Start With A Win - Maximizing Your Time and Ending with a Win

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

In this episode of the Start With A Win podcast, Adam talks about time and the impacts that emotional maturity can have on making the most effective use of the time you have. Every day is filled with choices, which are conscious decisions based on your emotional maturity (or immaturity). You could intentionally make progress on your goals, or you could get stuck in a social media loop and waste a few hours that could have improved your life and personal or professional development. Parkinson’s Law says that a project will take all the time that you will give it. You could be prepared and block off time for it, or you could wait until the last minute and have a more stressful and less fulfilling experience. One thing that is universal to all humanity is that we will eventually run out of time in our lives, so don’t waste any more time. Recognize that your enemies are Parkinson’s Law and perfection, which is rationalized procrastination, and choose to be intentional with the time you are given. A prime example of this that we have all experienced is how productive we all are right before a vacation. Those things that you have been putting off for weeks will suddenly get checked off of your to-do list when you are a few days out from vacation because you are motivated to do so. If you schedule your vacations ahead of time, set up a hard deadline, and communicate that you are going to be off the grid, you will be amazed how much you can get done before you leave. Links:Chrome Motivation extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/motivation/ofdgfpchbidcgncgfpdlpclnpaemakoj?hl=en Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Hey, Win Nation, producer Mark here. Hey, real quick, before we jump into this episode, I have a favor to ask. Can you do me a really, really simple favor? Go into where you listen to your podcast and give us a five-star rating and leave us a simple review. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just say something nice or say something you like about the show. But what that does is it helps us get the word out about Start With A Win and reach more people. So that's all I got for you.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Hey, Adam and Mark. It's Sue Dayton calling Remax Performance in Canada. I just have to say, I listened to the podcast with Ryan Harris. What an absolutely amazing podcast. I just want to thank you for having Ryan Harris on. Great topic, really good good content smile and have gratitude love that just an outstanding show thank you so much for doing your podcast you um definitely

made a huge impact on my life so thank you guys keep on crushing it. Take care. Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And Adam Kato, CEO of Remax, coming to you with Start With A Win. Producer Mark, that was a really cool voicemail. Thank you for playing that. Yes, I know. It's always great when our listeners reach out and tell us that they're listening to the show, that they love the show. That was a fantastic episode. We had Ryan Harris on this summer. If you want to go back, listen to the episode,

it's called Discussing the Impact of Financial Literacy with Ryan Harris. So go check that episode out. Wow. And our lovely friend from Canada sharing her feelings on that. So that was really cool. Don't forget, you can leave us a voicemail, maybe featured on one of our future episodes of Start With a Win. We'd love to get your feedback. And it also tells us kind of what direction we need to go on things. So please, please don't hesitate to call Mark. Do you have a particular place they can go?

Well, you know, I always prefer they, they call eight, eight, eight, five, eight,

one, four, four, three, zero. That's the preferred number. Wow. And I can see you right now.

You just like rattled that off from memory. I say it all the time. So it's awesome. So, uh, Mark, we have, uh, we have a solo cast today, or actually a duo cast. It's you and I buddy. That's right. Which is, you know, mostly you. So it's a solo cast. Oh, you know we're gonna start with a win though but today i want to talk about ending with a win okay oh okay all right i like that because every every start to a win uh starts with an end whoa that's deep no it really didn't make any sense but that's cool we'll go with it all right yeah sounds. So here's the question though. I mean, did you get it done? Right. I asked that question the other day. I was, I did a video on Facebook and it was on a Friday,

but really, I mean, the question needs to be asked every day. Did you get it done? And we do, we never really start with a win. We don't end with a win and vice versa. And you're going to have challenges during the day. We're going to end up not having the time to complete things. But if you look back on your day, I guess the bigger question is, did you win? Right? Do you ever end the day, Mark, and you're like, oh, that was just a big loss? Yeah.

I felt that before. I'm sorry that I made you reflect on that, buddy. Hey, we all need to reflect on our losses, right? Well, you know what? Are they losses or are they learns? That's the question. Because we can always learn something from that. It's interesting because you look at like,

let's take going to school, for instance. Let's pretend we're students right now. And because life is an education, right? Yeah, the school of life, it's what you make of it. So you can go to school and you can learn and take something away. Or you can go to school and you can ignore and go, wow, that was a waste of time. So it's interesting when you look back and try and figure out what did I learn or did I ignore?

Did I just burn minutes and use up oxygen on this big blue ball in space that we're all occupying right now? Because it's a choice. And that's, you know, you talk about it in the roll-in, we all have choices. We have choices. And, you know, these choices are conscious decisions.

And ultimately, it boils down to our emotional maturity, what we make those decisions into and what decisions we make. So you hear it, you know, people say something to the effect of it's not the minutes you put in. It's what you put in the minutes, right? Yeah. So that's what I want to talk about today. Oh, I like that. It's not the minutes you put in. It's what you put in the minutes.

We need a meme that says that, Mark. All right. We're going to get it out there. On it. This is really interesting. And you know, when we talk about time, time is the most precious thing that we have, right? Yep. Just think about that. It's because you can, a lot of people are like, well, tell me how, but I mean, it's,

it's up to you to figure out how for yourself to go get more money because everybody has a different way of going and getting more money. That's the reality. Everybody's got a different way, but we all have the same way of going and getting more time. And think about that one. That one's kind of mind blowing there, but ultimately it's up to us to figure out a way to go get more time. And it's something that we all run out of at some point. And we all wish we had more of at some point. So let's talk about this. And I was listening to, you know, our friend Darren Hardy has Darren Daily, which is his daily video.

If you're not subscribed to it, go to DarrenDaily.com. Of course, make sure you're going to start with the win.com and subscribing as well. Once you've done that, then. Yes. But ultimately, he was talking about something called Parkinson's law. And Parkinson's law was an article written in The Economist, gosh, in like the 1940s or 50s or something like that, by a guy named Cyril Parkinson. So he writes this article. It was like a joke for the economist and it talked about like um you know growth and bureaucracy and an organization and things like that but but ultimately what he was trying to get across was

a project will use up all the time that you give it. So a lot of people take, you know, we talk about goals, we talk about starting with a win, whatever. If you gave yourself 24 hours to come up with a win, you would use all 24 hours to come up with that win. But if you give yourself the first 15 minutes of the day to come up with a win, you'll use those 15 minutes. Interesting. Isn't that a weird concept? Yeah. And it makes me think about back in college,

if I would have a report due, you'd get the report maybe a month before it was due, right? And then you would, at least for me, I would procrastinate until the night before and I would get it all done that night before. And then one time I actually decided to start the report at the beginning of the month. And it was a lot nicer to get that done. But it is interesting. When you give yourself not a lot of time, you can still get that report done. I wouldn't recommend it. I was talking to my, one of my daughters. So I have two daughters, Ashley and Maggie, and they're both in college.

And I was talking to one of them the other day, I was on a drive and I'm like, it's a good time to call my daughters. So, uh, we were talking about, and she goes, why this paper do? I'm going, oh, really? Okay. What are you going to write about? She goes, I don't know. I said, well, what did you do for homework since the last paper?

She goes, what do you mean? I said, that's what the professor wants you to talk about. And she goes, oh. I said, so really, when you end this paper, you begin your next. Because everything between the ending of this paper and the next paper being due is what you need to put in it. And she goes, really? I said, well, yeah. So go back and look at the syllabus and look at the outline of this paper that's due.

And then go look at all your homework assignments. And guess what? I bet you there's a chapter for every single one of them. And she did. She's like, I'll be. That's interesting. My dad was right. Yeah. What do you know? I mean, we get to be right every now and then as parents. But the reality is, if you begin doing something when you decide to do it instead of when it's due, you're absolutely right, Mark. You'll actually finish it way ahead of time if you give yourself a due date ahead of time. So I don't understand why,

but we have fallen into, in society, this philosophy of let's try and end instead of begin. So when is our goal? When is the goal for this? So let's, let's say that you want to lose weight. So of course, what's the best time to start that January or Monday, Monday or January 1st, whichever comes first. Right. So we, we start strong and then like by the end of the year, I mean, the reality is most people don't even write down their goals or let alone write down quarterly updates on those. But the fact of the matter is you stop doing things and then you try and cram them into the end of when they're due. So all you're doing between when you set that goal and when that goal is due is wasting

time. You're wasting time doing something else because I don't care who you are. Everybody's like, I due is wasting time. You're wasting time doing something else because I don't care who you are. Everybody's like, I don't have time. No, you choose not to have time. You choose not to have time because your emotional maturity is weak. It's weak.

So people who say, I don't have time, I'm sorry, I'm going to make an unpopular statement here, Mark, are emotionally immature. And if you want to find out more about emotional maturity, go back a few episodes and listen to the six keys to effective leadership with Adam, parts one and two. Whoa. Or if you want to throw a bag of garbage in his front yard, here's his address for calling you emotionally immature. The reality is our use of time is up to us. So when you look at, okay, Mark, we've been doing start with a win for a couple of years now, right? Over 100 episodes. Yeah. High five.

Virtual high five, my friend. Yeah, right there, buddy. And to the whole team, because I mean, this has taken a lot of people to put together. And I'm super appreciative to everybody, our social media team, Kayla. We've had stuff coming through from our writers and everybody at headquarters, things like that, as well as our listeners. You guys are so important. Why? Because we listen to you. We listen to you and what you say. And what we're talking about here is the fundamental framework of being successful. And that means that we're really cognizant of our time. Why? Again, because it's a resource that goes away. Literally, we run out of it. And there are not many things in life that we run out of, but time is the most valuable and is one

that is the most sure. The problem is we don't know when we're going to run out. So you're better to start with a win to go out and get things done on the front end with this instead of on the back end. And the best way to do that is to understand your enemies, your enemies, your enemy is Parkinson's law. And if we understand, we're going to try and stretch this project out to be as big as possible to fit all that time, we will get done rushing instead of getting done confident that we finished. And I'll tell you one thing. A lot of people have this enemy called perfection. This enemy called perfection, because that's what they rationalize as an excuse for this is why I'm still working on it. When done is better than perfect because get done and then find perfect because you can fine tune things after you're done, but you'll never get to fine tune

them if you're working them right up into the end. That's what I wanted to talk about today, Mark, ending with win. I think it's fantastic. And I think it's something that, you know, we all need to be thinking about, you know, like you said, time is fleeting. And if we're not cognizant and intentional with our time, we'll miss out on it. I have this great Chrome extension. It's called Motivation. And essentially, every time you open a new browser, it shows you your age. And then it has a quickly counting down or counting up clock. So you can kind of see the seconds of your life going by. And so I love that because it always just reminds me that whatever I'm doing, I should be intentional about it. And if I'm spending time with somebody, being present in that moment. But that this time is something

that is fleeting and that if you're not intentional with it, it'll just disappear on you. And nobody wants to wake up having regrets or feelings of regrets of letting all that time slip away. I love that. You want to hear a funny story? I do. So let me just ask you this. And I guess not necessarily a story, but an anecdote. Do you know when we get the most things done in our life? When, Adam? Right before we go on vacation, Mark. That is so true. It's so weird. I can get so much stuff. It's like, I don't want to have to think about any of this stuff. Let me crank all this stuff out. So, all right. So here's, here's the idea behind this. You should schedule like three vacations a year. Probably most people get three weeks off a year. Okay. The, the average working human full-time as an adult, you have

three weeks off a year, unless you're in like France and you get a month off or something like that. But you're supposed to schedule your vacations ahead of time. So go ahead and schedule and buy a plane ticket. And obviously if COVID or something rolls around, then you can change that. But if you schedule those things, you have a hard stop in life. Hard stop. And hopefully you schedule them where nobody can get in touch with you. Maybe you're going off the grid, you're going camping, you're going to, you know, out to the ocean, going to go sailing. I don't know what it,

maybe you're just going to go sit in the desert somewhere. I don't know. Or maybe you're going to go sit at your house, but don't be on the grid to work on your projects. And you will find that if you set all those things into motion, guess what? When you disappear, all your stuff is done. It's all done. It's like you have to switch out your closet before the snow falls in Colorado here. That's right. Winter clothes in there, put your summer clothes in the basement or wherever it is, but it just, it requires you to have a deadline. So keep, keep point in life, make a deadline, set that deadline. So you are done with everything and set it ahead of when you need it done. So

don't ever put your deadline for after your vacation, because then guess what? It ain't a vacation. It's a worry period where you're sitting there thinking about it and you're never going to be satisfied with your relaxation. So that's what I got for you today, buddy. That's awesome. Hey, so I want to start a new segment on the show where we allow people to call into our number. And if you forgot what that number it is, that number is it's 888-581-4430. Um, but I would, if you want to call in and leave us a message of your start with a wind story. Um, we recently had someone call in and leave us a message and, uh, it was very encouraging and inspiring. So i'm going to go ahead and leave with

that start with a win story i hope you guys enjoy it and um you know call in and leave your start with a win story so thank you so much adam and um let's go ahead and uh listen to that story from the uk here uh good job on the podcast i've been listening I thought you might like to hear my start with a win story I'm actually just back from a four mile run this morning and what's special about that you might say well this morning is day number

2058 where I've started my day with that win so five years, seven months, 19 days I think I start my day with at least a two-mile run and everything that goes with that gets the blood pumping, gets the ideas flowing, and it's really one of the things that I contribute to the success I'm having in business. So that's my start with a win story. Thanks for all you do. Keep it up. Bye.

Fantastic. Love it. Winning right there. That's right. All right. Well, Hey, thanks so much for listening to start with a win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question or tell us your start with a win story, give us a call and leave us a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go into itunes and subscribe write a review and rate the show for more great content head over to startwithawin.com

and follow adam on instagram facebook linkedin twitter and remember start with a win I'll see you next time.