The leaves in our neighborhood are falling today.
Amber, orange, brown.
Autumn colors blanket Alabama. A cool, damp breeze blows.
Nice.
Relaxing.
One of our boys is watching College Game Day. The other has no clue the sun is up.
Life.
A few years ago I started thinking about life. How to enjoy it. How to make it count.
And I started using a measurement that radically shifted my decisions.
It’s an outlook that so many could use.
Just look around you.
Have you noticed the crowds (some might say herds)?
People moving with little purpose and even less planning.
Don’t believe it?
Close your eyes for a minute. Consider this…
Right now people are standing in line in Walmart trying to make the tough decision of WHICH tabloid to get. The one with the aliens or the one that spotted Elvis and Michael Jackson at a diner in Wazoo City.
Monday morning blister-eyed drones will commute on autopilot. They will resume the position in their cubicles. Counting the minutes until the next break when they get to take a smoke or have an intellectual discussion about “Survivor.”
Life? Really?
Why does this stuff happen?
Because the masses are being tranquilized and zombied by television, tabloids, talking heads and… boredom.
Which is why Earl Nightengale said, “There is really no competition unless we make it for ourselves.”
Compared the mindless masses you are cranking it out! Keep it up!
And here’s the “outlook” I use to make sure more moments count…
“I am about to spend life. I will not get these moments back. Is this really what I need to be doing right now? Do I want to use life on this?”
That will FORCE you to get on track. That will MAKE you produce good work and prioritize.
The crowd will keep stumbling around. You keep moving forward with purpose.
And that doesn’t mean business has to consume you. As you learned in www.SimpleSixFigures.com, an incredible business can be built on common sense and simplicity.
Leaving you the time to enjoy life.
Time to watch the leaves float to the ground.
Time to take in the color of Autumn.
Success is NOT an Accident,
Paul
Thanks Paul every time I feel lost your words bring me back in focus. Again thanks.
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Paul,
Thanks for the Insight,Thanks for the Prespective,thanks for “Zooming us out” helping us see the big picture and get in the right perspective,i know how far we have come and focusing on all the good we are doing we can build an unstoppable current or force of success and positive energy that will break us thoruhg into the Highest Deepest sucess we have ever imagined or could imagine.In the Center it gets brighter and full of Light and the most resplendid Glory.We move ever inwards towards that center and all efforts that brings us closer to this great center in our self and in those around us,i feel that is what we should can and must “Spend our time” on.Spend our time on returning ourselves and each other to the source of all,to the center of the One,where we are the one,forever,Nothing to do nothing to get,Just being.From here this center comes doing,from this all doing is free,full of joy,peace and contentment.So let us find our center our great center and act be and do from here.Let us be the very center as we move to the Great Center.We are in for one heck of a journey!Thanks everyone for sharing!
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Hey Paul,
Wow! The sad part is… that the majority of people don’t even think about these things, including myself. It always takes someone to point it out to you, or something to happen and smack you in the head and say, “Wake Up”… Don’t you see what’s happening?
Thank you Paul,
Sincerely,
Vic Boxwell
Rockville, MD
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Paul,
I have been a subscriber for a while, but never felt the urge to comment until now. And that is because you have beaten me to it.
I am one of those drones that scuttles in to work on a Monday, wishing it was Friday already. It is possibly the worst feeling I have all week, because I know I am going to waste the best part of what is to come with people I don’t know properly – let alone care about, and I am going to be sitting at a desk pretending to be bothered about a company I have no affection for.
It has only recently graced my little mind that life is given with one very strict rule – you only get one go. I am now in the process of making sure my life is heading in a direction that will benefit me, because there is no way I want to spend the rest of what I have left stuck in a room with people I don’t know doing a job I don’t like,for a company I don’t care for.
You make very valid points, and anyone who reads them and is not taking action to change their way of life, and making their knowledge and circumstances work for them, is truly missing out on an opportunity to fulfil what is in their hearts, rather than what is said on the bulletin board on a Monday morning.
If you are on this list, it is because you want to be independent of the working world, and you want to do it via the medium of the internet.
If you always remember it is you who you are living for, then you will always have the mentality to succeed in what you do.
Just my 2 cents.
San
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Great insights on life, Paul! Too often we are just going through the motions…getting from one paycheck to the next, one week to the next, one day to the next…without much purpose.
I like your analogy of ‘spending’ life. It’s a lot like Carrie Wilkerson talks about living intentionally. Good advice for all!
Thanks again!
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Paul,
Thanks for the reminder that there is more to life than living in the cube farm and watching reality TV. When we are surrounded by that 60 or more hours a week, it’s easy to forget there is a whole lot more out there. When you try to become something more than mediocre, you discover the field is not very crowded, it gets a little lonely out here! Keep talking to us, we’re listening.
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Hello Paul,
The first thing I thought of when I read your statement:
“I am about to spend life. I will not get these moments back. Is this really what I need to be doing right now? Do I want to use life on this?”
was Proverbs 6:6-11, where God talks about the “ant” not having any chief but preparing bread in the summer and gathering food in the harvest.
Like the ant, we should not need any one standing over us telling us what to do and when to do it. Like the ant we should spend our time wisely and prepare for what is ahead in life.
I appreciate very much the “balance” between work and home/family life you suggest. Congrats on another thought provoking installment of the Profit Letter. Lots of God given wisdom.
G
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Paul, thank you for this–it is exactly how I’ve been feeling. I would love to pass on your “outlook” to my friends, with your permission, because it is worded perfectly. Since my business is teaching people how to preserve those moments, I hear too often how there’s just not enough time for the simple things in life. What a wonderful reminder and guidepost this will be for them. I just love your heart!
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Hi Paul,
I enjoyed your ezine today. It was rather timely for me. You reminded me about the “why” I work from home and “why” I hang in there, trying to build a business around my life…instead building my life around my business.
My life (includes the Lord, 4 living children and hubby) is the core of my being…. the “why’s” I work from home.
Thank you for the gentle truth and reminder of how fast time goes, and how we should live it, second by second, with purpose.
Moving forward,
Stephanie
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