Habitudes - Opportunity Statue
The Fulling Management & Accounting team has started watching a new video series! Every week in our staff meetings, we watch a culture & leadership video to aid in our professional and personal development. The series we’re watching now is by Dr. Tim Elmore and is based on his book Habitudes - The Art of Self-Leadership. Follow along as we learn about self-leadership.
Elmore starts this lesson by telling the story of a statue named “Opportunity” in ancient Athens, Greece. The statue was a depiction of how opportunity works in our lives. It was of a person who had long hair in front of his face but was completely bald in the back. “It served as a reminder that you can grab [an opportunity] while it’s coming toward you, but you can never get a hold of it once it has passed,” says Elmore.
Time is fleeting. Leaders recognize the value and fleeting-nature of time. They take advantage of the time they have, knowing it is a finite amount. Elmore provides an analogy of imagining someone has deposited 86,400 pennies, a.k.a. $864, into your bank account each day, but whatever you don’t spend will disappear at the end of the day. You would probably think long and hard about how best to spend that money each day because you don’t want to waste it. This is how we should treat our time. “Each day you are given 86,400 seconds to spend, invest or waste,” shares Elmore, “but most people don’t spend it wisely.”
Have you heard of the two Greek words for time? There is “Chronos” and “Chairos”. Chronos means time measured by the clock. Chairos means the use of opportunities and seizing the moment in front of you. Below are 6 steps to help you seize the day.
Food for thought…
Out of the 6 simple steps to “seize the day”, what are 1 or 2 that you would find most valuable to add to your current routine? What difference would those make?
Perhaps making a To Do list at the end of the week or day can help you set those tasks aside until it’s time to address them.
Decluttering both your physical space as well as your mental space can help you focus better.