In preparing for tomorrow’s challenges, we need to be mindful of how we manage ourselves on a daily basis. Business is concerned with the wise management of six kinds of resources: money, manpower, machinery, methods, information, and time.
In Maximizing Our Resources through effective self-management, we are concerned about two unique personal resources: Time and Potential. We need to be mindful of our responsibility towards these two unique resources, for how we use it will determine our performance and quality in life.
TIME. Regardless of our age and social status, we will receive the same amount of time each day – 24 hours or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds a day and seven days a week – no more and no less. Don’t you think God is fair?
Time, the invisible resource, is unique, because it is finite. There is only so much of it, and no matter what we do, we cannot get more. It cannot be speeded up or slowed down. Time is the only resource that must be spent the instant it is received. Re Think to reflect how have we spending our time? Are we maximizing the use of it or abusing it?
I trust we are now embracing the new philosophy that Time is Life! The urgency of things happening during the day act on us and we can be caught busy reacting to it, fire fighting activities. However, urgency does not contribute towards our goal or purpose in life.
We are paid for our value and not our time. If we are paid for our time, then all of us will be paid the same for the number of hours we contribute. But that is not the reality right? ‘Paid for’ and ‘Reward for’ are two separate issues. “Paid for” refers to monetary or material things. But “Reward for” our value, we will expand our vision on the rewards we are receiving now. The reward could be from another person or source; it may not be now but sometime along our journey of life. Do explore and focus more of the psychological rewards. When we continue to upgrade our value, we will be maximizing our potential which will boost our self-esteem and build a positive self-image.
We need to focus on matters that are of importance which contribute towards the achievement of our goals or purpose for the day and ultimately our life. If we are maximizing the use of our time, we are maximizing our life.
POTENTIAL. Everyone of us is a lovable and capable person. I believe that everyone of us have the same potential and what’s humanly possible. We must adopt the attitude that “I am possible” as well. However, this does not mean that I will be the next PM, a Scientist, Doctor, Accountant and so on.
I am not questioning our reasons as to why we can’t be one of the above than we can, but I would like to encourage us to adopt the possibility attitude by examining our philosophy. Whether we will be will or not depends on how we maximize our potential and this is based on our core values and our priorities in life.
What I have been emphasizing in the learning program is that “Psychological” limitation is more powerful than “Physical” limitation. So, it all starts with our philosophy towards our potential which moves us into action and help us get the results we are getting. To change our results, we need to refine our philosophy by moving from mindset to mind growth by putting in thoughts that are powerful, inspiring, uplifting and positive at all time. Someone once says that the saddest thing during a funeral is not the death of a person, but the death of a person’s potential. Do you agree with this statement?
To prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead and to continuously renew our performance through transformation, we need more than just job-function skills, we need to develop the critical self-management skills.
Different authors and speakers would define self-management differently and I would like to reinforce the definition based on “Creating Positive Change” and “Positive Work Culture” learning program. Self-management is the process of making Conscious Choices in Maximizing our Resources through life-long learning to realize our worthy goals based on a sound Philosophy system.
PHILOSOPHY. Managing oneself is not something that we do only once or occasionally. It is a process of engaging ourselves in reviewing all aspects of our life based on a sound philosophy system.
Our core values are part of our life’s philosophy system and I trust that we have come up with a personal value with clarifying statement. Here is another opportunity for us to reassess our Life Balance and Life Satisfaction. Embrace Positive Philosophy to Transform our Performance and to Increase our Life Satisfaction Level.
CHANGE. Change today is no longer a choice; it is a reality that every individual and organization need to face and embrace. For the past ten years, major and significant changes occurring in the economic, social and technological environment have dramatically altered the workplace environment and how a giant company especially Telekom Malaysia, my former employer and the workforce need to perform.
We all need to be mindful of the speed, intensity and scope of the changes that goes on around us. If we are not prepared for all these changes, we can be impacted mentally and emotionally which may left us confused, stressful, fearful and sometime resentful to the changes that took place. This will result in the deterioration of our life’s philosophy towards change and thus affect our performance and quality of life.
Take time to examine our philosophy towards changes that are happening around us. Are we responding with a Positive attitude or we are reacting with a negative attitude? Are we embracing change or we are resisting the change? This requires an internal change in renewing our philosophy towards change and the people and events around us.
Thank you for spending your precious time to read this article of mine and of which I gained from various readings. Read more to gain more knowledge. It’s good impact will be on us the individuals as well as our community.
Fabian George Juis
9 October 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment