Post by LDS Guru Girl on Mar 3, 2005 14:49:47 GMT -5
Today’s Opportunities
Greater and more accessible technology and information provide the average person today with vast opportunities for personal growth not available to rulers of nations a century ago. With those opportunities come responsibilities. President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “It is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others."1 The Lord instructs: “men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." (D&C 58:27-28)
Time is the defining divine gift of mortality. Brigham Young taught: "What have we? Our time. Spend it as you will. Time is given to you; and when this is spent to the best possible advantage for promoting truth upon the earth, it is placed to our account, and blessed are you; but when we spend our time in idleness and folly it will be placed against us."2 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states: "Time is the ultimate scarce resource we have...One of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested." Benjamin Franklin notes: "Lost time is never found again." Henry David Thoreau wrote: "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."
Only when we utilize our time in harmony with our divine potential are we fully living the gospel. Brigham Young stated: “The riches of a kingdom or nation do not consist so much in the fullness of its treasury as in the fertility of its soil and the industry of its people.”3 Unproductive people are preoccupied with what they do or do not have, while productive people are focused on what they create. Jim Rohn notes: "They who know how to employ opportunities will often find that they can create them; and what we can achieve depends less on the amount of time we possess than on the use we make of our time."
An individual’s service to society and eternal destiny depend primarily on choices of how to allocate time made over the course of a lifetime. Samuel Johnson wrote: "It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done."4 William Jennings Bryan stated: “Destiny is not a matter of chance--it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for--it a thing to be achieved.” Jim Rohn teaches: "Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals." An understanding of basic principles can help any individual to become significantly more productive.
Establishing Priorities
President Harold B. Lee taught that our first priority must be to ensure our personal physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, then that of our family, and then additional professional and church needs. King Benjamin states: “see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order” (Mosiah 4:27) Brigham Young stated: "We should commence our labors of love and kindness with the family to which we belong, and then extend them to others."5
Henry David Thoreau writes: “It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” We must not allow good things to crowd out essentials. Charles Buxton notes: “You will never 'find' time for anything. If you want time you must make it.” Those who neglect scripture reading, Sabbath day observance, and other essential gospel laws to devote time to personal goals experience false economy. Family time, scripture reading, and church involvement provide perspective and balance to the whole. David O. McKay stated: "All men who have moved the world have been men who would stand true to their conscience."6
Achieving Balance
The Preacher wrote: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). We can maintain high productivity even after we reach our capacity for a certain activity by alternating physical, mental, and spiritual exertion. Vladimir Lenin, while not admirable in other areas, described the secret of his untiring diligence: “luchshiy otdykh – smyena deyatelnosti” (“The best rest is a change of activity”).
Albert Einstein stated: "The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life." Jesus taught: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The Doctrine and Covenants teaches: "And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments. He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things" (D&C 93:27-28).
Reaching Personal Potential
Productive individuals do not base expectations for themselves on comparisons with others, but on the higher standard of personal potential. They have an inner drive to consistently do their best work and do not tolerate mediocrity. Rick Warren writes: "Success is bearing as much fruit as possible given your gifts, opportunities, and potential."7 Thomas S. Monson teaches: "Can we not appreciate that our very business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves? To break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we have never given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever -- this is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves."8
Vision and Goals
While productive individuals recognize the importance of clear planning and powerful goals, they do not allow nonproductive administrative tasks to consume a large proportion of their time. They recognize that motion alone does not equal progress, and that the world is full of busy people accomplishing little or nothing. They learn to quickly appreciate the scope of a challenge, anticipate and plan for problems, and establish appropriate goals and remain focused on them.
Jim Rohn notes: “Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to read, but more importantly, what's your plan to read?" Brian Tracy writes: "What does it take to succeed on a big scale? A tremendous god-given talent? Inherited wealth? A decade of postgraduate education? Connections with the top people in your field? Fortunately for most of us, what it takes is something very simple and accessible: clear, written goals. A study of Harvard graduates found that after 20 years, the 3% of them who had written goals achieved more financially than the other 97% combined! An average person with average talent, ambition and education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals." Confucius taught: "A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door."
Work Smart
Productive people continually strive to do their work as efficiently as possible without compromising quality. Jim Rohn states: "You can cut down a tree with a hammer, but it takes about 30 days. If you trade the hammer for an ax, you can cut it down in about 30 minutes. The difference between 30 days and 30 minutes is skills." Jerry Clark writes: “The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities. Therefore, it's important for you to concentrate your efforts on the 20% of the activities that will get you 80% of the results. Most people concentrate on the 80% of the activities that will get them only 20% of the results...You can file your product orders and clean out your desk after hours.”
Greater and more accessible technology and information provide the average person today with vast opportunities for personal growth not available to rulers of nations a century ago. With those opportunities come responsibilities. President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “It is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others."1 The Lord instructs: “men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." (D&C 58:27-28)
Time is the defining divine gift of mortality. Brigham Young taught: "What have we? Our time. Spend it as you will. Time is given to you; and when this is spent to the best possible advantage for promoting truth upon the earth, it is placed to our account, and blessed are you; but when we spend our time in idleness and folly it will be placed against us."2 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states: "Time is the ultimate scarce resource we have...One of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested." Benjamin Franklin notes: "Lost time is never found again." Henry David Thoreau wrote: "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."
Only when we utilize our time in harmony with our divine potential are we fully living the gospel. Brigham Young stated: “The riches of a kingdom or nation do not consist so much in the fullness of its treasury as in the fertility of its soil and the industry of its people.”3 Unproductive people are preoccupied with what they do or do not have, while productive people are focused on what they create. Jim Rohn notes: "They who know how to employ opportunities will often find that they can create them; and what we can achieve depends less on the amount of time we possess than on the use we make of our time."
An individual’s service to society and eternal destiny depend primarily on choices of how to allocate time made over the course of a lifetime. Samuel Johnson wrote: "It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done."4 William Jennings Bryan stated: “Destiny is not a matter of chance--it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for--it a thing to be achieved.” Jim Rohn teaches: "Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals." An understanding of basic principles can help any individual to become significantly more productive.
Establishing Priorities
President Harold B. Lee taught that our first priority must be to ensure our personal physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, then that of our family, and then additional professional and church needs. King Benjamin states: “see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order” (Mosiah 4:27) Brigham Young stated: "We should commence our labors of love and kindness with the family to which we belong, and then extend them to others."5
Henry David Thoreau writes: “It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” We must not allow good things to crowd out essentials. Charles Buxton notes: “You will never 'find' time for anything. If you want time you must make it.” Those who neglect scripture reading, Sabbath day observance, and other essential gospel laws to devote time to personal goals experience false economy. Family time, scripture reading, and church involvement provide perspective and balance to the whole. David O. McKay stated: "All men who have moved the world have been men who would stand true to their conscience."6
Achieving Balance
The Preacher wrote: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). We can maintain high productivity even after we reach our capacity for a certain activity by alternating physical, mental, and spiritual exertion. Vladimir Lenin, while not admirable in other areas, described the secret of his untiring diligence: “luchshiy otdykh – smyena deyatelnosti” (“The best rest is a change of activity”).
Albert Einstein stated: "The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life." Jesus taught: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The Doctrine and Covenants teaches: "And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments. He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things" (D&C 93:27-28).
Reaching Personal Potential
Productive individuals do not base expectations for themselves on comparisons with others, but on the higher standard of personal potential. They have an inner drive to consistently do their best work and do not tolerate mediocrity. Rick Warren writes: "Success is bearing as much fruit as possible given your gifts, opportunities, and potential."7 Thomas S. Monson teaches: "Can we not appreciate that our very business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves? To break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we have never given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever -- this is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves."8
Vision and Goals
While productive individuals recognize the importance of clear planning and powerful goals, they do not allow nonproductive administrative tasks to consume a large proportion of their time. They recognize that motion alone does not equal progress, and that the world is full of busy people accomplishing little or nothing. They learn to quickly appreciate the scope of a challenge, anticipate and plan for problems, and establish appropriate goals and remain focused on them.
Jim Rohn notes: “Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to read, but more importantly, what's your plan to read?" Brian Tracy writes: "What does it take to succeed on a big scale? A tremendous god-given talent? Inherited wealth? A decade of postgraduate education? Connections with the top people in your field? Fortunately for most of us, what it takes is something very simple and accessible: clear, written goals. A study of Harvard graduates found that after 20 years, the 3% of them who had written goals achieved more financially than the other 97% combined! An average person with average talent, ambition and education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals." Confucius taught: "A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door."
Work Smart
Productive people continually strive to do their work as efficiently as possible without compromising quality. Jim Rohn states: "You can cut down a tree with a hammer, but it takes about 30 days. If you trade the hammer for an ax, you can cut it down in about 30 minutes. The difference between 30 days and 30 minutes is skills." Jerry Clark writes: “The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities. Therefore, it's important for you to concentrate your efforts on the 20% of the activities that will get you 80% of the results. Most people concentrate on the 80% of the activities that will get them only 20% of the results...You can file your product orders and clean out your desk after hours.”