Momo - Michael Ende

•  "Siehst du, Momo", sagt er dann zum Beispiel, "es ist so: Manchmal hat man eine sehr lange Straße vor sich. Man denkt, die ist so schrecklich lang; das kann man niemals schaffen, denkt man."
• Er blickte eine Weile schweigend vor sich hin, dann fuhr er fort: "Und dann fängt man an, sich zu eilen. Und man eilt sich immer mehr. Jedes Mal, wenn man aufblickt, sieht man, dass es gar nicht weniger wird, was noch vor einem liegt. Und man strengt sich noch mehr an, man kriegt es mit der Angst, und zum Schluss ist man ganz außer Puste und kann nicht mehr. Und die Straße liegt immer noch vor einem. So darf man es nicht machen."
• Er dachte einige Zeit nach. Dann sprach er weiter: "Man darf nie an die ganze Straße auf einmal denken, verstehst du? Man muss nur an den nächsten Schritt denken, an den nächsten Atemzug, an den nächsten Besenstrich. Und immer wieder nur an den nächsten.
• Wieder hielt er inne und überlegte, ehe er hinzufügte: "Dann macht es Freude; das ist wichtig, dann macht man seine Sache gut. Und so soll es sein."
• Und abermals nach einer langen Pause fuhr er fort: "Auf einmal merkt man, dass man Schritt für Schritt die ganze Straße gemacht hat. Man hat gar nicht gemerkt wie und man ist nicht außer Puste." Er nickte vor sich hin und sagte abschließend: "Das ist wichtig."
• "Die können sicher sein, dass von Ihrer eingesparten Zeit nicht das kleinste bisschen verloren geht. Sie werden es schon merken, dass Ihnen nicht übrig bleibt."
• Genau: Alle Lücken werden wieder gefüllt. So oder so.
• Seine Arbeit macht ihm auf diese Weise überhaupt keinen Spaß mehr, aber das war ja nun auch nicht mehr wichtig.
• Er wurde immer nervöser und ruheloser, denn eines war seltsam: Von all der Zeit, die er einsparte, blieb ihm tatsächlich niemals etwas übrig. Sie verschwand einfach auf rätselhafte Weise und war nicht mehr da.
• Es war etwas wie eine blinde Besessenheit über ihn gekommen. Und wenn er manchmal mit Schrecken gewahr wurde, wie schnell und immer schneller seine Tage dahinrasten, dann sparte er nur umso verbissener.
• Denn jeder Mensch hat SEINE Zeit. Und nur solang sie wirklich die seine ist, bleibt sie lebendig
• Awareness, be here now, conscious. Take ownership of your time, your life
• "Nein, dass kann ich nicht", antwortete Meister Hora, "denn was die Menschen mit ihrer Zeit machen, darüber müssen sie selbst bestimmen. Sie müssen sie auch selbst verteidigen. ich kann sie ihnen nur zuteilen."
• "Denn so, wie ihr Augen habt, um das Licht zu sehen, und Ohren, um Klänge zu hören, so habt ihr ein Herz, um damit die Zeit wahrzunehmen."

Priority - this is a singular

• “The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality. Somehow we would now be able to have multiple “first” things. People and companies routinely try to do just that. One leader told me of this experience in a company that talked of “Pri-1, Pri-2, Pri-3, Pri-4, and Pri-5.” This gave the impression of  any things being the priority but actually meant nothing was.” –Greg McKeown, Essentialism
• What is impossible, however, is concentrating on two tasks at once.
• A 2003 study published in the International Journal of Information Management found that the typical person checks email once every five minutes and that, on average, it takes 64 seconds to resume the previous task after checking your email.
• One of the major improvements I've made recently is to assign one (and only one) priority to each work day. Although I plan to complete other tasks during the day, my priority task is the one non-negotiable thing that must get done.
• The people who do the most valuable work have a remarkable willingness to say no to distractions and focus on their one thing.

Focus focus focus

Martin is the best-selling author of the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. The first book in the series, A Game of Thrones,  it has already sold more than 25 million copies.

What is most surprising isn't how good the books are, but how, exactly, Martin writes his best-selling works…

In total, Martin has written almost 2 million words for the series thus far…

That is a total of 1,770,000 words—an incredible effort. [4] And what does Martin use to churn out such an amazing quantity of work?

He writes the novels with a program that most people have never even heard of: WordStar 4.0. To give you an idea of just how ancient this program is, here's a picture of the typical WordStar screen…

Martin says, “I still do all my writing on an old DOS machine running WordStar 4.0, the Duesenberg of word processing software (very old, but unsurpassed).”

He goes on, “I am not on Facebook. I am not on Twitter. I will not be on the next new thing to come along, the one that makes Facebook and Twitter as obsolete as GEnie and CompuServe and The Source, those halcyon communities of yore.” [5]

Focus, Consistency, and Patience

One of the greatest lessons I've learned from weightlifting is that there are 3 simple things that you need for success.

1. Focus: You can't be good at everything and it's hard to be great at more than one thing, so pick the one thing you're going to become great at and focus on it.
2. Consistency: Focus is useless if you're only focused every now and then. It's showing up time after time that makes the difference.
3. Patience: If you're focused and consistent, then let time work for you. Results will come when they come. Focus on the system, not the goal.

George R.R. Martin's creative process employs all three of these methods.

Focus. He writes on a computer without the internet, without social media, without apps or distractions or graphics. But his computer can do one very important thing: type words. And typing words is his craft. That's what he needs to create. He is 100 percent focused on doing the work that matters and he has completely eliminated anything that impedes that goal.

Consistency. Martin was a working writer for twenty years  He's not just focused on writing when it's easy. He's focused on writing, plain and simple.

Patience. continued commitment to the process when you're not being rewarded for it yet. [6]

The Minimum You Need to Succeed

George “WordStar” Martin is selling more books than nearly anyone on the planet and his computer can't even send an email. Think about that for a moment.

So often we think that we need more to be successful. More outside funding for our startup. More software programs or productivity tools to handle our to-do list. More business contacts, a bigger network. More clothes or cars or credit cards.

But maybe what we really need is less. Maybe what we really need are fewer distractions and more focus. Maybe what we really need are a few carefully chosen constraints that narrow our energy onto what really matters rather than compiling a bunch of resources that pull us away from what we actually need to do.

The 10X rule - Grant Cardone

• Assume control for everything
• crybabies, whiners and vistims just dont do well at attracting or creating success.
• Success is not something that happens to you: It's something that happens because of you and because of the actions you take
• Successful people accept ery high levels of accountability for creating and having success for themselves - and even for failing to do so.
• Those who suffer from victim thinking
• Anyone who uses blame as the reason why something happened or did not happen will never accumulate real success in life and only further his status as a slave on this planet
• People who assume the position of victim will never be secure
• To get where you want to go in life, you must adopt the view that whatever is going on in your world - good, bad or nothing - is something caused by you
• a high-level. healthy sense of responsibility
• generate effective solutions
• Blaming wont change any of those conditions, and because success is my duty, obligation and responsibility, it is a bit hard for me now to turn that over to the state.
• What can I do to reduce my chances of something bad happening again - or even ensure that it doesnt happen again?
• Many people agree with the notion that you draw or attract into your life the things - and people - to which you pay the most attention.
• Once you start to approach every situation as someone who is acting - not being acted upon - you will start to have more control over your life.
• You are the source, the generator, the origin, and the reason for everything
• All because I was willing to take actions at massive levels, assume control, and take responsibility for every outcome.
• I may not always have a say in what happens to me, I always have a choice about how I respond to it

• Four degrees of action
• It was never retreat, no action, or even average amounts; it was constant, persistent, and immense attack on the target
• until you create problems, youre not truly operating at the fourth stage of action
• You will know you are stepping into the realm of massive action when you
• create new problems for yourself and
• start to receive criticism and warning from others
• The goal is to be seen, though of and considered - in one way or another
• In order for the endeavor youve chosen to work out for you, you have to make constant, relentless effort

• Competition is for Sissies
• "No one can keep up with me. Im not going away. I am not a competitor. I am the space."
• New of contraction should serve as an indicator for you to do the contrary. You never want to blindly follow the masses; they are almost always wrong.
• Expand, push, and take action.

• Fear is the great indicator
• FEAR stands for False Events Appearing Real
• For example, if youre afraid to call on a client, then its a sign that you should call that client. Fear of speaking with the boss is an indication that you should march into his office and ask for a moment of his time. Fear of requesting the clients business means that you must ask for the business - and then keep asking.
• Doing what other refuse to do
• Everyone experiences fear on some level
• the market will face fear in the same way that you and your peers do
• It must become your indicator to go
• I handle this dilemma myself by omitting time from the equation - since time is what drives fear. The more time you devote to the object of your apprehension, the stronger it becomes. So starve the fear of its favorite food by removing time from its menu
• Needs to take a deep breath, pick up the phone, and just make the call.
• Last-minute preparation is just another way to feed the fear.
• Fear tells you what to do and when to do it,... NOW. The time is always NOW!
• Theres simply no other choice than to act. Theres no need to prepare.
• Action!
• I refuse to feed my fear with time and allow it to get stronger. I opt instead to get things done quickly.

• The Myth of Time Management
• My daughter merely gave me another reason to create success - not an excuse to avoid working more. She is sheer motivation for me to do well because now Im doing it for her as well as for myself. You cannot blame your family for keeping you from creating the success you deserve. They should be the reason why you want to succeed!
• Get yourself and your family members on a schedule that allows you to do those things that are a priority for you. My solution was to add one hour to each of my days in order to spend time with my daughter.
• However, the point is that we are controlling our time, rather than just hapharzardly trying to manage it. Our decision to set priorities and commit to a solution lets us be the bosses of our own time
• Wake up! No one is going to save you. No one is going to take care of your family or your retirement. No one is going to "make things" work out for you. The only way to do so is to utilize every moment of every day at 10X levels.

• Criticism is a sign of success
• When you start taking the right amount of action and therefore creating success, criticism is often not far behind.
• I've found that it comes as a natural result of getting attention. This may be why some people avoid attention in the first place - as an attempt to dodge judgement.
• Yes, people will eye you and make it clear that they disapprove of what you're doing.
• No matter what choices you make in life, someone is going to criticize you somewhere along the way.
• When you start taking enough action, it wont be long before youre judged by people who arent taking any
• You need to expect and anticipate this as one of the signs of success
• Remember: Success is not a popularity contest. It is your duty, obligation, and responsibility.
• Weak and overwhelmed individuals respond to others success by attacking it.

• Excuses
• Excuses are never the reason for why you did or didnt do something. Theyre just a revision of the facts that you make up in order to help yourself feel better about what happened. Making excuses wont change your situation, only getting to the real reason behind it can do this. Excuses are for people who refuse to take responsibility for their life and how it turns our. Slaves and victims make excuses
• Excuses never improve your situation
• I dont have the money, I have kids, I dont have kids, I am married, I am not married. I have to find balance in my life, I am overworked, I am underworked, too many people work here, we dont have enough people, …. Bored yet? I know I am! Now ask yourself, will any of these excuses ever improve your condition? I doubt it.
• Successful people simply dont make excuses
• No excuse exists that can or will make you successful. Engaging in self-pity and excuse making are signs that someone has an extremely minimal degree of responsibility.

• Successful or Unsuccessful?
• Have a "Can Do" Attitude
• Believe that "I will figure it out"
• Focus on Opportunity
• Love challenges
• Seek to solve problems
• Persist until successful
• Take risks
• Be unreasonable
• successful people know they cannot afford to act in accordance with the agreed-upon realities. If they do, the supposed "impossible" can never become possible for them.
• Otherwise you will end up the same way everyone else does - forced to survive on successful peoples leftovers
• Be dangerous
• "Be careful" is the mantra that parents repeat to their children while buying products from entire industries
• Massive action demands that you throw caution to the wind, even if it puts you in the path of danger.
• Create Wealth
• Readily take action
• The highly successful take unbelievable amounts of action
• These people rarely do nothing - even when they are on vacation
• The unsuccessful talk about a plan for action but never quite get around to doing what they claim theyre going to do
• Massive action is the one thing I know I can depend on from myself, even when times are tough. Your ability to take action will be a major factor in determining your potential success - and is a discipline that you should spend time on daily. Its not a gift or trait.
• Its a habit that must be developed
• I dont think its right or acceptable for me to be lazy
• No one is born to sprint or run a marathon any more than some people are born to take more action than others. Action is neccessary in order to create success and can be the single defining quality that will enable you to make the list of successful people.
• Always say "Yes"
• You have to say yes to everything
• They eagerly engage in life and realize that the word "yes" has more life and possibilities in it - and is clearly so much more positive than "no"
• When given an option to do or not do something, always say yes! Life is to be lived - something that becomes impossible to do when youre constanstly saying no

• Habitually Commit
• The successful fully and consistently commit to activities
• Unsuccessful people rarely commit to anything entirely
• Commitment is actually one of the things of which there is a shortage
• Devoting yourself to something all the way means that theres no backing out
• I would prefer a person who is able to fully commit over onw who is completely educated any day. Commitment is a sign that someone is pledging him- or herself completely to a position, issue, or action.

• Go all the way
• You cant get sober if you are drinking - even a little bit
• Until an action is turned into a success, it is not done
• Commit to being completely unreasonable and going all the way. Dont accep any excuses! No settling allowed"

• Focus on "Now"
• The unsuccessful spend most of their time in the past
• "Now" is the period of time that successful people utilize most often to create the futures they desire in order to dominate their environments
• Taking massive action - while others think, plan, and procrastinate.
• Taking actions immediately allows the most successful to design the future they desire.
• You cannot allow even one second of worry or analysis to delay you in situations like these
• You will be amazed how much you can get done when you quit thinking, calculating, and procrastinating and just get on with it and make a habit of acting now.
• While others are trying to figure out how they will get something done, you will have already finished it.
• Discipline yourself to perform now - not later - and I assure you that the volume of endeavors you are undertaking will wuickly increase the quality of work - and propel you to move with enhanced convictino and certainty.

• Demonstrate courage
• Taking actino regardless of their fears
• successful people carry themselves with an air of confidence and conviction, a sense of comfort, and maybe even a touch of arrogance.
• They acquired these qualities as a result of taking action
• Courage comes to those who act, not to those who think, wait, and wonder. The only way to hone this trait is by taking action.
• Courage is only attained by doing - especially doing things that you fear.

• Embrace Change
• Successful people love change, whereas the unsuccessful do everything they can to keep things from changing.
• The successful keep an eye out for what is coming next.
• The successful look at how the world is shifting and apply this to how they might improve their operations and grow their advantage.
• They know that they must continue to adapt or they wont remain victorious.

• Determine and take the right approach
• Work "Smart" and handle the situation by finding and using the right approach until they succeed. The unsuccessful always find work to be difficult because they never take enough time to improve their approach and make it easier on themselves
• Successful people invest time, energy, and money in improving themselves.
• Focus on how rewarding the results are.

• Break traditional ideas
• Challenge traditional thinking
• Challenge traditions
• Create new ways of doing thing.
• Create traditions
• Do not be a prisoner of the thinking agreed upon by others.
• "Thought Leaders" design the future with forward thinking.
• Highly successful individuals are not concerned with the way thing "have always been done"; they're interested in finding new and better ways

• Be goal oriented
• Successful people are highly goal-oriented and always pay more attention to the target than the problem.

• Be on a Mission
• Consider their daily activities to be part of a more important mission that will change things significantly

• Have a high level of motivation
• Its based on what you do each day to stimulate yourself toward actions and inspire yourself to keep going. Highly successful people continually seek and uncover reasons to stay per4petually provoked to new levels of success
• Successful people are never satisfied
• They are constantly stimulated to higher levels of action and achievements.

• Be interested in results
• Successful people dont value effort or work or time spent on an activity; they value the results
• Lets face it: like it or not, the results are all that matter
• Quit patting yourself on the back for trying, and save your rewards and accolades for actual accomplishment

• Have big goals and dreams
• Create your own reality
• Be dedicated to continuous learning
• Be uncomfortable
• Most of it was uncomfortable for me until I got used to doing it.
• It feels good when things are familiar
• However successful people are willing to put themselves in new and unfamiliar situations
• Know that getting too comfortable, too relaxed, and too familiar causes a person to become soft and lose his or her creativity and hunger to stay out from

• "Reach up" in relationships
• The successful constantly talk about having people around them who are smarter, brighter, and more creative.
• Make a habit of "reaching up" in all of your relationships - toward people who are better connected, better educated, and even more successfull

• Be disciplined
• Discipline is what you use to complete any activity until the activity - regardless of how uncomfortable - becomes your normal operating procedure. You must determine which habits are constructive - and discipline both yourself and your group to do those things over and over again

• Getting Started with 10X
• Act now and then keep acting with the knowledge that enough actions taken now will create the future.
• Now means now - not a minute from now. Start with first things first
• Then, without overthinking it - start taking those actions.
• Take whatever actions you come up with - regardless of what they are or how you feel
• So, I continued with my commitment, dealt with the fear, became a fanatic about it, and continued to increase actions. So I went to work on what i could control.
• New problems - YEAH!

If it takes 2 minutes or less, just do it now. Dont put it off.

What you dont do determines what you can do.

Zeitmanagement: Eat that Frog

Eat that FrogMeine Methode für die erste Tagesaufgabe hat sich ebenfalls bewährt. Ich starte mit der Aufgabe, die am aufwändigsten erscheint oder die ich nicht gern mache.

Hat man diesen “Frosch erstmal geschluckt”, dann arbeitet es sich den restlichen Tag deutlich entspannter und man hat den Kopf frei.

von Selbständig-im-netz.de

The gift of time - dont waste it

1. Think about the gift of time. Time seems like such an endless commodity, because we never see a gauge that’s showing how much we have left. But it’s like reaching into a huge vat of cookies and pretending it will never run out. One day, you’ll feel around inside that vat and the cookies will be gone. Cookies, in this clumsy metaphor, are days in your life. Once you appreciate the limitedness of these cookies, you realize that you have to savor them, and not waste them. Each one is precious! So make the most of it: do you want to create something new, or spend your remaining time doing email and social media?

From zenhabits

Zeit ist nicht Geld

Die Formel "Zeit ist Geld" ist wiederlegt. Anders als einen Euro kann man eine Minute nicht spenden oder vererben. Zeit kann man nicht einmal sinnvoll sparen, denn gesparte Tage werden noch schlechter verzinst als Tagesgeld bei der Sparkasse. Und während der Kontostand verrät, wie viel Geld man besitzt, weiß man nie genau, wie viel Zeit einem bleibt. Wer dennoch Zeit zu sparen versucht, bekommt nicht mehr davon, sondern stopft diese nur mit immer mehr Dingen voll. Und fühlt sich umso gehetzter. Höchste Zeit also für eine neue Zeitrechnung. Vielleicht bekomme ich ja mehr Zeit, wenn ich weniger davon spare - sie geradezu verschwende? Dicke Bücher, einsame Spaziergänge und Bahnreisen mit Signalstörung sind zeitraubend. Vielleicht lohnen sie sich gerade deshalb. Toll wäre auch, wenn einer dieser Schweizer Uhrenhersteller mal die langsamste Uhr der Welt erfinden würde. Oder die schnellster. Oder eine ganz persönliche. Wenn jeder seine persönliche Zeit hätte - mal mit einem 26-, mal einem 8,5-Stunden-Tag, mal mit 33 Minuten pro Stunden mal mit 143 -, dann wäre Koordination unmöglich. Wir würden ständig warten: auf Freunde, Anschlusszüge, den Weihnachtsmann. Weil wir nie wüssten, wie lange wir warten müssen, könnten wir uns währenddessen mit unsere Gedanken und Ideen beschäftigen. Zeit dafür hätte wir ja. Eine persönliche Uhr, die beim Warten hilft, würde mir gefallen. Mit ihr würde es wahrscheinlich zwar schon mittags dunkel, trotzdem läge der ganze Tag noch vor mir. Für so eine Uhr würde ich mein Erspartes opfern. Das Geld, meine ich.

Aus Zeit Wissen Nr. 6/2014 von Marcus Rohwetter