Your the Pilot of Your Time

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." --Michael Altshuler

It occurred to me this week that the year 2000 does not seem that long ago. It has been more the twelve years since that crazy New Years Day party. I ponder about how fast time is moving as I get older. I wonder if my body mass makes my place in timespace a bit faster; a bit heavier. I wonder if children perceive time slower because they are younger or because they are just smaller. Do we naturally speed up as we get older because we become more dense? I don't know. It is an interesting concept.

Are you in control of your time? Think about it. Do you know where all your time goes? If you don't, maybe you should sit down and create a time budget. You should know what is happening to all of your time. Are you spending it all at work or in bed or on the couch in front of a television or video game system? Is that where you truly want to spend that amount of time? If it is not, then you have the power to make changes to the management of your time.

I like anything that Dave Ramsey does. If you don't know who he is, run over to his website and download his free podcast. He teaches you how to be smart with your money. I like to take his philosophy with money and focus it on my time. You should budget your time before you spend any of it. Know what you have to do and plan out every minute that way you are not sitting idle trying to figure out what you should be doing. If you can do this, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Go Ahead and Do It

"If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission." - Admiral Grace Hopper

This quote almost feels like bad advice. But upon second look, I don't think that it is. The admiral is telling you that if faced with a choice of making a decision to do something without permission, if it is a good idea, then you should go ahead and do it. It is better to take the chance of being wrong than to miss an opportunity when you can grasp it.

I think this quote is great advice for leaders. It is something that anyone in management is faced with on a regular basis. If you are left in charge, you will have to make decisions without the leadership of your superiors. That is why they gave you a management roll.

I work retail and I am in charge of a crew who stocks shelves. I often have to decide what to do with stock that comes in that we don't have space for in the normal spots. Sometimes this will lead me to make a special display for upcoming sales just to get the stock out of the stockroom. Now I make these decisions knowing that my boss may come in the next morning and tell me to take down what I have taken the time to put together. Sometimes I fins that my work is for nothing. But, other times the work is noticed and appreciated and it leaves my stockroom clean and empty, just the way it is supposed to be.

When the Admiral made this statement, I wonder how many of his decisions without permissions dealt with the life and death of his soldiers. I don't know if I could make those kinds of decisions. It takes a stronger man that me to put someone's life at risk to do a particular job. That is why he is a Military Admiral and I am a Retail Manager.