There are certain things from my Naval Academy days I currently find entertaining that were not nearly as enjoyable in the moment. My favorites are sayings I use to this day, like:
The Five Basic Responses – “Sir, yes sir; Ma’am, no ma’am; Sir, aye aye sir; Ma’am, I’ll find out, ma’am; and my favorite, Sir, no excuse, sir!”
“To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be left behind!”
Any of the Laws of the Navy.
And “time, tide, and formation wait for no one!”
I enjoy them because they are concise and profound, and if you take them to heart and build habits from their wisdom, they prove invaluable.
Time, tide, and formation have been on my mind lately. As I take stock of my life thus far, and consider the future, I want to ensure everything I am doing is in line with and is progressing what I value most. Intentionality MUST take the place of time wasted, so I can give my all to the people and things I say are my priorities. If you are familiar with the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, then you’ve inevitably seen the “Urgent/Important Quad.” It is brilliant in its simplicity of design, but not easy in execution. I love that it challenges me to assess my life, and when thinking in terms of time, hits home on how short our lives truly are and where the time can go. In that frame of mind, I give myself permission to invest in the important things and divest from the unimportant through delegation or deletion. But this requires ACTION, first in defining what is important/unimportant, followed by doing, deciding, deleting, or delegating my activities.
Some may think it morbid to ask when you last considered how short life is. They may even take exception to the challenge of assessing where their time goes, and if life is literally being wasted. But I argue that life is too short to NOT ask this question and allow the answer to force your analysis and subsequent action to live intentionally. Not only do you deserve the result of your intentionality, but so do your family, your friends, and your businesses.
Written by David Gutierrez
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