By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to be more productive –now. Reading time: 2:41.

4-year-old daughter:
“Dad, what time is it?”
Dad: “Now.”

“Yeah, now.”
Dad: “Now.”

“Stop fooling around, dad. What time is it?”
Dad: “Now.
“Now is the only time that really matters.”

In the NOW, leaders know that yesterday is a cancelled check; tomorrow a promissory note. Today is the only real currency leaders have to spend.

In the Now, leaders leverage the moment —into MOMENTum!

In the Now, leaders see more congruence than coincidence in the quirk that the word “Now “is “Won” spelled backwards.

In the Now, leaders board the train of life determined to DO something Now !

Yet many procrastinate. They’re paralyzed in their own fear. They’re frozen in their own time waiting for that NEXT station in life – you know the one always just around the next turn —where you will : FINALLY achieve your dreams (after the kids are out of college); FINALLY get that promotion (after the owner retires); FINALLY, win that piece of business (after your new product introduction) or FINALLY buy that bigger house (after you get that bonus) . Stop waiting. “Relish the moment” as poet Robert J. Hasting urges in his poem: Now Is The Best Time of Your Life. As Hasting observes what really drives us crazy “is the regret over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves that rob us of today.”

Now is the time to celebrate as comic-strip character Ziggy observed, noting that there is no greater gift that The Present.

Now is the time to innovate as psychologist Abraham Marlow observed, noting that “the ability to be lost in the present seems to be the sine qua non for creativeness.”

Now is the time to propagate as General George Patton observed, noting a good plan executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.

And now is the time to help you stimulate your ability to more fully unwrap the present – the ultimate gift of time. Consider this inspiring inscription on a sundial that captures the urgency and the inherent potency of NOW:

The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past.
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour no longer thine.
Before it lies the unknown hour
In darkness and beyond thine power.
One hour alone is in thine hands,
The now on which the shadow stands.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Orient yourself around today to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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