Make Time – Not Excuses

Make Time – Not Excuses!

“If you don’t have time to do it right when will you have time to do it over”? This quote is attributed to John Wooden legendary NCAA basketball coach. He taught his players that success extends well beyond the scoreboard.

Here is another helpful John Wooden quote, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

Let’s face it, you don’t have enough time in a day to do all things you need to do. Since you can’t add an extra hour to every day, you need to make the most of the time you do have. If we allow ourselves to combine these two John Wooden quotes, a new philosophy emerges.

Make time to do little things right so you can reach your goals.

When we look at successful people, we are tuned in on the outcome of their success. We rarely stop to reflect on what habits they followed to build their success.

Successful people seem to be wired different. The good news is we can learn from their habits, mindsets and behaviors.

Here are three habits successful people like Jeff Bezos and President Donald Trump follow.

Number One – They wake up early.

Many Successful people wake up early. Between 4:00am and 5 am The following early birds are up, have gotten a workout in, and have the day well underway before many of us wake up:

• Scott Adams – Creator of Dilbert
• General Stanley McChrystal
• Caroline Burckle US Olympic Bronze Medalist
• Bob Ferguson Attorney General Washington State

Number Two – They read books

For some of us, leisure time is spent in front of the Television. Reading is often attributed as being one of the keys to the success of these individuals who you may recognize:

• Warren Buffet – CEO Berkshire Hathaway Reads 5 to 6 hours per day
• Bill Gates – At the peak was reading one book per week
• Mark Cuban – Reads 3 hours per day
• Elon Musk – Read up to 10 hours per day in his youth

Number Three – They learn from their mistakes

Failure doesn’t have to be permanent. It also doesn’t have to mean the end of your dreams.

Here is a list of some successful people who overcame setbacks.

• Steve Jobs – Jobs was booted from the company he founded only to be invited back years later. He led Apple to become one of the most successful companies in the world.
• James Dyson – He went through over 5000 failed prototypes before he found a solution. He now has a net worth of over $5 billion
• Stephen King – His first novel Carrie was rejected by 30 publishers before it got published. It went on to sell 1 million copies the first year of its release
• Walt Disney – The young Disney was fired from a newspaper for not being creative enough. He was accused of not having any good ideas. As we now know, Walt Disney might be the most creative and imaginative business person of his time and his legacy is alive and well.

To summarize we can learn a lot from both the success and failures of others. It is up to us if we decide to adopt some of their habits and make them our own. It seems evident that making time to become better and gain more knowledge has a direct outcome on success.

Perhaps it’s time to shift from binge watching TV to reading books or magazines. It may be time to wake up early, instead of staying up late. Rise and shine there is a world to conquer out there.