Whenever one of those weight loss commercials comes across a TV screen they show testimonial after testimonial of people that have lost 20, 30 or 100 pounds by using this or that diet or program. The smiling faces and the ‘before and after’ photographs all seek to persuade us to pick up the phone and call now. Yet if you look closely you’ll see, if only for a couple of nano-seconds, a small text disclaimer at the bottom of the screen that simply reads Results not typical.

For years I felt this disclaimer was simply an attempt on the part of the sellers of any specific program or diet to cover their corporate behinds in the very likely event that some client did not reach the amazing levels of success of the people displayed in the TV add. To this day I still feel this is true but I realized also that there is more to this Results not typical. thing.

If we step back and look at all fields of human enterprise those who achieve the greatest success do in fact display results that are not typical. In other words, excellence is indeed not something that just anyone achieves. It is the people that are willing to arrive a little bit earlier or leave a bit later that become outstanding. It’s the people that work a bit harder and focus a little more that attain success.

Most people are not willing to put in the extra effort required to attain higher levels of success. They are, what’s the word?, well, typical.

Their investments in terms of time, effort and focus are less than those made by those at the top of any given field. More than two thousand years ago Greek thinker Seneca said that luck is when opportunity and preparation meet.

In other words, to a very great degree people make their own luck with their day to day activities. The old excuse that ‘I just don’t have the time to do this or do that’ is simply that, an excuse. Everybody has precisely the same amount of time, twenty four hours a day. No more. No less. The difference is how each and every one of us decides how we’re going to use that period of time. Basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neil once commented the following about success; Excellence is not a singular act. YOU ARE WHAT YOU REPEATEDLY DO.

Habits are the builders of the discipline and work ethic that are essential for long term success and as Shaq says we are what we repeatedly do. To get results that are not typical we must be very careful with the way we use our time.

People who are successful treat time as they treat other valuable commodities. They are very careful how they invest each day, week and month of their lives. The people that achieve results that are not typical know the difference between what they need and what they want and they concentrate their efforts on doing what they need first.

On the other hand people that do not achieve great results are unfocused and undisciplined. They do not consciously control their time. They let life happen to them and then they react to whatever occurs. Thus their energy and work is wasted on being reactive instead of proactive. A reactive person is always responding to the events around him. A proactive person is constantly making things happen. Because he is the one setting things into motion he has control over these events instead of being controlled by them.

Those that get better, not typical, results are planners. They start their day with a ‘TO DO’ list that allows them to evaluate their progress in real, measurable terms. At the end of the day they can specifically say what got done and what was not done. Thus they’re ready for another day knowing where to start. These people have specific plans for the next weeks, months and years. They know where they’re going so they’re more likely to get there. Planning and organizing also helps them do other things.

This also allows these people to prioritize. They organize their activities so that the things that are most important get done first. As Dr. Stephen Covey once observed ‘Things that are most important must never be at the mercy of things that are least important. Trivial activities must never consume most of our time, our life.

Going back to Seneca it can be noted that he observed that most people back then wasted their time while they guarded their money zealously. Then he pointed out that this did not make sense to him because time is much more valuable than money is. When we come to think about it, things haven’t changed that much in over 2000 years of history.

The same people that say that they simply do not have time to exercise one hour a day can spend twice that much time passively watching telenovelas or sports events on television. They cannot spare an hour a day to keep in shape or lose some weight but they can spend hours chatting on Face Book or My Space. They can kick ass playing virtual NBA basketball on their X-Boxes but they are so out of shape they’ll get a heart attack if they try to play real basketball.

A dollar wasted can with some work be recovered. A day wasted, on the other hand, is gone forever. So it seems good old Seneca was right. Who would have guessed that there was so much wisdom at the bottom of the TV screen? That fleeting little disclaimer seems to be true in more ways than one.

So if you really want to make good things happen in your life realize that you need to work hard and develop good habits. Make specific plans on how you’re going to use your time for that is what life is. Life is time. Set priorities so that you do the most important things first. What you need to do should always be done before you spend time on what you want to do.

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