Written by Arthur J. Rutledge, Executive Contributor
Arthur J. Rutledge is a mindset and leadership speaker, coach, and trainer. He helps people to beam with their dreams and how to put fire on their desires. Best selling Author of the new book "11 Pillars of Confidence" published by the L.A. Tribune. Also an entrepreneur and co-founder of www.peoplesprideshoes.com.
Time isn’t in flux. Usually, we are in flux or at least out of rhythm with Father Time when it comes to being effective in what we are producing in life. How much are you completing your dreams, or are you complaining about how little time you have?
Learning how to maximize your time is an art as well as a skill. Sometimes, we can say things are impossible, but normally, the verdict is that they are untried.
“Knowledge is the treasure, but practice is the key to it.” – Lao Tzu
I was shoddy with acting on deadlines on projects, and my procrastination started getting me into problems. My priorities were in a jumble due to a lack of motivation and/or interest. Later in life, this trapped me in a state of taking for granted my time, friends, family, and business. The time at my disposal never seemed enough, and my excuses had created their own life and felt insurmountable.
Bringing the right set of Disciplines to correct what I call “Priority Deficiency Disorder” (PDD) will get you in a cohesive rhythm for the things you want to accomplish for yourself.
Below are 5 guidelines to step away from misaligned intentions while renewing integrity for the things that would satisfy us but might not have been completely true with what’s in our hearts.
5 priorities and principles to put you on the right track to effectiveness
Decisiveness
“You’re either moving people to decisions or they’re moving you.” – John Mason
Put your name on your dream. That’s a stamp of self-approval and places you on the path of self-discipline. Slow down the process to deliver the best results in life. Often, we are in such a rush that we can forget our why. Picture yourself arriving at a specific crossroad, but the light is never green: as a matter of fact, you are not sure how to cross because it’s stuck on yellow. Frustrating right? You think to yourself, “How should I proceed in this direction?” or even “Why.” You’re expecting it to turn red, right now. You’re expecting it to turn green; you just don’t know when. There is a certain type of stuck for not taking trusting an outcome that seemingly out of reach. That leap of faith comes from getting good at being committed to where you are going. We wait for what we want and become stuck and because we are not clear; once we embrace and embody our why it loosens and releases our stuck. Once we know our why, the how becomes easier. Don’t get caught in the middle of the road. Don’t stay in a red or yellow light mentally. Famous actor and now author of “Greenlights” Matthew McConaughey would say life is recognizing the go before the green light. They do it before we know. We have all seen what he has accomplished.
Go for green, and never mind any light in your life that makes you second guess yourself. Green is for growth. It is also important to remember that as you go green, saying no enables you to prioritize and create the time to get the important things done. Commit to decisiveness.
Trust
“Self-trust is the song to remember that my self-talk should be true to myself and to be true to others.” You have a distinct melody inside of you. It’s the divine that gave you the ability to find context in every motion that makes up your song. We all have songs that we like, whether musically, spiritually, financially, physically, mentally, socially, or relationally. The question is whether we are in sync with ourselves when it comes to this type of rhythm; having an understanding is essential to being aware of our self-belief.
When we are not in flow with who we are we throw any type of trust to the wind. There is a Universal Law called the Law of Rhythm that states each rhythm establishes seasons, cycles, patterns, and stages of development. When we are actively conscious, rhythm crystallizes into habits. If we are not practiced in our critical and/or creative thinking, that same rhythm becomes a part of our environment. Trust is the key element to effectively accomplishing worthwhile goals and anything else that places its undivided attention on. Where attention goes, energy flows.
Create a process that you trust and the song that you sing will be endless.
Integrity
Integrity is the characteristic that is least remembered in feeling fulfilled in our accomplishments and unfulfilled when we meet our desires. Instead of putting things off as we sometimes do with our goals, remember that the best time to do anything is now. The two times of the year that we find our memory jogged on the things we did not follow on is when we are coming into autumn and in the beginning of the year, after New Year’s. Traditionally, throughout history, we know the fall is when we reap what we sow. The harvest is either drought or plentiful. We instantly want to make good what didn’t connect for us during the year: the last mile so to speak to do something significant to end the year strong.
“We don’t lack strength, we lack will.”– Victor Hugo.
The will to do something is diminished when our intention is lacking. Formally called the Law of diminished intention. The longer we procrastinate on the “apple of our eye” the more that apple rots. Therefore, our why constantly gets to have the attention it deserves. Without setting clear intention before the actual time, we decide to pursue what we want to accomplish, we come up short like how we treat our New Year’s resolutions. If you were like me, I would have gotten halfway through my intentions, and then my efforts would have diminished. Keeping our word to ourselves is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you are not committed to the cause, the cause will leave you unproductive and unengaged. The remedy is simple: forgive what you didn’t complete and set new daily obtainable tasks to ignite your ultimate goals. You are over the narrative of your life. Discipline your actions by delivering on your inner commitments.
P.S. Just in case you are stuck in a repetitive loop of not getting things done like you can, it wouldn’t hurt to find an accountability partner as a plan B or a mindset coach as a plan B/C. Showing up as a person in excellence will bring the star out in you.
Evaluation
Out of these 5 principles, evaluation of situations and experiences is the greatest tool, not just in the toolbox but in the shed that will keep your goals realistic, resilient, and reachable. It’s the perfect matrix of keeping on track as you run through the obstacle course of life. It’s the big E that’s paramount for coaches and mentors that want to get peak performance out of people that are ready to bring out their future winner. If you want to measure in real-time and drive awareness of how you got from point A for assertiveness and B for beyond, it takes imagination and skillfulness to know what in the process works for you, doesn’t work for you, and what you get to add to improve on a daily basis. Writing these key elements after completing your days leading into weeks will in turn become your biggest assist as these assets put you in the winner’s box.
The evaluation of yourself and your place in the world is not a comparison game. It’s a game of being agile as you make the necessary adjustments to improve your way of life. Neither is this a place to feel the need to validate who you are becoming in this season. Self-value doesn’t need other’s validation. It reinserts pride in what you are pursuing and acknowledges that you can get in done. When we establish ourselves as priceless, our thoughts will start to validate our worth and instantaneously go from feelings of being irrelevant to the knowledge that we are irreplaceable. Gaining introspection and perspective takes practice. Prepare your position in life by empowering your process.
Delegation
When we have practiced these 4 other principles above, it helps us to attract others to make an impact in the world. Whatever we make important of a priority, our endeavors go from micro to macro intention. Being deliberate in our pursuits inspires people with expertise that is sometimes different from our own and can take on a shape of its own. We, as one person, although unique, are not physically or mentally able to take on everything at one time.
Albert Einstein asserted that “the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Even though we may or may not have grown up with the notion that we can handle everything ourselves the truth is we can if we have a little help. Collaboration through a like-minded community makes a dream have the most impact, leading to success. We have methods in place to ensure that we become effective in assessing our strengths and shortcomings. The honesty that it takes to put yourself in that type of coveted seating that is usually reserved for trusted leadership. It takes discernment to shuffle our sensibilities. This is easy to do when people trust themselves to let go of things that are out of their control and allot the space for creative organization. Not everything is meant to happen all at once. Learning is growing, and growing is being generous to ourselves and maximizing others, which puts altitude to our gratitude. These are the quintessential actions to the development of manifesting your vision quest.
We have covered in detail what it takes to be true to your priorities. I’d like to add a few tools that you may or may not already know.
The 6 times 1 leadership principles are a reminder that there are 312 hours a year of practice, which will enable you to accomplish anything you desire to be competent in.
Others that have worked for me and I coach persons on are:
Eisenhower matrix
Pomodoro technique
Parkinson's law
In conclusion, the children who get ahead in life are the ones who learn how to share and accept delayed gratification. Both need communication and a community to relay a strong vision to achieve the best. Shine on!
Read more from Arthur J. Rutledge
Arthur J. Rutledge, Author/mindset and leadership speaker/coach
Arthur J. Rutledge is a thought leader with an unwavering mission to enhance, cultivate, and empower over a million leaders to fulfill their pure potential in life. Starting from a young age, his love for people became fundamental and sparked his passion for giving back by supporting people in their personal growth. 2024 marked the fruition of that endured vision with the new book " 11 Pillars of Confidence, build and Lead an Empowered You." He is also an entrepreneur, owner of Kap Group Events NYC, and co-founder of the online store www.peoplesprideshoes.com. His abetment in life is to continue helping people to reinvent and reinforce the vertical mindset, the words he is known to say as an encouragement to all, "Shine on!"
