“Life is a game and in order to win any game, you
need to understand the game.”
This is perhaps my father in laws favourite phrase.
Having had numerous conversations, he has explained this concept to me in
detail which will be subject for another day.
Now long retired medical doctor to focus on his
businesses, he asked me if there was something that I was working on besides my
job. I said nothing currently and gave him the reason was mostly due to a lack
of time.
He gave me the following advice:
“Every day you work for your company, from 8am to
5pm (9hrs/day), use 1hr of the remaining time to work on your business. If you
just work for 1hr each day, after 1 month you would have worked for about
20hrs. Imagine the progress you would make in 20hrs?”
I got the advice but like always most things are easier
said than done. I could only see myself doing this on weekends or holidays when
I was not working and no pressing issues requiring my attention.
After the days job, am too tired to do anything and the last
thing I want is to engage in any kind of work.
However, his advice on life being a game never left me.
Recently, I started looking at time like a game. And to win against this
opponent, I needed to make changes.
In much the same way that you wouldn’t expect a losing
teams fortune to change in a football match unless the coach (you) makes some
alterations by doing the following:
Formation change
One way the proceedings of a game can change is when the
coach adjusts the team’s formation. This entails maintaining the same players
but re-aligning them to counter the opponent’s system. A coach may decide to
simply change formation from 4-5-1 to 4-3-3 (defence to attack minded but with
the same players when they concede). In much the same way, you can adjust your
formation for your “game” by changing the time that you sleep and
wake up. Rather than sleeping close to midnight then having to wake up at 6am,
you sleep at 10pm so you can wake up at 4am (from 12am-6am to 10pm-4am
formation). This way, you have the same hours of sleep (6hrs) but you will
mostly likely be more effective working in the morning than in the evening.
Complementation
In other instances, a coach might instruct the left/right
backs/wingers to overlap from defence to attack and vis-versa. This means they
each play two positions depending on the circumstances they are in (attacking
or defending). Similarly in life, you may decide to overlap or multi-task your
work to get the most out of your time. For example, the time that you drive or
commute to and from work can be used to listen to audiobooks on radio or phone
which can help with your business (side hustle, work, spiritual, family, etc
whatever it is you want to improve on).
You are performing an activity which is an unavoidable
(commuting) while at the same time learning and becoming better in your life.
Substitution
When a coach (you) observes that his team is having
difficulties against an opponent (time), he normally looks for where the
weakest link (player or activity) is and in most cases removes and replaces him
with another player. In a similar fashion, when you notice that you are having
difficulties to do the things you want to do due to time, look at some of your
activities (players) and see if you can substitute them with others. For
example, you can cut-off or reduce the time you spend browsing the net or
watching TV. This can seem painful in much the same way that a coach sometimes
sacrifices their star player in a game when they observe that they are not
helping the teams cause.
They will always be the same 24hrs in a day and this is
not going to change anytime soon.
The truth of the matter is that unless the formation
changes, you will keep getting the same results against time. Time is an
opponent who will never change, and it will keep pressing on to the finishing
line of your game (life).
Time is relentless and never rests to give you a chance
to focus on those things you have always wanted to do.
How are things going in your “game” against time?
If you one of those who wish for more time like me, now maybe the time to make some tough calls to substitute,
complement or change formation to have any chance of winning your
game against time.
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