Always grab opportunity by the lapels!

Many people are however not able to enter into high performance simply because they are victims of procrastination. I have often defined procrastination as the deception that you are in control of tomorrow. As a high performer you will need to overcome it. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • We all have the capacity to increase our speed of operations if we can create a sense of urgency around the things we need to do.
  • People are remembered for their actions and not for their thoughts. The thoughts of great people are captured and reserved for eternity through the things they did about the thoughts. Ideas are not enough to change the world if they are not executed.
  • If you cut off irrelevancies in your life you will be amazed at how much time you have to focus on great things.

In continuation of our discussion from last week on high performance, one key attribute of high performance vehicles is speed. Speed is the currency of the day and what matters is not who got the idea first but who launched it and launched it well. 

Many people are however not able to enter into high performance simply because they are victims of procrastination. I have often defined procrastination as the deception that you are in control of tomorrow. As a high performer you will need to overcome it. 

Be strategic

We all have the capacity to increase our speed of operations if we can create a sense of urgency around the things we need to do. For instance when I build high performance teams in organisations when dealing with the issue of procrastination I take them through a little exercise.

I divide them into groups and give them assignments but vary the time allotted to each group. They do not know this as I speak to each group separately.

They do not know that they have been given exactly the same assignment with different timing. The interesting thing that always happens is that the group that was given the shortest time always finishes first. This is because they had it built into their thinking that they did not have much time and as such they cut the irrelevant things and went straight to the strategic.

Some of the other groups are at this time still busy discussing irrelevancies. We need to look inwards and identify the time wasting activities that we embark on that do not take us closer to where we want to be and that do not contribute anything positive to our destiny.

If you cut off irrelevancies in your life you will be amazed at how much time you have to focus on great things.

Think of the number of things that you have wanted to do that you have been planning for ever. Think of the new products, the new markets you want to enter into or even  the new skills you want to learn. High performers are not only quick thinkers but quick executors. 

Take action

It may interest you to know that the life that we are living now is not a rehearsal. It is the real thing and this is the only life we have to make a mark. You will however never make a mark for things you did not do.

People are remembered for their actions and not for their thoughts. The thoughts of great people are captured and reserved for eternity through the things they did about the thoughts. Ideas are not enough to change the world if they are not executed.

The quality of your life is directly determined to how much of what you know you are ready to do.

Faith without works is indeed dead and can never deliver anything worth value. The difference between merely existing and truly living is in execution and if you do not overcome procrastination you will never execute anything hence you will rob yourself of a life of value. 

Build your capacity

One key ingredient that determines the performance of high performance cars is their engine capacity. What is the capacity of your mind?

Do you have the requisite engine to drive you to your dream? The difference between those who attain and those who keep dreaming is in their willingness to build the capacity of their engine to accommodate their dream.

Never forget that opportunities are free for all situations waiting for who will be smart enough to see them as opportunities and who will be smart enough to grab them. Opportunities are meant to be grabbed and not to be discussed or stared at.

The world belongs to doers and not to analysers and sceptics.