00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 668 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, having the ability to really find your gifts and calling is a key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this,
00:00:26 the inspired stewardship podcast by my friend, Scott made her. Not just in what we do, but in making sure that we do it with the right attitude, with the right intent, with the right heart, with the right spirit, with the right mindset, it allows us to rest when it's time to rest, to be with our family when it's time to be with our family and to be focused and at work when it's time to be at work.
00:01:01 Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true column. In the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
00:01:34 And today's episode about developing your influence by stewarding your time. I talk with you about recognizing that productivity is a process on an event. I share why the view of your time and looking at it as a process, not an event matters. And I talk about how this lets you focus, but also forgive as we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long,
00:02:01 it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the show. Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. This week. I'm talking a lot about some of the ways that focusing on the process can help us in so many ways.
00:02:32 And today I want to talk about recognizing that growing in your productivity is a process, not an event. See, one of the things that I've seen happen to people when they come to me for coaching on productivity is they're trying so hard to fix everything that they end up fixing nothing. They're trying so hard to hit their perfect day. They want to,
00:02:55 they want to have a day. That is the ideal perfection. And even sometimes they manage to hit it one day and then they're mad because they never seem to hit it again. It doesn't hold them where they want to be because you know, let's face it. Our lives are messy and life happens and it's not about actually having everything be perfect. In fact,
00:03:19 we seldom achieve perfection and now don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean you don't want to have an idea of what your perfect day would be. What would your idea ideal day look like that that actually can be a valuable exercise, but only if you recognize that moving towards that ideal is always a process. And what's more, you have to recognize that ideal may change.
00:03:43 You know what my ideal would look like when I was in my twenties is very different than what my ideal day looks like. Now, in my fifties, whether you have, if you have small children at home, that's going to change the picture. If you have adult children in your life, that's going to change the picture. You have to recognize that where you are in your journey and the phase of life changes.
00:04:08 So there's always going to be a process involved in getting more productive. And just a reminder productivity here is not about getting more things done. Getting more things done to me is just efficiency, getting the right things done. That's what makes us productive. And the truth is if you simply managed to get yourself 1% better each and every day, then at the end of the year,
00:04:32 you would be 365% better. Now, granted, we're never going to achieve perfection. We're never going to achieve 1% improvement every single day, but some days we may get better and some days we may get worse. The truth is you're looking for continuous improvement in the direction that you're going. If you get a little better at keeping your morning routine, then that's good.
00:04:56 If you get a little better at keeping your evening routine, then that's good, small improvements across time compound to move you forward. This is why this view of productivity matters. Plus it allows you to look at things and recognize it's not about achieving perfection. You don't have to be perfect to be making improvement. In fact, sometimes perfection holds us back from improvement because if we're aiming for perfection,
00:05:29 we often get stalled out. We stop. We are because that's such an impending mindset. It's such an idea of how could I ever get to that point. This is also where the comparison trap comes in. When we look at how other people are doing, and we compare the end of their journey to our beginning, or even the beginning of their journey to our beginning,
00:05:51 we begin to get frozen by this idea. See, it's a process on an event really matters because when you recognize that phrase, when you recognize that idea, when that begins to get to the core of your being about your productivity, then you can really begin to move the needle and improve, but it also allows you to forgive yourself and others. It allows you to recognize the fact that if today wasn't perfect,
00:06:22 that's okay because tomorrow's a new attempt. Tomorrow's a new day. You can try again. You know, it only ends when you're in the dirt. And as long as you're on this side of the dirt, you've always got a chance to get a little bit better. You've always got a chance to improve. And this forgiveness is also important. It helps us fight perfectionism,
00:06:46 and it also helps us fight judgment. It helps us from getting jealous from comparing ourselves to others. It helps us from looking at others and saying, why did they manage to do that instead of me? And as we move through that, that allows us to continue to improve ourselves, to continue to grow ourselves, not just in what we do, but in making sure that we do it with the right attitude,
00:07:11 with the right intent, with the right heart, with the right spirit, with the right mindset. It allows us to rest when it's time to rest, to be with our family when it's time to be with our family and to be focused and at work when it's time to be at work. And then it also allows us when that doesn't happen to step back and go that's okay,
00:07:33 I've got another shot. I can try again tomorrow because it's not about achieving perfection. It's about the process. It's about moving through life. Not letting life happen to us. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling.
00:08:11 If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series, by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four, four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world.