3 Crucial Tasks After Crotch Coffee

The ongoing struggle of daily tasks and feeling overwhelmed is something we all face every single day.

One steaming hot mug of coffee spilled onto a tender lap can be enough to derail our readiness and willingness to (insert your daily task here).  Suddenly, nothing is going to go according to plan because;

• We're not properly caffeinated.  
• We worry about our appearance for that morning meeting due to the wet, and potentially brown stain near our most private area.  
• The day is practically ruined.  

deviant art credit alahey "Woman From Coffee Spill"

Rough starts of all kinds happen to the best of us.  Those that are most successful, seem to magically find ways to overcome life's little obstacles, meanwhile, pissing the rest of us off, because some of us have a ruined morning at least twice a week.  One of the ways people overcome these inner dramas involves diligent schedule management.  They forget the coffee issue and focus on their 8AM task.  By the time 9AM rolls around task one is complete, a new cup has manifested itself in some form, the spot on the pants is dry, and the day is going great.

Here are three examples of staying focused by successful leaders:

1.  Organized prioritization simplified by math.  Joseph M. Juran, was an engineer and management consultant who introduced the 80/20 rule.  It was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population.  This 4:1 proportion has been proven to be surprisingly accurate in nearly every business model ever created.  Juran applies this to tasks, showing us that 80% of our results come from the most important 20% of our actions, so conversely 80% of our tasks don't move us very far and should therefore not be prioritized, perhaps even delegated out, and in some cases ignored completely.  Do your 20% that brings results.

2.  Melissa Wilkins lives by a 3 Item To Do list.  She teaches us to take time to identify and articulate the three most important items to accomplish and to focus only on those until completed.  The rest is filler.  She calls it, 'enough'.

3.  Simpler still, minimalist real estate entrepreneur, Gary Keller teaches us that it starts with ONE thing.  He professes that the simple truth behind extraordinary results is to ask this:  What is the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?  And this question can be applied to any part of our lives.  Like cleaning up a mess.  Purging, means those items have become easier or unnecessary.

The common theme resounding in these examples is that reducing your list will help stay focused on getting the most important things done.  They are easy to read, simple to implement, and from experience, I can attest to their effectiveness.  Furthermore, they are great when we're focused but that goddamned coffee though.  Burnt leg, wet pants, no g*d@mn3d coffee....  *#^*&#$(#!

Ultimately, it was the dread and the panic.  Its our fears, that got the best of us in that moment the coffee splashed our crotch.  We lost focus on our tasks when we were overcome by dread, overcome by bitterness, and overcome by blaming of inanimate objects.  It was all a huge distraction away from the things that matter, only to give all our power to the goddamned coffee.

You might be familiar with the Minimalists who are known to say, "You've won when your dreams have broken through your fears."   If we think about our dreams for one moment of calm, they haven't broken our fears.  We have to be cognizant of our dreams always, even in those worst moments.  We have to not just have our 80/20 plan, but trust in it completely.  Let trust annihilate your panic in that weak moment.  The day isn't ruined.  The coffee is.  The pants are fine.  The burn is hot, but its not hospital time.  The day will progress.  That's when our dreams break our fears.  Your dreams aren't winning now as you're peacefully reading this, if they are only to be forgotten later, when it matters.

Imagine if a person were remember to dream, to trust, rather than panic, every single time there was a coffee spill, or other tragedy.  Imagine if we were the ones who responded positively to everything.

Awareness that our dream is going to include adjusting to problems and speed bumps makes the coffee spill part of the plan, part of the dream, and that is how dream becomes reality, reality becomes dream, and dreams break through the fears.  And a spilled coffee is just a laugh and a refill.