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At my most burned out point, I was overwhelming myself by constantly taking on new challenges and responsibilities. I was getting distracted by unexpected phone calls, junk e-mails, and unnecessary meetings—effectively, I was hopping in too many directions. My lack of focus made it frighteningly easy for me to lose myself in a busy schedule that tore me down rather than built me up.

Once my oldest mentor helped me see that being busy rarely equals success. It was time for me to rearrange my schedule. I had to make my quality of life my top priority. To do this, I changed my schedule to include my Future Picture noncareer priorities such as relationships, spirituality, family, and health.

Action 2: Try the Thirty-Minute Solution

My oldest mentor then told me that a big secret toward creating the quality of life I desired was to pursue my life priorities in daily thirty-minute blocks.

Setting aside thirty minutes each day to achieve my life priorities didn’t sound complicated, until I checked my calendar. I had already committed to so many meetings, events, and deadlines that thirty minutes of uninterrupted time was impossible to find! I shared this with my oldest mentor. I told him that I just didn’t have the spare time to act on his time management advice. That didn’t fly too well.

He said that if leaders from the president to the pope could set aside time each day for learning and peace of mind, I could, too. He also said that if my picture of the future was as important as I claimed, then I would find a way to make it happen.

Then he asked me to describe my Future Picture in detail. As I shared it with him, it became obvious to me that being crazy-busy was not part of that picture. For some reason this had never occurred to me. I was embarrassed to see that I had been running so fast I didn’t notice I was running on a treadmill.

The more I thought about my situation, the more I realized I didn’t want to spend the next forty years working so hard. I was already worn out and I was only twenty-five. My focus shifted from being constantly in motion to being effective with the least motion possible.

Once I took control of my schedule, I was able to create daily blocks of uninterrupted me time that aligned with my priorities. To make this precious time as beneficial as possible, I went back to my oldest mentor for advice. He told me to use the first thirty minutes as an independent study on improving myself. He said by regularly focusing on developing my attitude and skills I’d be positioned to make the most of my life. I called this first thirty minute block of me time my Half Hour to Full Power.

HALF-HOUR TO FULL POWER

In this Half Hour to Full Power my goal was to build my knowledge while making consistent progress in my four priority life areas: relationships, spirituality, health, and work. One habit I got into was calling a different family member each day. I had no idea how much closer this would bring me to my family. At first, it was hard to turn off my work phone for thirty minutes and focus solely on bettering myself. However, I came to cherish this thirty-minute block of me time as one of the pillars to my sanity and creativity.

The next block of thirty minutes that I could set aside was for evaluating opportunity. Once I learned how to see the world as overflowing with opportunity, I had to figure out which ones to pursue. For this I used the Six Questions for Opportunity from chapter 4 to help me distinguish the gems from the junk.

Any extra time that I was able to set aside during the day went to other endeavors that aligned with my Future Picture: exercising, calling old friends, and reading a good book. I know from where you’re sitting it may seem like devoting thirty minutes a day toward living with more balance may seem like adding unnecessary work, but it’s only thirty minutes. That’s less time per day than some of you spend deciding what to eat for dinner. And change requires effort. If thirty minutes