168: It's Just About... Life

It is one number which levels the playing field for all of us. Whether you are a baby, student, wage earner, stay-at-home parent, entrepreneur, CEO, movie star, rock star, hall-of-fame athlete, or leader of the free world, your number is the same.

You can't beat it, cheat it, change it or run from it. It's your number, it's my number and it affects us every week, month, year and for life.

168. Write it down. Stare it at. Contemplate it. Then figure out how you are going to make the most of it.

It's your week. The number of hours you and I have to accomplish what we set out to do and it's a pretty good barometer of our success or stress, focus or failure, mile marker, or exit. It's all we've got and if it's all we've got then we need to figure out how to make the most of it.

You could argue the 24 hours of every day are more important, because what you do each day and the disciplines you use to get through your day are of utmost importance... but as a true measurement of that daily discipline, your week is a wonder stick of measure and management of your life.

Look, we all have to accomplish certain things inside of each week. Everybody's workin' for the weekend, right? But some basic human functions must be paid attention, like sleeping and eating, and if you have some goals to accomplish, or if you have not yet set goals to go after, your week will let you know it. You can sleep more or less, eat more or less, work more or less, but whether doing your job, or on vacation, or on a flight to the moon... you can't escape the 168.

So if you can't beat it, then join it. Want to be more engaged? Want to have greater success? Want to feel fulfilled, relaxed, stress-free? Then take those 168 hours, your week, and plan them out. Have a schedule. And do it before your week begins!

How many of us have ever heard, or made the statement, "the week just got away from me," or "I'll do it next week," or "my week is just too busy," or "my week is just too crazy." Well, maybe not. The week wasn't crazy, but you might be, because you didn't have a plan. If you fail to plan you plan to fail and you, your week and the 168 hours which connect us all, cannot be ignored.

If you're looking to be more productive, then start the night before the new week begins. Put the essential items into your calendar like sleep, meal times, family and personal events you need to/want to do into that calendar. It is the foundation of your 168 and will tell you how many hours you have left to accomplish things like work, chores and the like. Having your week scheduled, planned out, gives you clarity and stability and enables you to turn on a dime and change because life will no doubt do the same to you. Very few plans ever survive the front lines in the battle of your week, but if you have a plan, you can react, adjust, modify and conquer. At the end of the week you will look back and realize you did more than you ever imagined, without the feeling of being overwhelmed, stressed or out of control. You can handle life's biggest challenges if you simply break them up into small pieces. You don't eat a pie all at once, you carve that pie, your week, your 168 into small slices.

You can take on the world, you truly can and you can accomplish feats the world marvels at, but only if you make your week work for you.

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Mark

Author, Blogger, Financial Services
The #1 Amazon Best-Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse's Story
(The #1 Amazon Best-Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse's Story)