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by Betty Dahl
Has anyone seen my time? I've misplaced it.
"What did you do all morning?" I said to my mom one day during lunch. After all, I was working hard at school. How come she couldn't accomplish anything in a whole morning?
After I finished school and got married, I understood better. I strove to be the perfect mother, wife and realtor. Ambitious and driven, I talked my husband into borrowing heavily to invest in real estate. When the market crashed, we lost almost everything. It stopped me in my tracks.
Six years later, I took a 10-week motorcycle trip with my husband. For the first few weeks, I wept and prayed. While working through my past, I came to realize success stems not so much from being busy as from being committed, disciplined and adaptable. Its primary ingredient is a combination of rich family love and strong religious values.
COMMITMENT
To be committed is to approach life with a passionate intensity and enthusiasm. To succeed, we need to focus on what motivates us. How?
1. Develop your strengths. We can all excel at something.
2. Select work you love. We can work harder if we're having fun at what we're doing.
3. Decide on your values. Then strip away non-essential demands on your time until your schedule reflects your values.
4. Set fewer goals, make sacrifices and hang on.
We can't be perfect in everything. Focus on what you enjoy and value. That will motivate you to stay committed to your goals.
DISCIPLINE
Success builds slowly and demands self-discipline. The discipline to keep going, even when life hits a plateau, comes from a rich family love and strong religious values. Jobs come and go, but friends and family are for a lifetime.
On another motorcycle trip, I went across North America with my husband and two sons. It was scary, challenging-and wonderful. By giving each other everything we had, we were building lifelong relationships.
ADAPTABILITY
On the trip our family took across North America, we crossed a bridge in Ontario. The wind was so strong that we were getting pushed toward oncoming traffic. Anxiously, I gripped the handles of my bike. Then I realized I just had to lean into the wind, loosen my hold and go with the flow. Going through life is like crossing that windy bridge. We need to be adaptable and willing to change, to adjust our course and take a different route.
Life is a choice. In a rapidly changing world, we need to choose to grow and adapt.
Here are some positive choices you could make:
1. Don't withdraw and play the victim.
2. Focus on people who like you.
3. Be willing to admit your mistakes. There's freedom in being able to say, "I'm sorry."
4. Break away from conflict. Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?
5. Take short brain breaks often. Look up at the sky. Say something nice. Laugh.
These, then, are what I call the laws of success: commitment, discipline and adaptability. As a Christian, I also believe success means having a strong faith and family. By submitting my plans, activities and priorities to God, I can relax. Nothing will happen without His permission.
In fact, God has given us all the gift of time. It is a gift that, once lost, can never be recalled. So let's use our time wisely to succeed in what He deems important.
-A top-ranking realtor for more than thirty years, Betty knows first-hand what it takes to succeed while having fun and building strong family ties.