288 - Time And Opportunties Are Fleeting!

0:00Time is fleeting and so are the windows of opportunity. And I want to talk about that for a couple of minutes here. Last Friday, I did a YouTube video on the eclipse that happened here on April 8th in May, here being May. And that was a total eclipse of 32 seconds. Very quick. You know, it was light, then it became totally dark, and then it became light again. But the period of darkness and total darkness was 32 seconds. And that just reminded me of how quickly time does go by and also how quickly opportunities can go by. My wife, in this home that we're restoring, it was in my family back in the 1800s, is going through tons of pictures.

0:53You know, as opposed to phones, where our pictures sit today, people actually took pictures back then. So there's pictures back from the 1800s. There's pictures of me as a little kid. And I look at those pictures of me when I was a newborn, one, two, three years old. And I think, how the heck did time fly by such that now I'm 71 years old? And you look back on that and say, wow, so long ago. And it just seems like an instant. In my heart, I still think I'm 18 years old, but that's not true. So time does fly, and it reminds me, I had a mentee who was working acquisitions, and he spoke with a woman and asked about whether she had an interest in selling her business, and she said, yeah, no, yeah, I'm getting older, I do, actually.

1:54So she said, but give me some time. call me in about three weeks or whatever it was doesn't matter so anyway the uh he says okay and he totally forgot about it and he called her back and she said oh yeah I wonder why I never heard from you is that uh so he asked again if she had an interest and she said you know you opened my eyes to this and since we last talked I've bought I think it was two businesses and I'm about ready to close a third. She clearly had a way to close businesses quickly. Whether she did that right or wrong, I don't know. She probably didn't follow the steps that we're doing, so I don't know how it worked out.

2:39A lot of times it doesn't work out very well, but the point isn't that it worked out or it didn't work out, because we don't know that. The point is that by not following up when he said he would, the other person said, you know, it's a pretty good idea. yeah, maybe I can do this on my own, and they did it. So that opportunity is certainly gone, and hence the reason I say that opportunities are fleeting. So I would remember that, and remember that procrastination truly is the thief of time. You will have opportunities that come and go if you don't act on them. How you act on them, you know, I've talked about this before, but your why for doing this, that's the fuel that's going to fuel your engine and get you to do things when you might not want to do them, when you're tired, when you're wondering, is this going to work?

3:35That why, if you go ahead and reinforce it, will act that way. So I would encourage you to spend time to write your why, you know, whether that's family, whether that's charities, whether that's something for yourself, whatever that is. And then take that and say, okay, so that's what I want to do and why I want to do it. And then write your obituary. You know, a look back in time to say, okay, this is what I want to have accomplished in my life. And read that obituary. Sometimes it's helpful to write two obituaries. Write the obituary the way you want your life to go and write the obituary based on the path that you are on now and see what the difference is.

4:22Sometimes that's motivational to you or for you. And then just remember that habits really do start to generate actions in and of themselves, good and bad habits. And so use the tools that we've talked about whether that's a Franklin planner where every day you look at what it is you accomplished that day what is it that the most important things to accomplish the next day and keep doing that I've used the Franklin planner since the mid 90s maybe early 90s and every single day I look at that next day or if I do it early in the morning that day and I write down okay what is it that I want to get done and then prioritize that list in terms of which are the most important things.

5:10It's a habit. I also mentioned that this is podcast number 288. 288. I do this once a week. I put it out either originally it was every Monday. Now I have someone who puts them up for me after I've done them. So oftentimes it's put up on a Sunday. But Sunday, Monday. And I have never missed that in 288. That's more than five years. And I don't say that to pat myself on the back. I'll take a little pat maybe. But it's just a habit. It doesn't require that much work. But it's a commitment that I made to myself to say, okay, I'm going to do this. And I've carried through and done it for 288 weeks now.

6:03Those become habits. Those become things where you don't want to break the string. So think about how you can create habits and discipline for yourself as well. So I hope that helps. I hope you think about the fact that time is fleeting, goes by more quickly than you think, especially when you're getting older and the runway is getting shorter. And so make sure that you're doing the things that cause you to take action as soon as humanly possible, as my mentor. said to me a number of times. And make sure that you're working on things that are priority-wise the most important for you to get done.

6:44And be a little selfish in that process, maybe a little more than selfish. So I hope that helps. I hope that you, as you look back on this, will say, okay, I can put that into action. I can take action. I'm going to commit myself to do that consistently. If you do not know the steps, go over to brucewhipple.com, go under the courses, boot camps. You've got plenty of things there that will help you. I would suggest the Acquisition Advantage Boot Camp. If you don't know the steps, it will also give you access to me on a monthly live Q &A call, which is limited only to Acquisition Advantage Boot Camp members, where you can ask questions real time on what you're struggling with, etc.

7:30And if you don't know how to start, go through and grab the free course, the conversation starters. But beginning has power in and of itself. So I would encourage you to do that. And remember that opportunities and times certainly fly by quickly. So make the most of them.