FCB #026: Anti-Time Management: The Art of Living Now

"There Is No 10-Year Plan. I Might Be Dead By Then. It Is Now or Never!"

Starting Over

One month from today, I will turn 71. God only gives us so many years to live on this planet. How many years do I have left to live? I don't know. Maybe 10-15 on the inside. Maybe 25-35 on the absolute outside.

Hopefully I have 15-25 years left. But, realistically, how many of those will see me truly functioning well -- physically and mentally? Let's be honest, there are, at best, probably 10-15 "good years" left for me. So, why am I sharing this?

Well, last week I gave myself permission to take a break from posting on LinkedIn every day. I'd been doing it pretty religiously since January 1st. In those 252 days I had posted 319 times; had 210,363 impressions, 4,059 likes, 1,925 comments, and 131 shares; and gained 3,048 followers and 2,792 connections.

I facilitated two strategic planning retreats -- one in Chicago and one in Orlando. And I coached a young MAI-designated appraiser wanting to build his own team within one of the largest appraisal firms in the U.S.

Was it worth all the effort and cost? Candidly, No, it was not. I did not get the level of engagement I was hoping for. And I am not willing to continue to put in the level of time and effort needed to get the engagement I was hoping for.

My target market is small business owners who are struggling and would like to find a better way to run their businesses so they can have a life. Candidly, they don't seem interested in what I have to offer, and that's all right. God bless them!

So, I'm starting over...

Building a Business Around My Life

I'm no longer going to subject myself to the LinkedIn Content Creator Echo Chamber. I am not going to be posting every day. I'm going to live my life -- what little I have left of it.

I will probably still build some online courses for those small business owners that may be interested:

• How to Systemize & Automate Your Business
• How to Grow & Scale Your Business Through Outsourcing
• How to Implement Professional Management Into Your Business
• How to Implement a Strategic Planning Process & Meeting Rhythm

But I am off the daily LinkedIn posting treadmill. I just can't do it anymore.

While I DO want to start up a new and totally different online business, and be successful at it, I don't want it to dominate my life like my appraisal business did.

I want it to be successful but the only way it will truly be successful is if I can build it with only a part-time effort without sacrificing my personal life in the process. That has not been the case this last 8 months.

My vision is for more non-work "free" time to pursue reading, cooking, shopping, exercising, walking, biking, hiking, skiing, shooting pool, RVing, travel, meet ups with friends, church, fellowship, worship, mind work, relationships, friendships, self-care, doctors' appointments, tests, nutrition, vitamins, swimming, calls to friends and family, vacations with friends, family, and myself.

THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE!

Anti-Time Management, the Book

I'm reading a great book right now titled "Anti-Time Management: Reclaim Your Time and Revolutionize Your Results with the Power of Time Tipping" by Richie Norton.

I'm only on page 77 of 276 pages, but I will share some very poignant epiphony "phrases" or "statements" that have been very meaningful for me at this stage of my life.

Enjoy!

• Live Without Regret.
• Live to Start. Start to Live.
• TIME = Today Is My Everything
• The value-driven, time-centered life.
• Organizing life around your priorities.
• You can make your work commitments support your personal ones.
• Your personal life doesn't have to be sacrificed on the altar of your work.
• Scalability inherently requires your functional ability not to be a bottleneck.
• Good things happen not by managing time but by prioritizing attention.
• You don't have to work toward your dreams when you work from them.
• Strategy is in the head. Tactics are in the hands. Results are in the heart.
• Sometimes people fill their newfound free time with more work. :-)
• Your choices can either multiply or divide your available time.
• Are you shapening pencils, or are you creating art?
• Freedom is knowing you can work when you want.
• We first create in the mind and then in the world.
• Stop managing time. Start making meaning.
• Beware of liberating yourself into captivity.
• Make dreams. Don't chase dreams.
• Making > Chasing

Conclusion

So, I am no longer going to sacrifice my life on the altar of daily LinkedIn posting.

I will continue publishing my weekly newsletters (see important note below).

And I will probably create some neat online courses for small business owners who are struggling and would like to get free from the prison they've created for themselves with their dysfunctional businesses.

I will probably post on LinkedIn from time to time. We'll see...

Stay tuned...