Читать книгу The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook - Paul Falavolito - Страница 12

Stop reading this right now. Since you didn't listen, I will give you another chance after you hear me out. I recently interviewed one of my Emergency Management mentors for an episode of the Emergency Management podcast that I host. His name is Kelly McKinney from New York. During the interview, he made a very powerful statement to me. We were discussing the book that he authored and he said that "Everyone has a book to write inside of them; you just have to start." The same applies to starting a project, your day, or just doing something that you keep putting off. So whatever that is, stop reading and just go and start it.

There is that great Navy SEAL video online where the commander is giving a speech at a commencement and he mentions making your bed every morning and how you will feel better because you will have accomplished your first task of the day and it will make the rest of the tasks easier to accomplish. I love that video and the message behind that because it is true. We all get caught up in the routine of life. For most of us, that routine is all too familiar and can make it very difficult to start something new. I always say that I come to work every day with a list of things I want to accomplish and within minutes of walking through the door, I am onto a new list of things I am doing because of the unpredictable nature of the field I work in.

For me, I have my entire week sketched out. I know what days are my social media days for social media posts and strategies, and I also know what days are my admin days where I will work on policy and procedure. I make time for strategic planning days and employee counseling days. The trick is being able to accomplish those things and making sure all of your ducks are in a row so you can stick to your plan. When I used to be a professional scuba diving instructor I would always preach, "Plan your dive, and dive your plan." That fundamental is taught to every basic open water diver from day one and when I was teaching diving in places like Mexico and the Bahamas, I would often have to rescue divers who failed to adhere to that basic rule. When you don't have a plan or can't stick to your plan, depending on your type of business, it can cost your company money and loss of productivity. In the hiking world, mountain climbing world, and scuba world, it can cost you your life.

Teaching scuba all over the world was a dream come true for me – something I honestly never thought would become a reality. I would lead dive trips to some very exotic locations. One in particular was in the Bahamas. I had a boat full of twelve divers for this particular day at sea. It was set to be a two-tank dive and the divers were broken up into groups. Each group had to have an instructor with them because of the dangerous area we were diving in. In this particular location, the underwater currents were particularly bad just past the reef. Each group was briefed at least three times prior to getting in the water to incorporate this no dive zone into their dive plan. I took my group into the water and spent about thirty minutes exploring the reef and then got back on-board. No issues. I will never forget the sound of one of the other instructors hitting the surface and screaming to the boat that he couldn't find one of the divers in his group. One by one, they all came back onto the boat. It was confirmed that one was missing. The remaining instructors all grabbed their gear and dove back in to perform an underwater search. The captain and dive master would scan the horizon with binoculars, looking for a distress signal from the missing diver. We searched until our air was low and surfaced. No luck from the underwater search team. When we got back on board, the captain said he didn't see anything either. Our hearts were heavy, fearing this would be a day we would never forget. A short time later, the radio crackled. It was the captain from another charter boat, far away from our location: "Is anybody missing a diver?" Our captain quickly verified this was our guy. Thankfully, he was alive and okay. Guess what happened to him? He went into the no dive zone and the current carried him far away. Plan your dive and dive your plan!!!

Procrastination is the great excuse, and it's just that. It's an excuse for why you can't succeed. Having a plan for the day is one of the single most important things you can do as a leader. So if you want to win or be successful, it all starts with you. Get after it – we all have a book to write; we all have goals to achieve, so stop procrastinating. Take seven minutes out of your day when you read this and pick something off your list of things you have been putting aside and start doing it.