I was recently sitting down with a group, where we were conducting a mastermind. We participated in an exercise of eight-pointed questions. As we were going through this exercise, I found myself answering these questions very quickly. Fortunately, as a coach for over 13 years, I have done plenty of exercises to get extremely intentional about what serves me, and where to spend my time, energy, effort, and money. It was easy for me to quickly go through these questions and answer them because I have tremendous clarity.
When I was done, I put my pen down, went to the restroom, and came back, and I saw that the rest of the group was taking a lot of time brainstorming on answering these questions. It came to me that because they haven’t necessarily done the work I’ve done as a coach to create extreme clarity and most likely haven’t been asked these questions before. This displayed that they were searching for clarity on what serves them, which took a lot of extra time versus what it took me. This scenario made me realize that clarity saves time.
When you’re intentional about what to say yes to and what to say no to, that saves time. There are a lot of people who say yes to anything that is asked of them, then they begrudge it. Why, they want to be liked? They don’t want to let people down. They want to be a team player. So, they say yes, put too much on their plate, and become overwhelmed. When you get clear on who to surround yourself with, you know exactly who and what serves you, who shares valuable wisdom, and who lifts you. You’re saving time by generating those relationships and not hanging with the people who don’t build you up.
Creating clarity on where your business is going, what it looks like in 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years, and getting clear on the culture of the organization so you’ll know exactly what type of employee fits your culture to represent your brand. All these decisions save time, however, it’s because you’re extremely clear on where to spend your time, energy, effort, and money. Think about your business and life. If you’re not crystal clear on everything you want, you’re going to waste time belaboring your options. You’re not going to be able to make an immediate decision simply because you lack clarity.
If you wish to create more clarity. I have a few exercises you can partake in if you wish. One is the Contrast / Clarity. I love the exercise. I use it for anyone before working in my organization. I use it for identifying my type of clients, and anyone I deal with, contrast represents what I don’t want, and clarity represents exactly what I do want. When you go through this exercise, whether it’s on a marketing person, a sales assistant, a client, whoever or whatever it may be, you get clear on exactly what you don’t want and exactly what you do. This creates clarity and saves time because when the right or wrong person shows up, you’ll know it because you’re crystal clear on what or who you’re looking for.
Remember, clarity saves time. If you have a challenge with time, create clarity on where to spend your time and your time will get better.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com