Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 143rd day.
Today's topic is: Do the Right Thing for a Purposeful Life
In each of these lessons so far, I have discussed how to do things. I have talked about meditation, proper planning, procrastination, habits and learning. In the last lesson, I talked how internal motivation drives us to continuously and persistently work harder and harder. Those with this internal motivation have the greatest chance for success.
Today, I want to explore, in greater detail, the three elements of internal motivation:
1. Independent choice
2. Constant specialization and proficiency
3. Purpose of life.
First, we must understand how these three elements work and then we must be disciplined enough to continually use them. Let's first talk about the different altitudes of life.
"The Getting Things Done" method discusses altitudes. Everyday tasks and activities that we perform occurred to the ground level. At the next level, short-term projects exist. Higher still lies 1 year and 3 to 5 years goals. 10 to 20 years long-term multi fascinated goals also exist. And at the highest level, up in the clouds, like the culmination of all of these short-term and long-term projects, the result of your life's combined work, your purpose in life.
The key is to understand that the only way to climb to the highest level of purpose, is to realize that the steps you take today - those daily tasks and accomplishments - will eventually take you to your goals. The two important pieces to this ladder, to this altitude, they are direction and method.
You know, there is an idiom in China called "Poles Apart", which vividly points out the difference between direction and method. Direction tells you whether you are going towards or away from your goal, your purpose. If you travel in the wrong direction, it will take you twice as long and twice the effort to reach your destination. However, if the direction is true, then you will make it to the highest levels in half the time and half the effort. No matter how strong your horses are, you ride are, or how good your driving skills are, if you drive in the wrong direction, you will expend much more energy making up for lost time and effort.
So today, I want you to understand that direction is much more important than effort.
What does direction mean to us exactly? I'll make it simple: it means doing the right thing. The correct method on the contrary is doing things right. Doing the right thing is called vision. Doing things right is called action. These two forces of vision and action are different but complementary forces. Together they form purpose.
I have spent a great deal of time about methods - how we can do specific things more efficiently. So today I will talk about the relationship between vision and action.
There is an old Japanese saying: "If there is action without vision, life is a nightmare." What does that mean? It means that you will do a great deal of things in your life, but it will not mean anything to you, if they are not in the right direction. As you look back over your life, you will be able to say that you have done much, have gained much, except it has not gained what you wanted. Is that what you want in your life, but not ultimately to get what you want?
On the flip side, if we only have a vision but no action, what do you call that? Well, that is a fantasy! To have vision, but no action is simply to have a fantasy.
David Allen, the founder of GTD, tells us that hope and purpose can only come from combining vision and action.
I have said before, that when choosing your actions, it is critical that we do the right thing. Not because it is easy or because it is simple, but because it will get you to the higher altitude, and it will get you to your goals.
So, how do we determine what is important or not? The important thing is how we build our vision and our actions into our daily tasks. If we can do that then we can climb to higher and higher altitudes.
What kind of framework can the Get Things Done or GTD method can give us? Remember that between our daily activities and our high reaching purpose, lies several rounds at different altitudes. There are six levels according to the GTD method. Imagine a ladder, each 10,000 meters apart. The first level is on the ground and the highest level is 50,000 meters high. Each round is separated by 10,000 meters.
The bottom level is called the "runway";
The next level, at 10,000 meters, is a "project";
At 20,000 meters, the next level is our "scope of concern";
At 30,000 meters is our "goal";
At 40,000 meters is our "vision";
And at 50,000 meters, at the top, is our "purpose".
Runway, project, scope of concern, goal, vision, and purpose at the highest level.
When we talk about vision and action in a metaphor like this, it can be difficult to understand, so let me give you a real-life example.
Many people say that they have life goals, like making one hundred million yuan, or one million dollars. So you work very hard every day of your life! After some time, you make progress and you achieve a little, but as you focus almost entirely on working hard, you may start to see changes that you don't like.
For example: you may find that the relationship with your spouse may suffer from inattention. But suppose you are dedicated and you believe strongly that you will eventually achieve your goal. Your goal in life is to make 100 million yuan! So you brush off this problem and move on instead. You think the relationship between you and your spouse is not as important as your overall goal. You can replace your wife you think.
Slowly over time, your focus pays off and you begin to earn money. You earn your first 5 million yuan and one step closer to the realization of your life goal!
Then it's not just your spouse. Now your child starts to show signs of discord. He or she starts using drugs and alcohol. So you start to think ... now my child is spoiled but he or she is not as important as your goal. You tell yourself I can always have another child.
And so you continue to work harder and harder, more determined than ever to accomplish your goal. Now you've made 50 million yuan. You are closer than ever before to your goal of making 100 million yuan. Your hopes surge.
But this time your health starts to decline. You see the doctor and you find out that as a result of your bad eating and sleeping habits, and the relentless hard work without proper rest, you have developed terminal cancer!
We all have gotten goals. Some of us struggle to achieve them with all of our might, and some of us achieve those goals. But once you achieve those goals after many long years, where will you actually be? Will you stand at the top round of that ladder, looking down and like what you see?
We find that ... we make great efforts to climb highest wall, but when we see the landscape over the wall after our successful landing, we only find we have erected the wrong ladder and climbed on the wrong wall. We find that land beyond the wall is not the one we actually dreamed of.
Here's the lesson: In life, it doesn't matter how much we do but whether the things we do are purposeful and consistent with our vision of who and what we want to be. Do not wait until you are all alone after years of toil and sweat and labor to find out that you did not accomplish what you truly desired.
It is not enough to have the right direction or to do the right things. They must be combined to form the life worth living, the one filled with purpose at every round, at every level of altitude.
In the next several lectures, I will help you choose a life worth having. What kind of life is worth having? I will share this with you in the next lecture.
Thank you being with me together today. Have a wonderful day!
