Things That Matter & Things You Can Control

One of the things I love about my job is the opportunity I get to live vicariously through so many successful people. I have the unique opportunity to see the behaviors and habits, successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses, which impact my clients’ success. Time is truly their most valuable asset. Over the years I’ve learned how people focus their time can have a direct impact on their success.

If you are interested in increasing your success, I recommend you try the following exercise. At the end of a day, take a few minutes to write down the things that you spent significant amount of your day planning, researching and doing. Next to the list create a column titled Matters and a column titled Controllable. Complete your chart by checking off the applicable boxes. It will look something like this:

If your list has a lot of items that are missing an X in the Matters column or the Controllable column (like the list above), then you have an opportunity to use your time more successfully.  The next day, before you spend a significant time doing something, consider whether it is worth your time.  Do the exercise for a week and see how much more successful you can be.

-Marshall Rathmell-