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Why People Fail – Part One (Scattered)

There are many reasons why people fail. I’ll deal with some of them, beginning with what has become a kind of daily uphill for me; that is dealing with people whose business, be it commercial or personal, is a mess.

<a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/brain-confused-mental-tangle-alziemers-memory-67112488?src=hnQem67wQmYIFNXPLFM_ag-1-87" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>

Tim calls a lawyer to help him. They are to meet at X hour. Tim is late. The lawyer is gone on someone else’s business.

Nan is to bring documents to an office. She leaves home a few of them.

Jen promises to get back to someone, but gets caught up in other things and forgets.

It is pretty clear that Tim doesn’t see the importance of his case, Nan isn’t focused on her business, and Jen lets her life drift in any direction others choose.

Many people are involved in many things at the same time. However, those who fail are those who can’t prioritise.

Months ago Mel wanted to sell the house. She eventually contacted a lawyer, and never did get around to paying the money.  When she finally did, her business had to be put on the back burner as other people’s business was being dealt with.

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mundus_Intellectualis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>

If she’d been timely, then her work would have been completed, but being lackadaisical when it comes to vital things, she misses another opportunity, goes back to the end of the line, where she’ll soon forget why she’s there.

The problem with these folks is that they can not prioritise. They can not stop their blah blah,  or schedule to recognise what is vital NOW and what can be postponed to then.

So Tim, supposed to be on spot at a specific time, gets distracted with this and that as if the world is waiting for him

Nan knows she’s to bring documents to the office, but is thinking about who said what when and to whom, instead of focusing on the documents.

Jen knows that she must get back to a specific person, but lets everything else wash in, until the time is long passed and then will want some kind of ‘re do’.

Mel, as the others can not stop her life for ten minutes to appreciate that once the house is sold, that is the end of all the bills and concerns about the house, so by the time she can fit it into her ‘busy’ schedule, as other people have lives, they are not going to squeeze her in.

When you are scattered, and can’t prioritise you fail. You fail in everything that isn’t done this second now with what you have with you. Because your brain is not under your full control, as soon as you walk out of the room, it ceases to exist.

<a href="http://scatterbrain.me/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>

What you have to do, even if you need to write it down, is to prioritise what is important. For example, for Tim, seeing the lawyer should have taken priority over all his other tasks and he ought have been early, not late. Being early gives the signal that this is important to you, and this signal is read by those around you.

What Nan ought have done is stop her life, gather her documents, all of them, even extras so that when she goes to the agency, she has everything and doesn’t have to come back.

Jen ought have made a notation in her diary and religiously checked her diary every day, two or three times if necessary to insure she didn’t forget anything.

Mel needs the same kind of advisory that Jen does, because she lets so much slip away.

These people are failures because they are scattered.  And don’t have to be.

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What do you think?

Written by jaylar