To-Do

The Bigger Picture

Garth Beyer

The Bigger Picture

I do a lot. I’m not bragging. Just stating the truth. Nor am I undermining others (you) or suggesting that no one does as much as me. In fact, it’s the opposite. It’s why I’m writing this.

If you sparked a conversation with me one year ago about how motivated people are these days, I would have been blunt, conceited and a bit disappointed in the answer I felt I had to give.

These days, I still see people not doing much. However (!) what I failed to notice before is people are simply doing a little for a long time.

One editorial board meeting for me lasts no more than 30 minutes and I’m on to the next thing on my agenda. For most, the editorial board meeting would last an hour or more. What get’s done aside, everyone is doing something.

On a similar note, people don’t do a larger variety of things (like me) because the hustle and attention it takes is exhausting. I can’t count on two hands how many times I’ve crashed. The result of having a packed schedule is wishing you had more time to relax.

That’s where I’ve realized the bigger picture comes in. The bigger picture isn’t how I do all that I do, but it does help me do all that I do.

My busy schedule doesn’t make me feel like I need more time to relax and do nothing because any time that I feel overwhelmed, I stop to think of the bigger picture; that this is only one meeting that I’m getting frustrated at over out of the entire year or that I’m lucky enough to go home in 20 minutes to someone who is damn need bouncing off the walls with excitement to see me or that not much was accomplished at this seminar, but there’s always next.

It’s beautiful when people stop their lives to just sit down and relax and view the bigger picture.

It’s even more beautiful when you can keep moving in your life and view the bigger picture.

 

Stay Positive & Sometimes A New Lens Helps

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How To Make A List And The Order To Do It In

Garth Beyer

How To Make A List: Write the list, right now. Write down everything you need to do and ship. Order, size, time, length, color, priority, distance, meaning and result doesn’t matter. You don’t need a list of things to do and not do just to write a list. A list is a list, write it.

The Order To Do It In: Now start doing the things you have written from the top to the bottom. The ones you placed first are the ones that are on your mind the most and the ones you are already focusing more of your energy on. Why take that away to put on something else and have to go back? The first items you put on that list are also the ones that will make you feel the best about completing because they are obviously urgent enough to write down so their achievement will relieve stress, to make you feel peaceful, set and accomplished.

There is no momentum in hopping to different tasks, but there is plenty of momentum in going down a list. Complete what is there and do it fast. It doesn’t matter if it’s ugly, what matters is that it is shipped.

 
Stay Positive & Don’t Worry, Things Will Always Be Added Onto The List

Garth E. Beyer

An Accord With Greatness

An Accord With Greatness

Garth Beyer

Today we focus on positive perspectives and cultural knowledge. What do you get when you combine the two? If you thought of the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing), then you are correct. This incredible piece of literature has two to twenty lessons per Chapter and 81 chapters in all. Since there is so much knowledge to discover, I do not want to overwhelm you. Let’s read the second and third stanza of Chapter 63 and discuss how it can affect your life, business, and relationships.

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 63, by Lao Tzu

Second Stanza:

The difficult problems in life
Always start off being simple.
Great affairs always start off being small.
Therefore the sage never deals with the great
And is able to actualize his greatness.

Third Stanza:

Now light words generate little belief,
Much ease turns into much difficulty.
Therefore the sage treats things as though they were difficult,
And hence, never has difficulty.”

–   Translated by Charles Mueller, 2004

Can you visualize the power behind Lao Tzu’s words? In life we often take problems and set them aside, saying that we will deal with them later. We are all examples of this mistake. Before we know it, the problem has grown to a size we could never have fathomed. It then begins to come out of hiding and crush us. Can you think of a way or two that would prevent this from happening? Does being honest and strong come to mind? Be honest to yourself and others and muster up the strength to overcome the obstacle early on. By doing so, your reward is time and supplementary strength to strive for life success. For example, you have a couple of tasks to carry out for work. You have to write-up an introduction to the meeting you have tomorrow and file a summary to your boss of an interview you established. In regards to the second stanza, it would be in your best interest to follow through with these tasks early in your day. If you decide to contradict Lao Tzu’s philosophy, you will find yourself full of stress and pressure to complete the task before the following morning. Not only that, but your boss called you up hoping that you had a rough draft of the report done yet so that he could get prepared for the meeting as well. That was a lost opportunity for progress and greatness for you. To have the power to activate greatness, you must continuously distinguish the small tasks, duties, and callings of each day.

You may be feeling that this is irrelevant to your life. That you plan your day and you knock out all the simple tasks and to-do’s early on so that you can focus on your greatness the rest of the day. Whether this is you, or not, you might be interested more in what stanza three offers to enlighten you with. So I begin by asking you this? When you execute the small tasks, do you accomplish them? REALLY accomplish them? Or do you put forth just the right amount of effort to cross it off your list and move on? You will be more fortunate to discover greater success if you truly delve deep into the meaning that stanza three carries. Why don’t we extend the previous example to encompass the lessons from stanza three as well?  As Lao Tzu’s suggests, by taking the time and maximum energy to write an introduction for your meeting tomorrow and file a summary to your boss of the interview you partook in the previous day, you are paving your path to even further success than you deemed imaginable. Having put forth so much effort into such small tasks, your boss allowed you to run the meeting the following morning, allowing you to get on a first name basis of the CEO of your company. Not only that, but now your boss wants you to do a full-scale interview with other clients and he is going to your completed work to the Wall Street Journal. Does this inspire you and help you see the importance of putting forth your greatest effort even with the smallest of tasks? How can this relate to your career?

But wait, your success does not end there. I said at the beginning of this blog post that you can affect all areas of your life by following Lao Tzu’s factual philosophy. By executing the advice of dealing with small obligations, and dealing with them with all your effort — you show others that you are ready for the opportunity to excel in your business. In doing so, you become more prosperous. After becoming more prosperous by being an honorable hard-working person, you have more time and energy to devote to balancing your personal and family life. By using all of your will and effort to get tasks done, both small and large, you become wiser and stronger, you are able to do more of what you love, and have more time, energy, and money than ever before. The effort of positivity, honesty, encouragement, and success in daily tasks, is what you will receive in return from your accomplishments.

Stay Positive and be Sage-like

Garth E. Beyer