Work like there's no tomorrow. Train. Strive. I mean, really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it's books or a floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it's yours. That's what I've always tried to remember.– Michael Jackson
This past week, I’d stumbled upon some different bits of video footage of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Whatever you think of him personally or politically, most people would agree that his is the quintessential American success story. He was someone that had dreams that were bigger than the station in life he was born into. It was through his hard work, fortitude and perseverance that he was able to reach his goals. It’s the spirit of the American Dream.
In one particular video, Arnold was giving the commencement address at the University of Southern California. Since people were always asking him the secret of his success, he decided to share it with the graduates, condensing it into six steps. If you want to know what those steps are, check ‘em out on You Tube. What gave me pause were his comments on time. From his perspective, most people waste it, which is one of the reasons why they aren’t successful.
This is my plan. When I'm in the studio making a hit record, I'm not trying to make a hit record; I'm making one. This is what I studied. This is why I stay up twenty hours a day. – Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
"Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!" - Anthony Robbins
We are all given the same 24 hours a day. If you are interested in pursuing success, his suggestion is to sleep six hours and work the other eighteen in support of your goals. Hmmm…sleep only 6 hours?
Would that work?
Well yes. Right now, that's about the amount of time I am sleeping. Alright, alright, it’s about 5 hours per night. So then the question becomes, what in the hell am I doing with the 18 or 19 hours I'm awake?
Don't sleep too much. If you sleep 3 hours less each night for a year, you will have an extra month and a half to succeed in. – Aristotle Onassis
Recently, in a effort to get a portion of a project done, I'd taken a brief (1 week) Facebook sabbatical, but I was still on Twitter and still watching TV. I wasn't as focused as I would have liked. I completed the piece, I'm just sure that without TV and Twitter, I would've finished faster, which meant that I would have been able to move on to the next phase of my project that much quicker.
The poor, the unsuccessful, the unhappy, the unhealthy are the ones who use the word tomorrow the most. -Robert Kiyosaki
I know that as sure as the sun sets each day, one day it will be my last day on earth. I don’t say that to be morbid, but death is inevitable. Maybe all this wasting time, it’s just my way of not really dealing with that irrevocable fact. If I keep filling my days with distractions, perhaps I can sleepwalk my way to the grave, without any further possibility of failure. Eventually, I’ll be able to convince myself that my pursuit-my heart’s desire -is just too big of a mountain to climb. I’m too old, I’m a mother, I have responsibilities. It’s a writing project, so I need quiet, I need to free my imagination, I need to commit and pour my whole self fully into this. Do you know how scary that could be? To unleash 100% Shayla??? What if it doesn’t work? What if it’s horrible? What if I don’t have what it takes? The possibilities for reasons to just give in to the darkness are abso-fucking-lutely limitless.
However, quitting isn’t an option: There’s the remote possibility that I do have what it takes. So I guess I’ll just have to make better use of my 18 hours.
Six hours sleep for a man, seven for a woman and eight for a fool. – Napoleon Bonaparte
