Ch 17 Application and Action “Law of Priorities”
Successful people live according to the Law of Priorities. Successful leaders help their organization, department, or team live according to the Law of Priorities. For you, it is important to be able to practice the Law of Priorities individually before you can tackle this as a leader. So, your task for this section is to carve out a specific time (on a regular basis) to visit/revisit your priorities and create steps to accomplish your goals.
The task: for a series of 7 full days, keep a detailed calendar or list or use my chart below to lists that are made up of the tasks you completed to carve out a specific time on a regular basis to revisit priorities for each of your chosen areas.
| TO DO April 10th | TO DO 11th | TO DO 12th | TO DO 13th | TO DO 14th | TO DO 15th | TO DO 16th |
| Top Property | Top Property | Top Property | Top Property | Top Property | Top Property | Top Property |
| 1.Wake up early make good breakfast | 1.Wish yourself a happy birthday | 1.take good notes in class. Finals will be here before you know it | 1. Team practice today. Make sure you get two meals in beforehand | 1.day before game, eat well, hydrate | 1.game day. Up early, big breakfast | 1.double header. Get up early, big breakfast. |
| 2. Mentally prepare for the game. Focus, medidate. | 2.Go to trainer and get treatment | 2.arrive to practice early enough for hitting routine in cage | 2.work on art 240 final project | 2.go to athletic trainer about sore elbow | 2.hydrate all day. Pedialyte?? | 2.get to trainer for sore muscles. Long one yesterday. |
| 3. Play hard | 3. Take care of spanish group project | 3. Work on final paper draft for Poly Sci 101 | 3. Meal prep dinner | 3. Team practice, get two or more meals in before | 3. Tape, baby powder, prepare body for game. | 3. Hydrate. It’s hot. Grab extra caffeine drink |
| 4.get to sleep early | 4.get to sleep early | 4.go to sleep early | 4.go to sleep early | 4.big dinner, sleep early | 4. compete your tail off. | 4. Compete!! |
| Secondary Tasks | Secondary Tasks | Secondary Tasks | Secondary Tasks | Secondary Tasks | Secondary Tasks | Secondary Tasks |
| 1. coffee. | 1.grocery shop for breakfast materials | 1.clean up bathroom | 1.write thank you cards for birthday cards | 1.buy note cards to make flashcards | 1.early work hitting. | 1.don’t forget to drink during the games |
| 2.hydrate during game | 2. Wash practice clothes for the week | 2.fold laundry | 2. Make your bed | 2. Get a haircut if you can find time | 2.get a good lunch in | 2.put on sunscreen |
| 3.lay out clothes needed for tomorrow | 3.off day batting practice | 3.buy more disposable masks | 3.download imovie for art class | 3.prepare pbnj to bring to practice | 3.call parents about the game since they can’t be at this one. | 3.call parents again |
| 4. | 4. | 4. | 4. | 4. | 4. | 4. |
| 5. | 5. | 5. | 5. | 5. | 5. | 5. |
| Steps you will take to accomplish these goals: | To accomplish all goals above I must be diligent in my routine. It starts with not hitting snooze, and making my bed right away. A common theme for the weeks goals is to take care of my body. I have a tendency to get migraines when I don’t eat and drink well. Sleep, hydration and diet are the keys to success. Also getting my homework done in a timely manner will allow me to get to bed on time, and wake up on time. Not adhering to my routine has a negative chain reaction. | |||||
Ch 18 Application and Action: “Law of Sacrifice”
Motivation is a key factor in developing momentum. The first step toward building motivation is removing demotivating elements within the organization.
- One of the most harmful mind-sets of leaders is what I call destination disease-the idea that they can sacrifice for a season and then “arrive.” Leaders who think this way stop sacrificing and stop gaining higher ground in leadership.
- In what areas might you be in danger of having destination disease? Write them down. Then for each, create a statement of ongoing growth that will be an antidote to such thinking. For example, if you have the mind-set that you finish learning once you graduate from school, you may need to write, “I will make it my practice to learn and grow in one significant area every year.”
- I will make it my practice to work as hard on my defense as I do on my offense.
- I will make it my practice to actively abandon my procrastination cycle, not just expect to one day grow out of it.
- I will make it my practice to engage in the teammates I know the least about to build relationships. It takes us both out of our comfort zone a little, but it’s key to developing this part of my leadership skill.
- I will make it a practice to remain curious about all topics even once I have a job in one particular field.
- The Law of Sacrifice can be seen in almost any diet or financial plan. You stop eating certain things to lose weight. You don’t go to the movies every weekend so you can take the family on vacation in the summer. And just like food and money, time is also a commodity. Earl Nightingale says that if a person studied one hour a day for three years on a single topic, that he or she would become an expert in that field. But what would that person have to give up in order to spend the time studying? This person would be sacrificing one hour a day that could be spent on literally anything. Free time that could be used for a hobby, hanging out with friends, family, any imaginable pleasurable leisure activity. Maybe even some sleep would be sacrificed, but the ends would justify the means if the person actively wanted to become an expert on a certain topic, and remain diligent in their studies.
This week, you are to find one thing in your life that if you gave up will move you forward. This is not limited to leadership. Moving forward might mean giving up something to spend more time with your family – investing in relationships. You could commit to waking up an hour earlier every morning to exercise – investing in your health. Or, you could carve out one hour each day to learn about something that would advance your leadership and value to others- investing in your personal growth.
Fill in the blanks and commit to being committed!
For the next 3 weeks (now till the end of the semester). I will give up ________The snooze button_____________________________________________
and instead I will __Get up on the first chime.____________________________________________________________________________________________________
My goal is to _Make it a practice for me to get up when my alarm goes off so I can more easily plan ahead my day. Hitting snooze an unknown amount of times forces me to push the envelope of just how lazy I can be while still being on time. It makes me rush._________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I will tell _____Justin__________________________- about my progress and ask this person to keep me accoutnable.
Refection:
How well did you do? Explain.
What changes happened/did not happen?
Was it worth the sacrifice? Explain.
Ok this was tough. The first few days went really well. My mornings felt longer, I felt less stressed, I was better fed and better hydrated. Some days later in weeks I would forget and press snooze out of habit, then lack the motivation to follow through on my commitment once I’d been granted an extra 9 minutes to sleep. It was pretty much clear to me the night before if I’d have a chance the next morning to get up on the first ring. If I could get 7.5-8 hours of sleep, it wasn’t too difficult. These were my most productive days. Many times however my poor time management left me in the 5.5-6.5 hour range of sleep, which made it near impossible to get out of bed without the start time of a class bearing down upon me. This was worth the sacrifice when I was able to make it however. It caused me to adjust my priorities and put sleep in a higher position of focus for me.