Friday, January 02, 2009

Get Margin!

This past year will probably go down as one of the most transforming years of my life but like most transformations there was a good amount of struggle and pain involved.

It's easy to look at other people's lives and think that because they have this or that they must live this blissful life and I've found myself believing this lie at times. It's never the case and what I've found is that the more I have (of anything) the more problems I have. I'm not scared of these problems. My career is built on creating solutions to problems and that's one of the gifts I've been given.

One of the biggest problems I face and see many people struggling with is the increasing pace of life and the increasing amount of things to do and things to do them with! The temptation is to think that if I just had this or that I'd have more time to enjoy life or be with the people I love but if you were on the Free to Succeed tour you heard me say that the fastest way to create more freedom and fulfillment in our life is actually ELIMINATION!

I'm seeing this truth play out in my business and life right now and how desperately I had been needing this all along. My life was crammed full. There was no space - no true flexibility - no margin and so as more got squeezed in the tension increased exponentially.

My business partner Todd just gave me a book called Margin (Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives) and wow I am so excited about this book. We are giving a version of it "One Minute of Margin" to all of our employees. It takes about ONE minute per day to read the daily thoughts and wow are they right on!

12 comments:

Caroline Ghetes said...

Wow! Thanks for the suggestion! I may need to read this. I gotta slow down, LOL.

Unknown said...

It'd be really interesting to see the suggestions the book makes... who doesn't need more time in their day, really? We really do pack so much into our lives. It's hard to know how to find time to get it all done, AND, there's always that struggle of finding balance...

I have to finish Selling the Invisible first... haha:) I'm on page 80 though... which is a big deal. And I'm really loving it. Makes so much more sense than when I tried to read it 4 years ago (when I didn't even have a business...?).

Gray Photography - Zach and Jody - Nashville Wedding Photography said...

That is one of the things my hubby and I loved about the Freedom to Succeed tour is the emphasis on being free and not so "busy" all the time with all this junk that crowds our lives. Love it! Many blessings on you this coming year! (PS Love ShowItSites! Ours is about to go live and we are pumped :)

michelle ford said...

that sounds like a good book i'll have to check it out. i'm glad you're going thru this evaluation process. i want to share with you a revelation i had as well. i've been reading a lot of blogs and it took me a bit to realize that the lives i've been envying are sometimes just plain marketing. i for one know that i don't share everything with everyone. i maintain a public facade to a certain degree. these blogs i enjoy reading and the lives i envy (and the stories i hear from my friends)... it's a public facade too. behind those awesome stories i'm sure is truth and life .. just like mine. just like yours. don't forget that.

faithsalutes said...

i think you should make more time for me. HAHAAH.

i love that you are slowing it down.

Michael + Anna Costa said...

Your awesome. Thanks for this insight - I really need it right now! :)

Unknown said...

You sound an awful lot like Miss Liana last year... margin, margin, margin!

Unknown said...

Hey dj
You should check out total money make over by dave ramsey he teaches us how to live without credit cards and credit all together. www.daveramsey.com
Happy New Year!

JAMIE said...

Just wanted to say that I loved the Free to Succeed tour this summer. Truly inspirational. I was looking over my notes from it last week. You and Jasmine said so many powerful, helpful things. My 2009 pricing increased. Thank you for the help and continual "you can do it."

jeramy sossaman said...

also check out, 'take it to the limit' by Andy Stanley. same concept. great stuff....happy new year!

Erik Miguel said...

I'll check it out, it's always enlightening to think about what is most important to us in our life. Hope everything goes well for you.

Julie Watts said...

DJ! I was in your SB February '07 workshop at Brooks. It really marked the moment everything began to REALLY take off. I raised my prices and have been published and flown twice to do weddings! I'm still reading all the books on your booklist, too. I just wanted to stop by and say "THANKS!!!"