By Michael Holland     

Burning the candle on both ends and in the middle makes us feel like we are being successful.  The momentum and pace provide the rush, and we complete our days so exhausted, we we must be making progress.  Right?

Wrong. In our frantic pace, we work “just another 25 minutes”, then rush home to slam down dinner. If we review the mail and check our e-mail while we’re eating, then we’ll only be 8 minutes late getting junior to soccer practice so that we can pull him out of practice 5 minutes early to get to him to piano lessons… without being more than 7 minutes late for that activity.

Of course, we’re working those extra 25 minutes because we were so busy rushing between the back-to-back meetings stacked up throughout the work day that we don’t get any “real work” done. Each successive meeting starts later than posted because everyone is arriving late from previous meetings where they talked about and created more “real work” than can be realistically accomplished in a normal work day. So to compensate, we stay late.

Momentum creates the opportunity for success, but it is not success in-and-of-itself.  Is junior any better off with the frantic schedule?  Are you any better off with the frantic work schedule? No. You have the power and freedom of choice to create your own momentum, pace and trend line: use them well.