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Aligned Thinking

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Aligned Thinking

Make Every Moment Count

Berrett-Koehler,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Take the time to align each action with your deepest goals. That`s the secret to making every moment count.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

To determine what you really want and work toward it, use the tools of "aligned thinking" - including the "MIN" or "most important now" secret - to reframe your attitude about your work and personal life. Tying your work to your long-term goals will make you more motivated to do things you once thought of as chores. The secret of success, according to author Jim Steffen, is to make every moment part of your master plan. In other words, "be here now." You have heard that advice before, but this book describes how to apply it. This is a short book (and could have been shorter), but nonetheless, it imparts useful techniques for getting more out of your time and life. Steffen takes you through a basic prioritizing and time management process to help you clarify where you’re going in life, how to get there and how your daily tasks fit that goal. getAbstract recommends this book to you if you’ve really never sat down before to figure out your deepest desires and how to attain them.

Summary

Find the Target

Are you overwhelmed with stress and long to-do lists? Are your successes not quite as satisfying as they used to be? For a cure, turn to "aligned thinking," a method for aligning every action you take every moment of the day with your deepest purpose. Think of getting all four wheels on the track so you finally can make the kind of progress you want without adding extra stress to your life.

Ray and Carol may be a lot like you: married, harried and buried beneath a mountain of tasks. While they are running down the fast track, they wonder what happened to their dreams. Luckily, Carol and Ray can spend time with Coach Eric, who has developed an effective time and life management method he calls aligned thinking. He knows Carol and Ray need the secret of prioritizing, or "MIN," which means "most important now."

Coach Eric taught Carol and Ray how to relate their deepest desires to every task each day. At first, they found it impossible to believe that anyone could make every moment count, but Coach Eric broke the process down into bite-sized chunks, so it all seemed manageable. Ray and Carol learned to identify and analyze their goals, and to apply...

About the Author

Jim Steffen, Ph.D., is a motivational speaker and consultant with many Fortune 500 clients. He holds degrees in philosophy, theology and mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Massachusetts, where he was the director of the Leadership Lab.

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