Why it’s important for leaders to avoid the deferred life plan

I was reading an interesting book this week, ‘Chasing Daylight’ by Eugene O’Kelly. It tells the story of a high-flying executive who finds out that he only has three months to live after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

He realized, all the plans he had and his wife had made for the future were shattered. He finds it hard not to lament, that one of the big reasons he had sacrificed so much time together with his family, across so many years, working ungodly hours, so that on the other side of it, they would have a prosperous retirement together.

Retirement as a goal is flawed for one key reason, it is based on the assumption that we dislike what we are doing during the most physically capable years in our life. Nothing can justify that sacrifice. That makes about as much sense as saving up sex for old age.

When I work with leaders, my philosophy of ‘helping leaders keep their word and do what they say they’ll do’, has as much relevant to our personal goals as well as our business goals.

I was working with a senior leader earlier this year, he told me his passion was golf (I never understood a sport that you can’t hit a guy who is getting the better of you!). I asked him how much he plays. He said, he hadn’t played golf over the last twelve months, he was too busy!

“Judge your success by what you give up to achieve it”, Dali Lama

Your challenge for this week: identify one thing that you are putting off to a later date that is really important to you or that you love to do and put the first step in place to do it NOW