Chapter 70.
Know You’ve Got the Time

Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

—St. Francis

Most managers do small things all day long. They start the day by doing all the easy things. They go through their e-mail over and over again. They ask themselves subconsciously: What are some little tasks that I can do that aren’t difficult? What are things to do that will make it look like I’m being a manager while I figure out what really needs to be done? If anybody were watching me, would they say I am just doing what a manager needs to do? I’m doing what I need to do; these things need to be done sooner or later.

But a motivational leader has the ability and the opportunity to live life differently, to take the time to live by rational choice of priority instead of feelings, to leave the infantile behind.

The key is taking the time.

And what works against this is the sense that time is getting away, there’s really not enough time in the day. But you can learn to stay grounded in this fact: we all have 24 hours. It doesn’t matter how rich or powerful you are, you still only have 24 hours—not a minute more.

The sun rises and sets for everyone the same way. And so there’s no sense in saying, “I don’t have as much time as other people. I’d love to do that but I don’t have the time.” That’s just not true.

Only you can slow your own sense of time down to the speed of life by choosing what you choose to do. And once you do, it becomes that much easier to motivate and teach others to do the same.