I’m all about creating my own path. I would love to have a mentor. I would have loved a role model in my life that did something similar. I would have loved to be brought up in the type of environment that produced trail-blazing mindsets. But I wasn’t.
So, I’ll be up early in the morning and all night blazing my own trail to the life I desire. And maybe my legacy will be that I created a trail for other people brought up in that environment.
Knowing when to change direction and gears can be a huge challenge to overcome for most people. You knew it was time for a change and you are going right into it without fear.
Blazing your own trail is not the easy thing to do, but sometimes it is the right thing to do.
I can already tell that you have the passion and drive to do and be more tomorrow than you are today. Keep at it Sean.
Thanks, Caleb. I most definitely will.
It’s tough to do and almost everyone you talk to will say, “Why?”, and try to pull you in the other direction. I found I needed some sort of motivation every single day to keep things moving along. A good structure and schedule to work on something every day helps a lot too. It’s harder to say I’ll do it later when something is already in your calendar from 6 to 7.
Scheduling an hour each day that you have to commit to your bigger goals is a great idea. Instead of worrying about whether you are going to get to it each day, you can just know that at the same time each day you can focus on it.
Thanks for chiming in Ross.
Caleb, frankly I don’t know why “I don’t have time” seems to be the favorite excuse that we all give when we know we have something that needs to be done. My favorite quote in your post is “Start working on something that you can look back at when you are dying and say, ‘Yeah. I did that.’”
That is what legacy is all about and we should learn to do it before we leave this this.
Caleb, keep posting these incredible posts. Thank you
Thanks Martin.
I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon!
I want my name to be under wraps forever. I like to write for the fun of writing, and build the Yakezie Network for the love of community.
You’re right to call us to action. All too often, I waste away the hours, then complain that I “don’t have time.”
But do you think there are some people-in some circumstances-for whom this advice doesn’t apply? Who really do need the rest? Whose spare time would be better spent playing with the kids? Who-between the commute and the second job- just can’t give up even a single hour for pursuing their dreams?