The Fourteenth of Life's Secret Ingredients (of 10 or more)

Budget!

Budget time ...
Budget energy ...
Budget finances/money ...
Budget everything!!!

Jim Rohn says "you may not be able to do all you find out, but find out all you can do."  You won't have time or resources to do everything you want to do, but at least see what's available to you and actively make choices.  And in order to make smart choices you need to know what resources are available to you and budget them so that you can work on what is most important to you (family, vacations, business ventures, etc.)

And when budgeting, budget backwards.  Yes, budget starting from the end and work your way backwards whenever it is up to you.

For instance, when it comes to time you can take the total hours available in a day and work backwards to see what "free time" you have to work on the things that are really important to you.  Let's say you want to transform part of your backyard into a rock garden ... and you want it done before your in-laws come to town at the end of the month (because you want to show it off).  And let's say a friend of yours created a similar area in their yard and it took them a total of thirty hours to complete.  You are motivated, you want to impress the in-laws so you are confident that you can do it in twenty-four hours!

Here's what your time budget might look like:
8 Hrs. - Sleep & Hygiene
2 Hrs. - Dining (three meals, including driving to restaurants)
2 Hrs. - Commute to work
8 Hrs. - Time at work
=================
4 Hrs. - Time to work on your rock garden each day

In just six week/work days you can transform your backyard ... without eating into your valuable weekend time!  If you budget and focus, you can complete a little bit of a major task each day and before you know it you've accomplished your goal.  How do you eat the elephant?  That's right, one bite at a time!

Or you can do what most people do (like you did when you were back in school) and crash or cram!  You can waste your whole weekend, push everything else aside, miss out on your kid's soccer game and pass out halfway to your bedroom late on Sunday night. The cool thing is that you get to choose.

Money works the same way.  You know you are going to make $X this month, you know you've got $Y in bills each month (rent, food, utilities) and you know that you should have $Z left to put towards your dreams, goals or projects.  If your $Z is zero or less each month then you have to either increase your $X or decrease your $Y.

Budget yourself a great day!