The Power of Now!

This article is about the power of now and not putting things off. Many times I am asked, ” how do you remain so organized in the face of utter chaos?” The simple answer is that I don’t allow things to pile up. In previous articles I have explained the art of time management and planning ‘Murphy-Time’ into your daily schedule. While I will be the first to admit that lately my scheduled Murphy-Time has not been enough to keep up with all the events, without it, I would be sunk. Prioritizing has to come into play when you become overwhelmed but I don’t want to confuse prioritizing with procrastination.


The power of now is what I call not procrastinating, not putting something off, but jumping right on the issue without delay. I can’t tell you how many times I see managers have an issue come up, or a question they put off and say “I will find out”, or “I will check into that”. If somebody approaches me with a problem I solve it right then. I pick up the phone, shoot an email, make a decision, or address the problem right then. I don’t have the luxury to put it off or wait until I get to it. If someone was able to approach me with the question, then I obviously had the time to deal with the issue. If I were to say “Let me look into that”, I know that an hour from now I will have 20 other issues vying for my time.

All too often I have team members come into my office and say “when you have a minute”… They are always shocked when I say what’s on your mind? And ask them to come in and sit down. That is the power of now. Not only does it keep things from piling up on me, but it lets my teammates know that they are important to me, and I care about what they care about.

I will have a customer ask me a technical question that might require research. I will ask them if they have a minute, and will pull out my iPad and start searching the internet, or make some phone calls with them standing right there until I can get them the answer they needed. Again, that is the power of now.

Many times I will have a team member come in my office and say “I need …”. I will stop what I am doing and take whatever actions are required by me to get them what they need. That is the power of now.

Finally, when I have a thought “it might be a good idea if…” I immediately analyze the pros & cons, make a decision, and if I decide it’s a good idea, I take the actions required to implement the idea right then.

The true power of now comes down to the fact that in most cases you really do have the time to address issues when they are presented. Why would you put them off? Surely you are not going to have more time later. I can almost guarantee that there will be another issue requiring your attention later on, so why let things pile up? Resolve the issues or questions now!

If you are contemplating a career move, going back to school for a better education, or simply just considering a new marketing strategy. The time to act is now. Weigh the options, lay out the pros vs. cons and if it makes sense, then do it. If you have weighed out all the positives and negatives yet still can’t decide, flip a coin, and move on. There is no excuse for procrastinating, and it only leads to becoming overwhelmed down the road.

The power of now translates into everything you do both at work and at home. I hear people say I have this goal, or I plan to… However, if you ask them details about how, what, where and when, you quickly find out that they don’t have a plan or a goal, they only have a dream. A plan or a goal requires specific steps and processes to acquire the goal or successfully complete the plan. Be a doer not a dreamer. Don’t talk about how nice it would be if, or wouldn’t it be great if. Put together your plan and as Nike would say “just do it”. And when should you do it? NOW!

Enlightened Over Enraged

This article is about getting better with every mistake you make, something I have always implemented in my life’s effort. We have all heard the adage that it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, but that you get up and try again. While this may be true, in actuality, it takes quite a bit more than just getting up. If you get knocked down and get right back up, but do the same thing you originally did to get knocked down, chances are you will end up knocked down again. The trick is to understand why you got knocked down in the first place. As George Santayana said; “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.


I can remember many years back when I played football, watching other players that would get beat on the field and then get mad, waving their hands, cursing, yelling, pounding the ground, or many other foolish things to express their anger over the fact that they just got vanquished by the other team. To be honest, I never understood this behavior. Not because I never had been outplayed by another, but because when it did happen, I would stop and analyze what just transpired. I would figure out where I went wrong, make some adjustments and then try again, usually with better results than just getting mad and making disparaging remarks about the other person’s mother.

This application applies in all walks of life including work. Many times I see people blame others for their shortcomings, or blame other companies when things go wrong, rather than looking internally at what they could have done better. It seems that we live in an age today where everything is somebody else’s fault and no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions. Consider this your wakeup call if you are someone who likes to cast blame. If you find yourself in an unfavorable position, chances are you contributed to the chain of events and put yourself in that position. Take the time to learn from it and avoid those same actions again in the future.

The truth is that every failure, every mistake, every time something doesn’t go your way, you are faced with a teachable moment wherein you have a chance to analyze what went wrong, make some adjustments and get back out there and try again. It is your choice to become enraged and to continue making the same mistakes over and over again, or to take the time to understand where, when, and why things went the way they did-- and become enlightened.