One of my best friends is a lawyer (I don't hold that against him though) ...
He's a smart guy, but there's one thing he does that I just don't get.
Let me explain:
Any time he feels slighted by a corporation, restaurant or a business, he spends a TON of time embarking on a campaign to correct whatever he views as mistreatment.
I remember his luggage getting scuffed up one time, and he spent days fighting with Air Canada, emails flying back and forth with strongly-worded/legalese
language.
We went to see a movie together once (it was "The Island", with Ewan Mcgregor. Don't ask me how I remember that). During the whole movie, a row of rowdy teenagers at the back caused a commotion and talked to one another.
After the movie, my friend insisted that
we go see the manager of the theatre to discuss what happened, and after spending about 30 minutes going that route, he was proud to have wrangled two free movie tickets from him.
For me, I would rather not spend an hour, or hours, to get $20 back. Why? Because my time is worth a lot more than that!
And think about it for lawyers, who regularly bill out at hundreds of dollars an hour. Is it worth it to spend an hour to get $20 back in your pocket?
A few days ago I was dealing with a bit of drama in The Coaching Jungle Facebook group. I had to kick someone
out of the group for infractions (I'm becoming a dictator to keep the group running smoothly and with maximum value for the people in there), and said person contacted me to plead his case ...
I don't know this person, had never even spoke with him until all of this happened. I had two options:
1) Spend hours deliberating on this, weighing evidence and then making a decision
2) Go with my gut, listen to the respected members of the group who warned me about this guy, and enjoy my Saturday afternoon with my son while we were out of town visiting my
father.
I chose option #2. I don't get much free time as-is, and I don't want to spend my time dealing with that.
I look at time differently than most people. I run everything through a filter by asking "Is this worth my
time?"
Sometimes it is, but often things aren't.
Try this out: work out how much an hour of your time is worth, and start using that as a measuring stick for what you'll spend your time doing ... it'll do wonders for your productivity (and
sanity!)
Speaking of time, when I was working on the new program that I launched - "Your First 5 Clients" - I debated about how much stuff to include in the 8 modules.
I
could have crammed enough in there to keep the people who invested in it tied up for 20 hours a week, but who has 20 hours a week to do an online program?!
So I trimmed it down to the best material, and set it up so someone can complete each module in a couple of hours per week (max.)
I've been getting great feedback from the people who have hopped into it in the week since it opened up, and I think you'll like it.
Cheers,
Marc
Marc Mawhinney
Coach, Host of "Natural Born Coaches"
Passionate About Helping Coaches GROW Their Businesses!