Sandy Scherschligt is CEO of Millionaire Moms, a Freelance writer and business woman with a passion for helping others succeed. She is the co-author of Mind Your Money, Mind Your Business, A Creative Real Estate (ACRE), The Business Owners Success System (BOSS), and The Perfect Tax Solution. She and her husband have been blessed with five super amazing children.
Hoping for a good future without investing in today is like a farmer waiting for a crop without planting any seed. John Maxwell – Today Matters
Develop Long Term Perspective
Many people in today’s fast paced society get caught up in the rat race and forget where they are going or what they really want out of life. We tend towards simply getting through the days one at a time. How you view time has a big impact on your daily activities and your choices.
Doctor Edward Banfield of Harvard University, after more than 50 years of research, concluded that “long-time perspective” is the most accurate single predictor of upward social and economic mobility in America. Long time perspective turns out to be more important than family background, education, race, intelligence, connections or virtually any other single factor in determining your success in life and at work.
To determine if you have long-time perspective, ask yourself these questions:
1. Do you carefully plan how you spend your time or do you let life happen as it may?
2. Do you set long term goals and work diligently to obtain them?
3. Are you able to sacrifice something smaller now for the bigger picture later?
4. Do you know what you really want and where you are headed?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, congratulations! You already have developed long term perspective. If you answered no and want to become successful, you will need to continue to work towards obtaining it. Now that you are aware that you need to acquire this attitude, it takes discipline and commitment to developing it. This means you will need to begin planning and making decisions that are geared for the long term and not for the immediate moment. Economists say that the inability to delay gratification — whether in finances, personal relationships, physical conditioning — is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life. On the other hand, disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the road to success.
One way to implement long-time perspective is by making a conscious effort to use your time wisely and take actions on that which is really important to you. First, you have to know what it is you want and then you have to commit to making it happen. Then you’ll need to implement these into your daily actions.
Surround Yourself with Success
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. – Mark Twain
Who we spend time with has an impact on our long-term success. Are you spending a lot of time with people you consider extremely successful? Are the people you are hanging out with generally positive or negative? If you are constantly bombarded with negativity, doubt and disbelief you will have a much bigger hill to climb. Instead, you must purposely choose to spend time with people who inspire you, encourage you and believe in you.
If one of your big goals is to become extremely wealthy and successful, you should be spending time with wealthy and successful people. Success loves company. If you want to get where they are, you should be listening to them, observing them in action and asking them the right questions. Do you surround yourself with people who are healthy and growing in each of the areas you would like to become great in? If not, how might that affect your future?
John Maxwell’s Daily Dozen Questions (pg 24 – Today Matters)
Use these questions to determine if you are already making good decisions daily about the important matters in your life. Check off those which you feel you are already working on daily.
1. Attitude: Choose and display the right attitudes daily. [ ]
2. Priorities: Determine and act on important priorities daily. [ ]
3. Health: Know and follow healthy guidelines daily. [ ]
4. Family: Communicate with and care for my family daily. [ ]
5. Thinking: Practice and develop good thinking daily. [ ]
6. Commitment: Make and keep proper commitments daily. [ ]
7. Finances: Make and properly manage dollars daily. [ ]
8. Faith: Deepen and live out my faith daily. [ ]
9. Relationships: Initiate and invest in solid relationships daily. [ ]
10. Generosity: Plan for and model generosity daily. [ ]
11. Values: Embrace and practice good values daily. [ ]
12. Growth: Seek and experience improvements daily. [ ]
Take a look at those that are left unchecked. If all twelve are unchecked, don’t try to accomplish all twelve starting tomorrow. Pick your top 3 and work on those until they become habit and then move on to your next 3.
How do you spend your time? Are the activities you spend a majority of your time on helping you achieve all that you want? Do you sometimes feel like you have good intentions to spend your time on those types of activities, but the tyranny of the urgent seems to come in and devour all your time? Do you feel in control of your daily and weekly events?
Depending on how you answered those questions, you may discover you aren’t really controlling your financial future. This happens when you don’t make deliberate decisions and then discipline yourself to follow through on those decisions. You can have long-term perspective and know your goals, but without daily deliberate action moving you incrementally forward, you will not succeed.
Consider tracking how you spend your time for an entire week. This will be a huge eye opener for most of you. Simply use a daily planner or journal and jot down what you are spending your time doing (yes, I mean all of it). You’ll have to face the fact that you have possibly squandered away some time that may have been used to take control of your future. Many people that claim they don’t have the time to become successful really mean that they have chosen not to use their time to become successful. A more honest and proactive alternative to “I don’t have time” is to say “I haven’t made that a priority.” The first statement makes you a victim; the latter statement puts you in charge. And the only way to financial success is to be in charge of your time.
To your health and success,
Sandy Scherschligt
Visit my Blog 10 Top Health Secrets
Visit our Healthy Living Store
Get John Maxwell’s book – Today Matters
