By: D. A. Slinkard
Continuing our series of the “ABC’s of Slinkard on Success” – we have come to the letter “P” and our word is Productivity. This is a word that many people struggle with daily and an area I would urge anyone to try to master. I am amazed at what separates those who can be productive versus those people who are the opposite and are unproductive. What habits will it take to fulfill the meaning of the word “productivity”? Obviously, the first thing a person must do is produce because you cannot be productive if you are not producing results.
The modern definition of productivity is: “The effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit or input.” The next part is to realize we are all productive in our lives, but it comes down to positive productivity or negative productivity. Sadly, I believe that far too many people produce at a negative level so we fail to realize our lives are all about producing results. Yet, too often people produce negative results all because they miss the big picture that all of life is about productivity, good and negative.
I must admit that when I think of our word – productivity – I think about someone getting things done. I know I am effective when I have a list of items that need to be accomplished and I can go through and mark these items off the list. Being able to complete items on a list is a huge motivator for myself, but what about others? How can others become motivated to have positive productivity in their life?
This is the million-dollar question because there have been many authors who have tried to write books upon books about how a person can become more productive in their life. It is my opinion that people must first face the reality that life is all about productivity and some productivity is positive while other productivity is negative. We must realize we all are producing something in our life.
I think that too often we only focus in on the positive production, and we fail to realize that twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week we are producing something. It is up to us, though, whether our productivity is getting us somewhere or bringing us down. We need to be more active in the way we live our life – if we take an active approach to getting positive productivity out of each day – we should see more fruitful lives. When the focus is on being productive as much as possible, our mindset changes and thus our results will be different.
Instead of living a life with no meaning, we should be able to live each day to its fullest by getting the most out of each day. It is like squeezing an orange to get the most juice possible. This should be our approach daily. Yet often, we have a society of people not willing to put forth any effort, and then they wonder why they live the way they do. It is our way of thinking that puts us exactly where we are today. The blame for a person’s life cannot be put on anyone else, but the individual. If I fail in life, it is because I have failed, not the system or anyone else. We must take ownership of what we are producing in life.
Productivity comes down to understanding what results you are wanting to produce. Then it requires understanding what must be achieved to reap what you want to produce. Next, it comes down to sowing or working your tail off to do exactly what needs to be done to produce the results you are looking for. Finally, it comes down to a rinse-and-repeat cycle in that you must take on the grind of realizing we must be “productivity conscious” every day. We are always producing results – if there is a beat in this heart, I am either producing positively or negatively in my life.
Once we have the understanding that life is what we make it out to be, it is at this time we must focus on producing positive results. The more we produce positive results in our lives, the better society becomes. The better society becomes, the better the world becomes, but it all comes down to a person deciding on their own productivity level and results and then continuously going after it. Negative? Positive? What result will you produce?
By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard would love your feedback. You can contact him at da.slinkard@gmail.com
April 19, 2024
