Tuesday 19 November 2013

The Illusion of Importance

Some of my Entrepreneurial CEO clients seem to be challenged in the arena of focus, stimulation and that constant need to know they are doing things right and evolving.

Fortunately they are humble enough to ask for feedback and to respond to it. They are constantly seeking and expanding and setting new goals and embarking on new challenges.

These folk are high energy, restless, questioning and taking action.

One of my clients is harnessing the power of purpose in his quest to go beyond the MD/CEO realm. His purpose is meaningful and spiritual and it drives him and pushes him to influence and inspire so many others. He is relentless with it and it rubs off wherever he goes.

Another is running the NY Marathon and three of them are taking their business to a new continent and getting involved in global matters for their companies.

They say if we are not growing we are accelerating our spiritual death.

I do feel however that there is a balance and when we feed that will to expand constantly we could also be feeding something else which doesn’t allow us to be fully present in the Now. Eckhart Tolle wrote a brilliant book called the Power of Now (followed by A new Earth) and he said that if we are happy right now then we can string happy moments together continuously. He went on to say: “we are neither our feelings nor our thoughts” – they are only transitory.

A client once said that things don’t come across his desk in threes anymore but in nines and I suspect that he was also responsible for attracting many of those two.

Stephen Covey in “First things first” spoke about Quadrant three being the quadrant of illusion….items that are urgent (but not important) and have the illusion of being important and we feel we have to attend to them straight away …like  a new e-mail arriving or a phone ringing….yet it could just be another distraction.

Our busyness makes us feel valued and important but are we being effective? We need to:
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      Decide What the four or five most important items are that line up with our vision and purpose. Some companies are in trouble because they have lost the “why” for what they do.      
  •         Be disciplined about sticking to that agenda and those items chosen. My school headmaster spoke recently about two most important values of passion and discipline (I am better at the former).
  •       Complete items and then pause or stop to reflect
  •         Achieve the measures that you have set and feel that sense of accomplishment before moving onto the next agenda
  •        When you do allow yourself to be distracted along the way to have fun, do it consciously as it may be quality time to recharge.


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