Message of the Day - Routines of Yesteryear

Good Morning,

 

My current read is ‘Breakfast with Fred’ by Fred Smith, Sr. (http://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Fred-Smith/dp/0830744762) a book based on a website www.breakfastwithfred.com where people asked Fred questions, and he provided thought-provoking answers. Fred Smith was a mentor to an entire generation of leaders including Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, Ken Blanchard and others. The book is laid out with Fred talking about 52 different topics, followed by a leader who used Fred’s mentoring guidance in that area.

 

In the eighth section Fred talks about routines and rituals. You know; the codified step-by-step processes we undertake because it is tradition, or that’s how it’s always been, or just plain accepted. Like the way you plan for a meeting or event, the way you prepare a specific report, or repair a specific system or machine, or how you deal with others.

 

Fred asked how often we have routines we follow that were set up some time ago to achieve some purpose or goal which is no longer valid or necessary. I remember working for a company which had a form which needed approval by several key people. In getting the form filled out I had to track down people who no longer worked in same department, or had anything to do with the process at all, but their signoff was still ‘required’. I ended up wasting nearly and hour or so of my time alone each time the form needed to be filled out. I questioned why some names were necessary and told that is the way it always has been. How wasteful!

 

A bigger question is do any of us have any routines or rituals we still use or follow in our personal lives which we really don’t need to or should not any more?  Are there routines we have in our lives which served us well years ago, but today serve no purpose?

 

How much time and frustration would we ease up in our lives if we changed or even stopped those routines?  How much ‘Margin’ would we get back in our lives?

 

Give your daily activities a good once over and see if you have any outdated or unnecessary routines and rituals of yesteryear.

 

Enjoy

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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