During a large group lecture in my freshmen business class I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Muir talk about why self-management matters, and 5 dangerous ideas that he believes we should try and live by. So first we have to understand why self-management matters, the first reason is the fact that it makes it easier to focus. If we think about managing ourselves then we allow our selves to stay focused on our goals and work toward them, instead of getting distracted and never actually reaching our goals. Dr. Muir said that in one day we make over 35,000 decisions, some are hard to decide and then others we don’t even have to think about. After he said this though he stated “more isn’t better, better is more”. This means that we can’t just fill our days with things that we don’t need to be doing, but instead we can do better at the things that we need to do and in the end it will be more of a help then doing too many things.

After Dr. Muir opened with those thoughts he started his presentation on the 5 dangerous ideas, and these ideas were:

• Don’t worry about where you are, wherever you are be all there—commit to being present.

• Don’t manage your time, instead manage your energy.

• Do not dream big, instead focus on marginal gains over time.

• Don’t avoid fear or failure; instead use them both as feedback to be more adaptable.

• Do not always build; instead show the courage to subtract.

These 5 things made me think a lot and although I agreed with something’s and disagreed with others I felt like these ideas were straightforward and simple to try and follow and use in my life.

            For idea #1 I found the statement to be very helpful, it mentioned to commit to being present. I know that this is something that I have always struggled with, instead of giving my full attention to what is going on around me I sometimes let my mind wander and think about all the things that I need to do. This isn’t the way to live, I will never have the opportunity to appreciate the wonderful things that are going on in my life if I am constantly worrying about the things of tomorrow. So I plan to start focusing on what is going on right in front of me, and worry about the things in the future that I can’t control when I get there.

            Next comes idea #2, I think it was brilliantly put that we need to manage our energy not our time. It was explained to us that without the right amount of energy we couldn’t get anything done. So instead of sleeping in everyday when I have the chance, I should get up early and use my rested energy to get the things that I need to do done. W.H. Auden said, “Schedule time to discipline your passions”, and I think that by this he means that use your time and energy wisely in order to do the things that we love.

            Idea #3 is one that I do not completely agree with, it says not to dream big, and I think that the sky is the limit and if you limit your self then you will never be as successful as you could be. I do think that our small gains should be viewed as huge victories, but if we don’t have any goals set aside to reach then our marginal goals are all a waste. JJ Watt said that “success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And rent is due every day.” When he says this I feel as if he knows that all of our little goals eventually help us to reach our big dreams.

            Moving on to idea #4, I believe that this idea opened my eyes to understand that failure and fear are not bad things, but instead they are the things that make us into who we are. They are the things that make us stronger and help us to grow into the people that we are supposed to be. In life we have to be able to forgive ourselves, or else we will never be able to move forward.

            The final idea is that idea that we can’t always build our selves, because sometimes we need to have the courage to subtract things from our lives. Subtracting is beautiful because it creates space and time to do the things we have to do, but it is also painful and very necessary.  We have to subtract the things in our lives that we don’t need, and stick to the things that make us happy and successful.