dream | act | succeed

With me hammering out 70+ work hours a week in order to finish the master thesis, of course there was no time to physically work on my other projects, like my current book. But nevertheless, I am still working on it, even if just for a couple of minutes here and there.

I see in my daily observations how people struggle, how I struggle, how things really are in reality. And sure, this gives me more than enough motivation to keep on going and making the world a better place. Ok, maybe that was a bit too much! It gives me enough motivation to keep on going and make your personal life a little bit easier! And that’s everything I am focusing on!

Making life easier. Making things easier. Implementing the right strategies at the right time in order to handle whatever life is throwing at us big time.

Finding the right mindset for the challenges ahead is definitely understated in this modern 21st century. Of course we expect a certain behavior from ourselves and the people around us, but how often do we really think about it? How often do we stop right here in our tracks and review our own doing? How often do you reflect on yourself? When was the last time you gave yourself a feedback about your doing?

It might sound strange, but we should talk more with ourselves. When I am on the racing simulator, there is this constant narrator in my head. Telling me exactly what I am doing wrong.

“Too early on the gas, to slow, wrong line, break sooner!”

What sounds like the comments of a three year old toddler is in fact a very useful technique. I am giving myself feedback all the time. I am stating out aloud my mistakes and try to improve on them lap after lap after lap. Sure, in motorsport this makes actually a lot of sense, but in real life?

I don’t think that it is much different in real life, actually. Sure, the “lap” might be a bit longer, but still, there is a lot of stuff that is getting constantly repeated. You have your work days, project phases, a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis of tasks, issues and problems that come your way. And sure, you can’t focus on improving everything at the same time.

That’s by the way another thing you can learn from racing. You can’t focus on improving five things at the same time. That is just not possible! But you can focus on one or two things at a time and master them before moving on.

A day has only 24 hours. At least if we do not change the definition of a day. But still, there is plenty of time left for the things that really matter. If we like something, we can find some time or have some time or take some time. If we want to, everything is possible. But most of the time we do not really want. We are stressed out. We are at the limit already. Why stepping over the line?! For what!?

Life is interesting and bizarre at the same time. There is so much we are expected to do, at work, but also in our privat lives, that we are struggling with finding the time for anything. We find excuses why we can’t! That’s an easy task. But we tend to forget to really think about our own doing.

When there is no time for anything, maybe you are doing too much? Well, I highly doubt that! I am doing a lot and still, there is so much time I waste with just staring into the endless space of the landscape outside my window. But when you feel overwhelmed, maybe that’s a sign that you are doing something wrong.

I for example feel kind of blocked, when there is a huge task at hand I need to do. For example the master thesis. Sure, I could just do that and all the other things in between, but my brain thinks otherwise. And so, my head is not free and full of creativity. Instead, my head is very narrow minded and doesn’t let me appreciate the goodies life would otherwise offer. I tell myself that it will get better once this task is done, but we all know that after the current task comes an even bigger one.

When time is limited, it’s important to stay in control. Fear, worries, doubts, that’s not really helping us in order to move on! We tend to stop, to do less, to set our priorities differently. But is that really what we should be doing in the first place? Ending up not doing all the tasks we originally wanted to do?

Time management is definitely something we need to relearn. Sure, we are managing our time. But rarely in a very good way. Therefore, the goal is not to do less or more, but to do things in a more efficient way.

See you next time!