attitude

51. Be on time, don’t be late.

Seems obvious but it still seems to happen. This one is also in the realm of Tool 12, You never get a second chance at a first impression. But as I said, some stand the test of time for a reason. Here is the bottom line, when you are late and especially a chronically late person, it really says, I don’t give a damn. It says that it was not important enough to be on time. It says I had other things that were more important. It says I am more important. Bottom line is it is just plain rude. I am telling you this because that’s what it says to me and others.

Are people late on occasion for a VALID reason? Of course. But if this is one of your constant problems, fix it. I’ve noticed that people who are always late don’t mean to be, they just underestimate the time they need. A very simple solution is to figure out how late you usually are, say 10 to 15 minutes. Then just add that to the beginning of when you would get started for work or an event, anything. When you start to be the first one to arrive, people notice. In addition, there are benefits to being on time. A better seat, first dibs at the muffins, but most importantly, you are not rushing and the translation to people is that you are dependable and respect their time.

Remember we are trying to use these Tools to help us reach our goals. If you are constantly showing up late to the starting gate, then you will always be starting the race from behind. Life is hard enough that you don’t want to do things that will handicap yourself. I think this ties in well with Tool 29, 211 vs. 212, meaning you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to reach successes and hit new highs in your life. You only need to turn up the effort a little bit. And since most people when late are usually late by only 5 to 10 minutes (hopefully), then the extra amount of effort that needs to be applied is minimal. It can be remedied by knowing that you are late on occasion, how late you usually are, and adjusting accordingly.

If you really want to get crazy, just be super early every time by a half hour or more, then have something you can be doing when you get there. You could read a book, review your blueprint, go over your wins, take time to think, or even keep a journal. Notice you have just made time for other areas of self improvement. The bottom line is the effort is minimal and it can only happen if you choose to make it happen.

99. To eat an elephant, you cut it into little pieces.

This Tool has been described before in many different fashions. Another version you might recognize is, “The Journey of a 1000 miles begins with one single step.” The affirmation I use to help me remember this crucial lesson of life is, “Tomorrow’s results start today.” I think the most important point to understand regardless of how you come to understand it is that the goals we hope to achieve take many little steps and pieces to achieve them. And when all those steps and pieces are put together, they will add up to that distance or become enough pieces to build the like of a giant.

With regard to the system in this book, remember we are building a home that represents our life. This home takes time to build and for many of you it has never gotten off the ground because you were never given plans on how to build it. Step by step the process goes. We decide what kind of custom home we want to build and where we want to build it. Then we work on our foundation, also known as our mission statement. Then we understand the time it will take (21 days) and that we must re-inspect areas before we can move on to the next. We keep in mind long-term goals for the house in our Roman numeral section. We have our goals we are building right now in the S.A.N.E. section, and finally we need to pick Tools that provide us with the greatest likelihood that the project can be built without a hitch.

This Tool can be a little misleading. Remember, there is no end to our journey. We will never arrive at our destination and then have all our work behind us. No matter how many pieces you cut the elephant into, there will always be a section to work on. This is no different than our home, no different from our life.

Reminding ourselves that we need to take steps to build our life and that our life always requires building provides us with two important lessons. First, working on our life is a daily process and when we work on it daily and don’t take days off, it will most likely resemble what we want it to look like. Second, the building process is always ongoing, so while it feels like you are always working to try and stay ahead, you kinda are. As mentioned before, no secrets, no drugs, no shortcuts, life requires daily work; the key is working smart combined with working hard.