The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney, Jim Huling, and Sean Covey (2016) states one limiting factor to reaching your goal is the day-to-day whirlwind of work, or your ‘day job’. This whirlwind refers to the tasks that must take place to keep the business afloat. These tasks may be tedious, but they are usually non-negotiable things that must get done. The problem with these whirlwind tasks is they leave little to no room for anything else. Chris McChesney in Moving Your Middle refers to a ‘clash’ between your whirlwind/day job tasks and the other tasks that are essential to your goals (2011).
4DX recommends blocking off an amount of time every week that is dedicated strictly working on your goals. This block may be a small amount of time, but it needs to be consistent. If you do not schedule this time in your week, the whirlwind of day-to-day tasks will end up taking over, and you will never find the time you need. Keeping this time in your schedule is extremely important. It could ultimately make or break the successful execution of your wildly important goal.
In my current job, I can see how the day-to-day tasks could get in the way of anything else. Any teacher knows there is not enough time in the day for the things we already need to get done; it seems impossible to try to find time for anything else! As I read through the 4DX book, though, there was a quote about Parkinson’s law that stood out to me. Parkinson’s law states “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” I thought this was relevant to making time for our goals in the midst of the whirlwind – if we let the whirlwind take over every minute of every day, then it will. We must make time to work on progressing our wildly important goals.
References:
McChesney, C. (2011, July 26). Move your middle – chris mcchesney. YouTube. Retrieved February 20, 2022, from https://youtu.be/j3ThJ5b3vww
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2016). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. Free Press.