Book Intro. - Time of Your Life

Time of Your Life

Time & Organizational Strategies to Live Your Best Life Now

When I set out to title this book, I sent out a request to friends, colleagues and family asking them to vote on 4 choices.  Overwhelmingly this title got the most votes and a special thanks goes out to my dear friend and colleague Alan Allard for the idea.

As I am sitting down to write this introduction, I am reviewing the vote explanations and contemplating the reason why this title was the most popular.

In short – it’s feel good. It’s positive, and uplifting (something we could all use a bit more of). 

It also reminded people of the song, Time of Your Life composed by Franke Previte, John DeNicola, and Donald Markowitz and recorded by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, which was made popular by the wildly successful movie Dirty Dancing.

In fact every time I think of the title I hear the song in my head – it’s pretty catchy.

The song is attached to the grand finale scene of the movie with an inspiring dance number by Jennifer Grey and the handsome, dapper Patrick Swayze. If you’ve seen the movie, you know why it’s inspiring. That final scene, by the way, is on YouTube and has had, at the time of this writing, 93,755,765 views.

Why inspiring?...Jennifer Gray’s character overcomes many obstacles to pursue the achievement of learning a certain type of dance.  She risks relationships, she breaks down barriers all in the pursuit…and of course the forbidden romance with Patrick Swayze is in the mix as well. The movie is worth renting for sure!

I’m glad this title was chosen because as I think back on the themes in the movie, it perfectly relates to the themes in this book.

Though this book contains practical, immediately actionable principles and how-tos on how to manage time better or effectively organize stuff, this is not a “typical” time management - how to get organized book.  This book is based on the popular seminar Organizational Skills for the Overwhelmed, delivered through out the United States via my training partner National Seminars Group. It is their title and I feel privilege to teach it.

As I’ve delivered this seminar though out the past few years, deeper themes have emerged that I felt were essential to explore. Those themes and their context have expanded beyond the original seminar content and are being developed into a few spin off topics and some into the content of this book.

Some of those themes are: decision making, the role of emotions, life management, boundaries, personality drivers, personal philosophies about time, understanding behavior, to name a few.

These are what makes this book, not just another time management or how to get organized book and worth your time and investment. 

Additionally, the book contents have duel applications and value for both your personal and professional life.

Are You Having the Time of Your Life?

What a powerful and interesting question!  What does “time of your life” mean to you? Are you living your best life now?  How would you define that?

I really have had to contemplate those questions and in doing so added to the writing and lay out of this book something called Life Success Side Bars – look for them.

When I answered these questions for myself, I first think fun, joy, satisfaction, simplicity, freedom, trying new things, making the most of everyday, living a quality life.

For every reader, the answer to those questions will be unique and so this book is not about telling you what your answers should be!

What this book is about, related to those questions, is providing the principles and how-tos to enhance your life skills toolkit; to assist you in bringing those answers to life more and more!

And that brings me to Steven Covey’s quote, “Begin with the end in mind.”  I believe that in order to have the time of your life - to live your best life now, you need to know what that means for you and if it matters to you!

Answering those questions will provide the motivation and meaning to apply what you’re learning.

Before diving into the first chapter, I suggest taking the time to answer those questions.

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4. See the scene from the movie...Here is the link to the ending scene in the movie - enjoy! http://youtu.be/WpmILPAcRQo

You can check out JoAnn's other book that this blog is based on:
The 1% Edge - The Workbook - Power Strategies to Increase Your Management Effectiveness