I have been doing some work on gaining clarity in some areas of my life lately and I remembered an interesting conversation I once had with a gentleman who was having difficulties reaching his business and personal goals. During the conversation I asked how he plans for his day, week, month. I wanted to know if he kept a calendar or planner that he scheduled his tasks, meetings and personal events.
He said that he puts important things in his phone but most of the time he relies on his memory, which he quickly added that he does forget things and sometimes this creates problems for him. He said that he is just not the “planner” type of person.
Okay, no planner, what about a “daily to do list?” Nope, that takes too much time and when he gets to the office he needs to start addressing things right away. I reminded him that we were having this conversation because he was having problems with himself and his staff getting things done. If he wanted change then there needed to be some changes made.
I mentioned that he needed to begin each day with intention and clarity for what he needed to do and then we needed to work on a plan to help his staff do the same. Planners and to do lists are great tools to help get each day thought through and an agenda set with priorities of what needed to be done and when.
After we chatted for about 10 more minutes and the call was drawing to a close he said, “I’m just the kind of person that takes each day as it comes and handles whatever is thrown at me when it hits me.”
I realized that pretty much everything I had said in the past hour was just thrown out and he was letting me know that he really did not want achieve “Clarity” in his business or personal life because it would require effort and change of habits.
At the close of the call he asked what the next step was and I told him to think about what I said and when he was ready he could send me his priority list and we could get started with a plan to move forward.
I’m sure you probably have guessed, but I never heard back from him to begin a plan. I have talked to him since and the conversation is the same with the same issues.
“”Personal power is directly tied to personal responsibility, which most people avoid.”
~ Brendon Burchard
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