Risk & Business Magazine JGS Insurance Risk & Business Magazine Winter 2017 | Page 6

MIND THE DOWN TIME
BY: RYAN FLEMING
DIRECTOR OF SALES
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION GROUP
JGS INSURANCE
Take Periodically As Needed –
Quarterly Medicine For The Mind
Mind The Down Time
T
here are people in every
industry, sport, or walk of
life that are unbelievable
performers. We see them
accomplish incredible
amounts of work and perform what looks
to be impossible feats of balance, speed,
success, and the like. Most of the time, we
attribute their abilities to DNA that we are
just not born with. We assume that they are
sacrificing parts of their lives that we are
simply unwilling to sacrifice. That must be
it. They can’t be normal human beings just
like us, faced with everyday distractions,
responsibilities, and stresses. I think most
of us convince ourselves that their level of
performance is unattainable or that the
juice just isn’t worth the squeeze. I’d like to
challenge that thought pattern.
I drive quite a bit, and during those drives,
I typically try to listen to as many books
or podcasts as I can. One of the most
insightful podcasts I consistently listen
to is The Tim Ferris Show in which Tim
deconstructs world-class performers to
ultimately find out what makes them who
they are or what gives them the success
they’ve earned. He’s interviewed everyone
from Olympic gold medalists to the
world’s most innovative business minds to
motivational greats such as Tony Robbins.
Through all of these interviews, you can
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see that most, if not all, of the interviewees
have eerily similar belief systems. Tim does
an incredible job of really getting to the
core of how each guest can, so consistently,
produce results.
Exercise routines and diet are always a
given for any world-class performer, but for
the sake of this column entitled “medicine
for the mind,” we will focus on thought
patterns and practices instead. One of the
most important things I noticed is that
each of these guests makes sure to mind his
or her down time. What I mean by this is
that it’s far more important to consistently
move in your intended direction every
minute of every day than it is to produce an
incredible result for short periods of time.
Life is a marathon not a sprint. The story
of the tortoise and the hare is a perfect
example. That incredibly talented hare
didn’t mind his down time and lost the race
to a tortoise, which simply made sure to
put one foot in front of the other on a more
consistent basis.
Each of us has a point at which we
internally feel that we’ve earned some sort
of break or reward of relaxation. While this
break may be warranted, it’s often abused
and comes more often than it should,
drastically limiting our ability to succeed.
The question we need to ask ourselves is,
at what point should we be satisfied with
our progress? Simply setting a higher bar or
throwing more passion at what we want to
achieve will help limit our down time and
increase our focus on success. Personally,
blocking out time each day for a specific
purpose shows me visually where my time
is spent. Although I use lists in the form
of a bubble diagram (trademarked Juggle
Bubbles by my incredibly organized wife),
feel free to explore other options, whether
it is a graphical pie chart, a timeline, or a
simple hourly calendar.
World-class performers have the same
twenty-four hours each day that we do.
They just spend more of it fighting for what
they want to achieve. Goal setting, exercise,
diet, time management. All are important,
but if we can start with simply “minding
our down time,” we may see results we
never thought possible. +
Ryan Fleming offers an understanding and
a refreshing change of perspective. His 14
years of experience in the insurance industry
have allowed him to understand business
from many different angles and in turn,
provide solutions to improve productivity.
Ryan has been speaking for almost 10
years on various topics, focusing mainly
on improving staff mindsets, industry
understanding and controlling loss.