“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
Two variations on a theme you may have come across. It’s usually attributed, probably incorrectly, to Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the US and one of its Founding Fathers.
Whatever its source, it’s understood to be an exhortation to small d democrats to be wary of state intrusions on their freedom.
You could though easily substitute other words for “freedom” or “liberty”. How about “the price of getting the right things done is eternal vigilance”?
One day last week my main task had been to do some specific follow-up work on my sales funnel. On the day in question I began work by tying up a number of loose ends.
Big mistake!
Why?
Well firstly the “loose ends” took longer to tidy up than I expected. And I also ended up having to take a good chunk of the day off for an unanticipated reason and – you guessed it – the main task never got done.
I’m normally disciplined enough to get the main task done early in the day. But that day I let things slip. I worked on the tasks in the wrong sequence. I should of course have done the sales funnel work before working on the loose ends.
So here’s me – who regularly tell clients to identify the main thing in advance and to then concentrate on it early in the day. And I didn’t follow my own advice and you see what happened.
The sequencing of tasks in the correct order needs persistent discipline. It needs “eternal vigilance“. Yep – you simply have to concentrate on it day-by-day. There is no easy substitute.
That sensation of looking back on a day and wondering where it went – it’s not a nice feeling. You don’t want that sense of vague unease, that sense of disappointment. And your businesses sure can’t afford for you to make a habit of it.
