Ever tried to call up The President of the United States or the CEO of some large corporation on a whim? I bet you didn't get very far -- and here's why.
Every important person has a series of gatekeepers, whose job is to jealously guard the talent and time of the top person from trivial matters.
This isn't a status thing, it's simply effective working.
Anyone, no matter how high powered will have their energy, focus and time drained away by constant interruption and unsought negative influences.
Irrespective of our status, the result is always the same: another wasted day.
Perhaps tomorrow will be better.
No, it won't -- unless you take positive steps, today, to make it so!You need to be completely jealous of your time, energy and positive frame of mind and allow nothing -- absolutely nothing --to cause them to leak away from you.
Unless you do this, it's like driving your car with the brakes on.
You'll generate a lot of heat, but won't make much progress! When you are starting out, striving for success, you're faced with a chicken and egg situation.
You need to jealously guard your time and talents just as much as the president of a large corporation, so they are only channeled into productive activities that move you ever closer to your goals.
The problem is, you can't -- at this stage -- justify your own army of gatekeepers.
Instead you have to set up a few invisible controls.
If you fail to control events, you will find events control you and you will never achieve your dearest wishes.
So you need to firmly resolve, from now on, you will eliminate all time bandits and negative influences from your life.
It may not be possible to do this overnight, so set up a deliberate program of stages, whereby you achieve the elimination of some bad aspect of your life every week or every month.
That way, you will be moving slowly, but inexorably, towards complete elimination of these bad aspects in your life within a reasonable timescale.
And with every removal, your power to achieve more and more will increase.
One of the first bad aspects you need to expel from your life is all news broadcasts and other bad news media.
Bad news is far more compelling than good news -- and boy, don't the newscasters know it! But from your point of view, it's a very debilitating, negative influence you can well do without.
Add to that the time you save not watching the news twice a day and it could mean a sizable chunk of positive, productive time you can use to move you closer to your goals.
Other negative, energy sapping activities for the chop include unscheduled telephone calls.
Your day job might call for you to be on call 24/7, but you should make a determined effort to set aside some area of your life to give respite from this.
It's not just the instant interruption to your work the telephone creates, it's also the anticipation that any second it might ring -- which can be even more debilitating, because it does not allow you to immerse yourself completely into your project.
Finally, you should go out of your way to avoid all the moaners, time thieves, gossips and anyone who just wants to feed off you by shooting the breeze.
Simply don't generate conversation with these people.
Just allow what they have to say wash over you, whilst you withdraw into your own thoughts and think of what you intend to do, once you are free of this person.
Better yet, avoid them all together -- even to the extent of ducking into a doorway, when you see them coming.
Remember, if you want to soar with the eagles you must avoid running with the turkeys! Copyright 2006 Paul Hooper-Kelly and [http://www.
HowToMakeYourOwnLuck.
com]