PART 2 in the SERIES “Open and Closed Hand Living’ (part 1 – here)
To be honest, I feel like I have had enough ‘principles’ and ‘keys’ to successful living to last me a life-time. Actually, I feel like I have them coming out of my YING YANG.
Here is a principle for you about ‘keys’…. THEY DON’T WORK.
All they do is increase my guilt!
Picture these scenarios…
- You are in a meeting, it’s running late and you promised your daughter you would watch her play basketball. You missed the last two games. You know you won’t make this one either.
- You haven’t dated your wife since last month but you really want to nail that last level of Halo 2
- You duck out of putting your four year old to bed because you are working on the company accounts
- You are spending lots of time with your buddies while your wife sits at home watching “Wife Swap” on TV
- You have never been able to find the time to successfully ‘date’ your daughter
For many Dads some of these scenarios are realities.
Perhaps one of these scenarios doesn’t fit you specifically but you KNOW that you are not managing your time effectively. You are sacrificing your marriage, kids and perhaps work on an altar that fits squarely within a closed hand.
SO you get the latest book to help you strategically manage your time. Garbage. You’ll be back to your old ways before you can say “Useless Time Management Principles for the Modern Dad”
Therefore…
I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU A SERIES OF ‘KEYS’ OR ‘PRINCIPLES’ TO HELP YOU SOLVE YOUR CRISIS.
So there.
I have been married for 16 years and have four kids. Here is what I realize about myself. My time management issues, my prioriy issues are actually VALUE issues in disguise – not practical, principle based issues.
My time management is dictated by my values. Pure and Simple.
Now, look at those scenarios listed at the beginning again. Identify which values are being revealed. For example, the first scenario tells me that the value being ‘chased’ is that of work, perhaps making money, perhaps it’s promotion, perhaps it kudos, perhaps its fear (of being fired). See what I mean? Sounds tough but it’s sometimes true – right?
If the highest value was that of relationship, family and leaving a legacy - we would be at that game cheering our kids on!
Right?
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