Blackberry This: But Not In A Seminar

I have the fortune to have been provided over 46 credited hours of Time Management training at some of the top learning institutes in the country along with 31 years of application and training of Time Management and all of its positive attributes.

Enough said on why I can talk about this subject.

Now let me talk about why I am talking about this subject.

For the last 10 years there has been a real decline in people, both non-business and business people, who have taken the managing of TIME to a disrespectful level. And the disrespect comes from some people feeling that texting on the cellphone or Blackberry while in a seminar on learning how to manage their time is managing their time.

So what is the problem that is requiring people to have to manage their time to such extremes?  If you ask them they will tell you they have too much to do.  Too much WHAT?  Doing things that are a waste of time.  The problem starts when the people take on too much personally and professionally.  They want to be good parents and get their kids involved in every thing the kids want to do, plus a few the parents want them to do.  And on the business side of things they set an unreasonable goal of making some out of reach amount of money in a short time frame that only winning the lotto or the power ball would get close to accomplishing.

I’ll go down the parenting trap side of time wasted.  I am a big supporter of getting kids off the streets, out from in front of the X-Boxes, out of tattoo parlors and off MySpace.com and get these kids involved in something that will generate their ability to live long enough to get enough experience to rebut me on this thread.  But, parents have to make a decision on what and how much.  And, even limit that if they are going to take on a job.  That is the answer to the problem, but why.

I few years ago I was playing golf with a friend who asked me to help him figure out were he is wasting time so he could get out on the golf course more.  I remember that during the round my friend would stop and pull out his Blackberry to review emails.  He had five kids (at the insistence of his wife) he was trying to keep up with.  His wife held several degrees in something that would make her a million dollars and she wanted to continue the search for the buck.  He, also was every educated and trained for the business world, was somewhat successful, but had a 10 year plan that was in its 8^th year towards retiring at 45 and was several million dollars from his goal.  They had the housekeepers (that they would have to hire and fire about three times a year) and the nanny (that they would have to hire and fire about three times a year).. I think you see a pattern here.   

He had to keep in touch with his kids through Blackberry, cellphone and one of his teenagers with GPS locators.   He has two in soccer, one in ballet, one in martial arts and twins who will not get out from in front of the X-Box any longer that what it takes to get online to find out the latest tattoo design they want to get, the knurliest new piercing they are going to get, and where everyone in the MySpace.com is going to gather after school.   His wife is also online with him and the kids from wherever she is in the world. So, if he misses an email he might loose track on who, what and when.   But I am sure you have met someone like this if you are not like my friend.

Simply put, there is way too much pressure placed on people to meet some sort of standard of living that someone placed way back when, say 50 years ago when Color TV came out and Hollywood established a life style only about .0001% of the population can live.  But made everyone think that if they did not live at this standard they were not WORTHY.   And, yes, I, like the other 99.9999% of the population, am guilty of pursing that live style.  Hell, I live in Dallas for Pete’s sakes…

But I digress..  What has to be done and is what I did about 10 years ago was to look up the definition of the word, and started using the word, NO.  I said NO to my kids, they can’t join too many activities because if they want to live where they are living, I and their mother had to work.   So they could only join activities that were self sufficient or fit into the family scheduled.  I said No to work.  I did not take on the assignments that the bosses where handing down that were the result of bad management or the company’s greed to layoff people and make the remaining workforce do three people’s job.  I said NO to a lot of things until I got to where I was doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.   And I did it still taking my kids to activities to keep them off the streets and moving up the ladder of the corporate world.  And play golf and take golf trips. 

I advised my friend what he had to do and it was going to be hard, but if he wanted to remain sane he had to attempt do it.

I saw my friend on the golf course last week.  I caught up to him in the grill for a drink to see where he is and he jump right into telling me that since he started using the word NO, he has started his own business, did some wheeling and dealing to get his family set up in a huge home that is nearly paid for, his wife also started using the word NO at work and was placed in a position where she works out of the house and still draws down the bucks.  His kids are now doing just one activity they got to choose, the tattooed twins finally saw their mistakes after getting an infection from one of the premier tattoo parlors and are now in college playing on the golf teams with full scholarships.  And, more importantly, my friend has dropped five strokes on his handicap. 

Yes, he still has the Blackberry, cellphone and GPS, but they are in the office or his golf bag in off position and are only used to call the clubhouse to have the beverage cart meet him with his favorite beverage.  

I am not taking the credit for making this change because my friend knew what he had to do before he did it.   The fact is everyone needs to look at what they are spending their time doing and the time they wasting doing something that someone else should be doing.  Don’t waste your life thinking that if you are not on your Blackberry with your Boss all day long he is going to fire you for not being worthy.  And don’t put your kids into everything so they can get looked at as being cool or that allows you to live vicariously through them.  Cut it all out; say NO to the boss on doing stuff that takes more than 6 hours a day to do.  If he can’t live with it he/she will soon learn that he/she is going to have to learn NO if they want to keep good people and stay in business.  Too many bosses are using 1940’s methods of managing by intimidation will be forced to go out of business or change to hire the appropriate number of people to produce a quality product or service.  Over committing to everything is what is casing the pagers and the cellphones to go off in my seminars and on the golf course and in order to hear what is needed to change all of this people are going to have to learn how to manage their time so they can hear what others have to say to help them live a better life.  So, Blackberry this…turn off the Blackberry!

 

 

 

Scot Duke

President

Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC.

scot.duke@innovativebusinessgolf.com

www.innovativebusinessgolf.com