Sherif Morgan

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What is your Time Perspective?

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I recently watched Dr. Philip Zimbardo‘s (for more info, visit his Wikipedia page) video on TED.com about time perspective. According to Dr. Zimbardo, the academic definition of “time perspective” is:

the study of how individuals divide the flow of human experiences into time frames or time zones automatically and non-consciously.

There are 3 main categories of time perspective: past (decisions made based on past experiences), present (decisions are made to satisfy need/want now), future (cost-benefit analysis to make decisions today in anticipation of future benefits).

To illustrate the concept, Dr. Zimbardo used a famous study, where the experimenter told a 4-year old that he/she can have the marshemoellow in front on him/her now, or if he/she waited for 5-10 minutes, he/she would have two. 2/3 of the children opted to eat the marshemoellow now, while 1/3 decided to wait.

The 2/3 would be defined as “present time perspective”, because they decided to satisfy their wants/needs now. The 1/3 who waites are defined as “future time perspective”, because they decided to “delay gratification” for future “success”.

How can “time perspective” help you succeed?

The key to success is to exhibit a balance between past, present, and future time perspectives. Ideally, we would rely on positive past experiences, the energy and opportunities of the present, and tomorrow’s goals to help make the decision that propel us toward success.

It is crucial to understand your time perspective, because, as the definition above states, it will non-consciously affect the decisions you make today. In your next thinking time, take a few minutes to evaluate how your time perspectives affect your decisions.

Even if your profile of time perspective does not favor success, consciously, you can train yourself to make decisions based on a time perspective that will help you reach your future goals.

Are you thinking?

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Thinking For A Change is a great book by one of my favorite leadership authors, John Maxwell. The title of the book alone makes a couple of points:

  1. most people do not really spend time to think, and they should do so for a change, and
  2. if an individual desires change in his/her life, then it must start by making a conscious effort and thinking up a plan.

Surely, you’ve heard someone contemplate,

How did I get here? This was definitely not part of the plan.

Unfortunately, most of us have said or thought this at some point in our lives, because life tends to throw surprises our way, and often times, we get distracted with them. Thus, it is crucial to examine and evaluate the direction we’re heading on a regular basis.

Personally, I try to “think” for an hour each couple of weeks. Here is what I do:

  1. Find a quiet spot, relax, and clear my mind
  2. Start thinking about my experiences, my dreams, my plans, etc
  3. Identify obstacles that get in the way, things I struggle with, etc.
  4. Generate solutions, ways around obstacles, and come up with specific action steps.
  5. I make sure I have a notepad to jot down some notes.

With a hundred other things on the to-do list, it may be difficult to regularly dedicate time to “think”. However, this rapid pace of life is exactly why it is crucial to slow down and make sure you’re still heading in the path you desire for yourself.

Try it… you will be amazed by how enjoyable and rewarding thinking can be. As it becomes a habit, you will start craving and looking forward to your thinking time.

Steps to Forgive Yourself

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So many people forgive others, but for some reason, cannot seem to forgive themselves for things they have done in the past. If you find yourself in this position, I would like to share with you 4 simple steps that, I hope, will help you get started on forgiving yourself today.

Step 1: Accept
Are you still blaming yourself for what happened years or months ago? To be able to forgive yourself, you must first accept whatever happened and acknowledge you made a mistake, a slip up, a mess up… that’s all it is.  Everyone makes mistakes, right?  Of course, you wish you could take it back, but you cannot, so no reason to dwell on it.  The real mistake is to allow it to burden you.

Step 2: Move Forward
If something reminds you of your mistake, do you get that funny feeling in your stomach?  If so, STOP it! 🙂  How? As soon as you start to feel guilty, force yourself to immediately change your thought process.  Convince yourself there is absolutely no benefit from reminding yourself of the pain that you messed up. Sure you can always remember the lessons you learned, but feeling guilt is not productive one bit.

Step 3: Learn From It
If you haven’t already done this, take a few minutes to figure out the lessons you need to learn from your mistake. Why did you make the mistake? What led to it? How could it have been prevented? How can you prevent making the same/similar mistakes? Remember the reason you ask these questions is to identify a lesson and not as another opportunity to beat yourself up.

Step 4: Allow Room for Future Mistakes
Nobody is perfect. We’re prone to making mistakes. To think that you’ll never make another mistake is unrealistic. If you are paranoid, you may allow your past mistakes to hinder you from reaching your potential in life today. Remind yourself that mistakes are learning experiences, so it’s not the end of the world if you make another mistake.

In my opinion, one of the biggest differences between successful and unsuccessful people is how they deal with their mistakes and failures.  Unsuccessful people get stuck and never get past their mistake or failures.  Successful people view mistakes as learning opportunities.

Do you want to be successful?  Life is a learning process, Grow with it. Do you need more help? We recommend How to Forgive Yourself.

Relationship between Failure and Success

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What is the relationship between failure and success?

Paradoxically, failure has a lot to do with being successful. Failure is inevitable and almost required to achieve success. Ask any successful person about his/her failures, and prepare for a long conversation.

In your quest to success, you will undoubtedly experience failure. One of the keys to success is how you choose to respond to failure. How you manage failures will directly determine your ability to succeed.

When faced with failure, most people quit. Obviously, quitting does not lead to success. If, however, after you experience failure, you decide to re-group, dust the dirt off your shoulder, learn from your mistakes, and charge ahead, then you’ve capitalized on your failure as a learning experience.

It’s a simple and inherent truth about failure, but so many neglect it: Failures give us the opportunity to start with a fresh and a smarter approach.

Just remember what Colonel George Armstrong Custer said,

It’s not how many times you get knocked down; It’s how many times you get back up.

In the “Failure” section of Success-Starts-Today.com, we will feature articles that can help you gracefully accept, learn from, and capitalize on your failures and allow them to propel you onto your journey to success.

It Made Me Think!

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My power window broke last Thursday. Since I had to wait for the right part to arrive to the mechanic, I ended up taking the public bus for a couple of days to go to lab in the morning.

While groggy, and slightly irritated that I did not have access to my car, I was waiting for my connection by the intersection of Oracle and Grant. When I sat down at the bus stop, a middle-aged woman, who looked tired, asked if she could use my phone.

I gave her my phone and since I was about 2 feet away from her, I could not help but hear her conversation, which went like this…

“Hi, it’s Sonya… I need a place to sleep… pause… I am on Oracle and Grant… pause… ok, I will be there in a little bit.”

Wow.

It really put things in perspective… I felt kind of silly that I was irritated that I had to take the bus for a couple of days.

Today Matters

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Do you think today matters?

In his couple-years old book Today Matters, John Maxwell (one of my favorite leadership authors) firmly demonstrates that an individual’s daily agenda and activities almost always determine his or her success.

If you retrospectively analyze your progress over the last month, the last 6 months, or even the last year… have you accomplished every thing you sought out to accomplish?

Did your agenda and activities today reflect a small step, task, or goal that would get you closer to where you want to end up a year or so from now?

If not, then it is time to pause, reflect, and analyze your daily schedule.

Of course, everyone has off days, so do not agonize over an unproductive day here and there.

Thinking For A Change – Part II

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It may be difficult at first to regularly dedicate an hour or so to “think”, especially when there are a hundred things on the to-do list. Here is how you can get started:

1) Find a quiet place, if possible.

2) On a notepad, write down the areas in your life that you are stressed about, or where you feel you need improvement.

3) Think about what you should and what you can do about these areas in your life. Is there an overlap between the should and the can? What obstacles will you have to overcome to accomplish the things that you should but do not feel you can do?

With the rapid pace of life today, it may be hard to set a time to “think” on a regular basis… but this rapid pace of life is exactly why it is crucial to slow down and think… regularly.

As it becomes a habit, you will start craving and looking forward to your “thinking” time.

Thinking For A Change – Part I

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Thinking For A Change is a great book by one of my favorite leadership authors, John Maxwell. The title of the book makes a couple of points: 1) most people do not really spend time to think, and they should do so for a change, and 2) if an individual desires change, then he/she must think and devise a plan to make that change possible.

Surely, you’ve heard of someone say… “I have no idea how I got here” – this is a classical symptom of someone who did not think their experiences through. While life tends to throw unexpected events our way, it is crucial for an individual to examine the big picture and evaluate his or her overall direction on a regular basis to make sure that he or she does not deviate significantly from the planned path.

Personally, I try to “think” for a couple of hours each week. Generally, I find a quiet spot, I clear my mind and start thinking about my experiences, my dreams, my plans, etc. Usually, I make sure I have a notepad to jot down my ideas and observations.

Try it… you will be amazed by how enjoyable and rewarding “thinking” can be. Also, I highly recommend reading the book.