MUST DO LIST…SHOULD DO LIST…COULD DO LIST

HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF DO, WHAT YOU NEED TO DO,

WHEN AND HOW YOU NEED TO DO IT

By Coach Lorne McAlister

A recent coaching conversation ended with three phrases pulsating on the yellow legal pad.

• MUST DO LIST …when it’s an absolute necessity
• SHOULD DO LIST… when it would be a good thing to do
• COULD DO LIST…when it’s nice but not essential

WHAT LIST DO YOU DO YOUR LIFE FROM? 

“If you want more, you have to require more from yourself.”  Dr. Phil

Ø      What results do you want in life that you are not getting right now?

Ø      What problems are you experiencing now that you had last year?

Ø      How do you get yourself to the place where you have to do what you want to do?

Ø      How do you ratchet up your productivity from mediocre to commendable?

Ø      How can you get more things done?

Ø      How do you make yourself do what needs to be done, when and how it needs to be done?

The "how-you-get-it-done" answer is the same two words for everybody....

WILL POWER!

It is up to you, and you alone, to devise techniques that will help you keep your drive alive!

“To be enthusiastic you must act enthusiastic.”     Dale Carnegie

"Your greatest asset is your earning ability.  Your greatest resource is your time.  Your greatest power is your ability to choose."      Brian Tracy

Now I have no idea how you help someone who can’t get around to taking action on the items on their MUST DO LIST.  

The biblical label for this type of person is “sluggard” and they are instructed to

“Go to the ant, you sluggard consider its ways and be wise!

 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,

yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?

 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-

and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”

Proverbs 6:6-11

My big concern is how do you, with retention, intention and attention, reposition an item from your SHOULD DO LIST to your MUST DO LIST? 

In other words, how do you get more important things done?

• Crashing into the same old stuff?  
• Feeling the same old familiar pressure?
• Looking into the same black hole? 
• Still got your butt planted squarely on the pause button?
   
  You have a couple of  choices. 

2. You can develop your MUST DO LIST and kick start your life. 

Once you choose to change you are going to be surprised by the people who will show up to help, the resources that will surface to assist you and the pleasure you will experience from the progress you will be making. 

·        Decide what needs to make it to your MUST DO LIST.

·        Write and direct the movie script that will make it happen.

·        Set progress deadlines and completion dates.  A goal is a dream with a date.

·        Persist without exception. Success demands progress - forward the action. 

·        Move from being a con-man-with-a-plan to a completion-man-with-a-project that’s on time, on target and on budget.

·        Engage a coach who will hold you accountable for planning your work and working your plan.

Ø      Focus on making the main thing the main thing.

Ø      Formulate a strategy that will work on paper and has a start button.

Ø      Follow through your good intentions with great actions.

Ø      Find a coach who will hold you accountable to forward the action.

What makes it to your MUST DO LIST is what you are really going to do.