‘The Myth of Time (And Why Most People Will Never Have Time)’ – Sean D’Souza’s Article

No ability with writing, or working with InDesign or creating
podcasts or whatever I was supposed to do. And of course when you
have no ability, you feel like a doofus if you go around telling
the world you’re a doofus.

So I said: “I have no time.”

What I did have was persistence

I wanted to take three months off every year. And if I was to
squeeze nine twelve months of work in nine months, I had to sharpen
up my abilities. So I wrote. I cursed. But I wrote. I cursed a lot
more. But I wrote. And I went from lousy to average. And average to
good. And from good to–pleased as punch with myself.

But let me classify why I feel so pleased with myself

When I wrote my first book, it took me a week. That book, if you
want to call it a book was 16 pages long. When I sat down to beef
up that book it took me three months.

Three months later, I had a book that kinda snuggled into a hundred
pages or so. That was then. Last year I wrote a 120 page book, did
all the cartoons, did all the layouts, cover design, audio version
of the book (including audio cover design and tagging) in one week.

As you can see those lessons in InDesign and the persistence of
writing paid off. But so did dozens of failed audio podcasts and
crazy layouts. Eventually what happened to me, is what happens to
most people who persist relentlessly. They get so freakin’ fast,
that to the outside world it looks like talent.

And it’s not talent at all.

You should have heard the cursing.
You should have been there when I was lower than a benthos (that’s
a bottom feeder).

But I knew one thing

No one was going to give me any extra time. It was up to me. I had
to get faster. But not faster. But faster and better. And the only
way to do that, was to stop the excuses (and the cursing).

But what do you do if you really don’t have the time?

Well for one, you waste enormous amounts of time. I’ve seen ‘busy’
people driving around listening to the radio. They say they have no
time. What’s on the radio that’s so freakin’ interesting?

Probably some stupid political debate which is pointless to your
future anyway. Or some music you’ve heard twenty gazillion times
before. What should be on that ‘radio’ is an audio recording where
you learn about marketing, or business, or something that enriches
your mind.

When you’re waiting in line, you have time.
When you’re out for a walk or exercising, you have time.
When you’re headed back from dropping off the kids, you have time.

But hang on, you’re not an audio kind of person.

You like to read transcripts. Oh, is that so? Did you know that
most kids can’t read a darned thing before they’re almost six or
seven years old. Yet they learn customs, languages and hundreds of
things purely through audio learning.

So let’s say, yes, you have a bias for transcripts or the written
word

That I can understand. But so what? Put on the audio anyway. When
you listen to the news, you don’t need a transcript. When you
listen to music, you don’t have this overwhelming need for lyrics.

So use the same concept for audio learning. Use up the time you
have. So what if you don’t remember 98% of what you hear? Listen to
it anyway, because it boosts your ability even if you just retain a
measly 2%.

Load your bag with a Kindle or some device where you can read on
the go.

Yes, yes I can almost hear the other stupid excuse of how you like
to read books on paper–but try carrying those books with you
wherever you go. Instead of the silly mundane excuses, change the
way you do things.

When you’re waiting for your laptop to boot up, read something.

While the waiter brings you your coffee, read something else.
Find every darned moment of the day to improve your ability. Some
situations will lend themselves to text. Some won’t and you’ll need
audio instead. You should be prepared to squeeze out every possible
wasted moment, because they add up pretty quick.

And then when you’re back at your desk, sign up for a course that
will kick your butt.

Not some ‘namby pamby’ course that lets you do whatever you feel
like doing. But sign up for a course where you feel fear on your
credit card–and where the person conducting the course will kick
you out for missing so much as a day’s assignment.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t sign up for anything that promises
instant success–because you will. Some joker will come along with
his surfboard and promise you some instant knowledge, and you’ll do
what you’ve done before. You’ll sign up and you’ll be further away
from your ability than ever before.

Instant success takes too much time.

It assumes you don’t need ability.
And the truth is quite the opposite, as you’ve figured.

You have time.
You have loads of time.
But you have too many excuses.
And way too little ability.

Ditch the excuses. Top up the ability.

And you get what top performers have–loads of time. It’s as they
say: If you want a job done, give to a busy person.

Time you got busy, eh?