By: Gbenga Emiloju (CEO DMPII)

The categories of people with whom you spend most of your times would go a long way to determine the kind of impact, influence and results that your life will produce.

The people you spend your time with, you become.

The implication is that, you are going to end up like the calibre of people you continually associate with, and you must not forget that life is too short to be wasted with wrong people.

For your life to move in the right directions, you need the right people that would encourage, inspire, motivate, and always ready to help you achieve your goals.

Irrespective of your age, expertise, skills, and qualification, you cannot achieve your dream all alone. You need positive, right-thinking and well-motivated people to help you achieve your goals easily.

You may not necessarily need to have too many people in your life. It is not the quantity but the quality of people you stay with that matters.

It’s better to have one quality person who is pushing you forward, than to be in the company of many people who are bunches of cynics and mediocres. The higher you go in life the more selective you have to be.

NOTE:

You must be ready to let go off some people, because everybody cannot go with you where God is taking you. The higher you go in life, the tighter your circle has to become.

How do you put first thing first when everything seem to come first? Where do you begin? What can be done later? And what doesn’t need to be done at all? How do you 80/20 your life?

Remember, the worst use of time is to do something perfectly well that needs not be done at all.

We know the feeling when we seem overwhelmed. But there is one principle that can get you out of this dilemma. When it is followed, things work out well.

The principle is 80/20 principle also called pareto principle. It was discovered by an economist Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto found that a small proportion of any activity produces a majority of the results.

If you apply this principle to your lfe, you will have much of everything you don’t.

Look at it this way,

Don’t you wear 20 percent of your clothes 80 percent of the time? Don’t 20 percent of the people in your life create 80 percent of your problems?

If we can identify what works in our lives, what produces the results we want, we can let go of the rest. We can get more of what we want and less of what we don’t for much less time, money and energy.

80/20 your life by;

Working on your purpose: 

What motivated you to go out on your own? What do you want to accomplish? Why are you doing all these? Your sense of purpose will enable to know where you are going and to put that first in your life.

Clear out your backlog:

If your desk, files, cabinets, and calendar are filled with things that don’t relate to your purpose, you won’t have time or the space to put first things first.

Schedule for results:

Once you know where you are going and you have cleared the way, settling goals will take you where you want to go, but only if you bring them down to the minute. Leaving your goals on a notepad in a drawer somewhere puts them out of sight and out of mind. You’ve got to get them onto your calendar and let them become the focus of what you do every day.

“Doing much doesn’t mean your are getting much done.”

How have you been making most of your time?

Just as the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” Its not as easy as it sounds. How do we stay energized? We tend to be become weary in no time when working on our goals or occupations.

There are some times we just want to lie on the couch and do nothing, despite having much work to do. Everyone of us feels that. But, we just have to get up and keep the ball rolling.

“Create in you an irresistible energy putting wings on your heart that will allow you to fly beyond all self-imposed limitations.”  Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.

Other than the fifth vital sign (pain), fatigue is also on of the reason people seek medical help.

Countless numbers of successful people from various fields have been observed, they all seem to have boundless of energy. They are always ready to take on the challenge. They jump out of bed in the morning and yet return in the evening full of energy. How were they able to do it?

According to Sarah and Paul Edwards, author of “Working from Home, they were able to keep themselves charged up using several ways.
Use these tips to stay energized.

1. Do not overwork: It’s an illusion to think you will get further by overworking. “When you are overworked, you don’t think at your best or make the best decision.”

Similarly, when you overtrain, you will become extremely fatigued, which may eventually result in poor performance.

Have you ever wondered why you didn’t get your expected result in an exam you wrote? One of the reasons was because, you didn’t give your brain enough time to rest before going into the exam hall.

You are the one who must make sure you pace yourself so you can be at your best when you need to be.

2. Keep the pressure in bounds: According to Joseph Procaccini, “unrealistic expectations are a real culprit in burnout.” Burnout occurs when the demand we put on ourselves is more than our energy input.

High expectations are a good way to motivate ourselves, but success also requires a state of equipoise between energy input and the demand we put on ourselves. When the two parameters are in equilibrium, we perform at our peak.

3. Know how much sleep you need and get enough: When there are not enough hours in the day, we take them from the night. But do not deprive yourself of too many nights. Get enough sleep each night that you arise feeling refreshed, but not so much that you feel sluggish. Schedule your most demanding work for those times of the day when you are at your peak.

4. Make sure you enjoy what you do: There is nothing as cool as loving what you do. It boosts your energy and keep you going. If you don’t love what you do, if you force yourself to continue doing it, you will start dreading Monday again. You will begin dragging through the day and slacking off.

As actress Sally Field put it, “I’d rather act than eat. If you don’t feel that way about what you do, then your legs are easily knocked out from under you.”

5. Eat high-energy food: Energy-riches foods will boost your energy and make you more productive. For high-energy, increased mental alertness, and greater motivation, eat food rich in protein, low-fat diary products, and carbohydrates.

Minimize intake of energy drainers like alcohol, sugar, salt and junk foods, which seem to charge you up but actually stress you out.

6. Get plenty of exercise: Do aerobic exercises (running, swimming, dancing) at least 20-30minutes every other day. Choose any activity you enjoy.

7. Take at least a day off from work: You need break to relax and recharge. Students can’t take a day off. There are always holidays. Make good use of them.

What are your techniques of dealing with tiredness? Endeavor to share.