* Life Mapping: A Vision of Success By Titus Maduwa

 Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.

Origin:  Who you are

A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and I am a 17-year old, senior high school student.” It does not tell you about who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation. To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.

Destination: A vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” this is your vision. Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean’s story, after she defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted to have a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen. 

Vehicle: Your Mission 

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on Jean’s self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a doctor, and that she wanted to become one. Her chosen vocation was a medical doctor. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a life dedicated to serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of success. Jean realized that she needed to gain professional knowledge and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that she was a bit impatient with people so she realized that this was something she wanted to change. 

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years. Going back to Jean as an example, she identified the following landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor’s degree in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by the age of 27; earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30; getting deployed in local public hospitals of their town by the age of 32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust accordingly. 

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# 1 International Author Titus Maduwa

#2. Six Tips on How to Save Money on Transportation by Titus Maduwa

Prices go higher every year, especially the cost of gas. Transportation is one big factor that makes the household budget difficult to cover all your expenses. Here are some guidelines to help you save money from transportation:

1. To save money, you must always check on your vehicle regularly. A well-maintained vehicle can get you out of trouble with repair expenses. You can actually spend only $50 on maintaining your vehicle and save up to $800 on repair costs in a year. You can even save more if you do the maintenance yourself and not bring your car into an auto shop.

2. If you want to save more money, it is recommended not to buy a new car. The value of a car depreciates automatically when you drive it out of the showroom of the car dealer shop. You may buy a car that is used for at least one year. It will save you thousands of dollars to the actual worth of the car when it was new. The owner will then pay all the depreciated value of the car.  

3. Save money on buying used cars by comparing the prices of the car dealer and the actual price on the list of the used car dealer ads. To ensure the car that you buy is well conditioned, you may ask for the help of a mechanic to check if the car is good enough for its price. It is better to buy a used car from a person you know and trust. This will help you make sure that you have a good deal in acquiring a car. 

4. Try to compare gasoline rates. You may refuel your car with the gasoline station that offers the lowest price on gasoline. You can even save more by pumping gas yourself and use the lowest octane in your car’s manual. It is also recommended that you pay cash than credit cards that charge extra rates. Do not forget to check the gas cap if it is tightened to ensure no gas is spilled out. 

5. Always keep your engine tuned-up and have your tires inflated to their desired pressure to save you more money. A well-maintained engine consumes less gas. Keep your car’s trunk clean to save more fuel. Heavy loads in your vehicle can consume more fuel because of the excess weight it carries.

6. Try to limit the use of your car on your daily route. You may take the bus or the subway to save gasoline. You can also save time by ignoring the traffic that you encounter every day on the streets.  

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#1 International Author Titus Maduwa

12 Rules to Increase Your Productivity- by Titus Maduwa

Does your productivity ever get hampered by your desire to find the best possible solution? As you seek the easiest or fastest route to your goal, you may find yourself stopped entirely. Sometimes you may even do this on purpose, to keep from having to make a decision.

However, there's a work-around. Maybe you've heard of the term, "heuristic." Heuristics are rules that allow a solution to be found more quickly. With a heuristic, a resolution can be found even when the entire path isn't clear from the onset.

For example, if there were no roads, but you lived in South Africa,New York and wanted to make your way to California, a heuristic might be:

1. Walk west as far as you can.
2. Walk around any obstacle, if possible.
3. If faced with a mountain range, walk toward the space between 2 small peaks.
4. Repeat until reaching California.

Does this heuristic give you the most efficient solution? No; however, it will get you where you want to go, and you won't waste a lot of time trying to make up your mind.

Try these behavioral heuristics to increase your productivity:

1. Choose the right time. Nearly everyone has times of the day when they are most effective and times when they tend to drag. It's smart to schedule the most critical tasks for your most effective time of the day.

2. Toss it. If a task doesn't really need to be done, just get rid of it altogether.

3. Get the bad stuff out of the way. Do the unpleasant items quickly and as early in the day as possible.

4. Set a goal each day (or night). In the morning, decide what you want to accomplish that day. This can be even more effective when planned the night before. Once you have a sense of direction, you can spend all your time getting things done!

5. Eliminate all communication. While you're working, turn off the phone / cell phone, and don't check your email. Hang a sign that says, "Do not disturb," if necessary. You don't have to do this for all your tasks, but at least do it during the more difficult items.

6. Batch similar tasks together. Do all your emailing at one time. Make all your phone calls at another. Open your snail mail during a set block of time. You'll waste less time by doing your work in this fashion.

7. Set a timer. Even if a task might take hours, starting will seem easier if you simply give yourself 30 minutes to get as much done as you can. A time limit seems to help many people concentrate and work better, too.

8. Set targets. For example, if you have to make cold-calls for your sales job, tell yourself that you're not getting up for any reason until you've made at least 100 calls. Regardless of what happens, refuse to stop until you hit your target.

9. Use the Pareto Principle. This principle states that 20% of the actions you could take will provide you with 80% of the benefits. So focus on the tasks that will accomplish the most. Unfortunately, these are frequently the tasks that are not enjoyable. You might be surprised how little you really have to do if you focus on the critical 20%.

10. Delegate some of your work. Is there anyone else who can help you? The people around you are resources. When appropriate, use their time and talents wisely to get things done more quickly.

11. Set a deadline. Having a specific endpoint will really help to focus your time and energy. If a task doesn't feel necessary, chances are that it won't get done.

12. Increase your speed. It sounds silly, but this can really help. Try doing everything a little faster. Walk faster, talk faster, type faster, and read faster.

Implement these heuristics into your life and you'll find yourself getting more done in less time. The ultimate secret is to stay on task and not waste any time. These rules will help you do just that.


Author- Titus Maduwa