"Don't manage time, manage focus" | Savinda Ranathunga | TEDxThammasatU

[Music] [Laughter] wish you all a very happy new year you may be wondering what I am talking about am i living for months back yeah what is first of new year means to you someday that we really inspired to achieve something make a true difference where you think about forgiving your mistakes starting something new really achieving some inspirations let me check how many of you had a new year resolution before ok many of them keep holding keep holding how many of you can confidently tell me that you have successfully achieved it oh one two three thanks good I will talk to you during the break why is that one the research done by Scranton University in US have revealed that 92 percent of the new year resolutions that we make are not being successful successful to be achieved it's not only for new year resolutions it's normally for many of the goals that we have in our life to become a better citizen achieve success achieve better exam results there are so many goals that we think and have for the future that we are not being able to achieve I'm no difference I has been the same when I was younger I had the same challenge of setting bigger ambitions being wanting to be the super Idol that always aspired to be but not being able to reaching over there so in 2009 in a January 1st I thought okay I need to make a difference in at least in a small way I really really want to achieve my goal for that year and that year my goal was maybe relate to some of you as well is on personal financial management to make sure that I am managing my finances in the best and effective manner because always maybe relate to some of you end of the month you always run bit less in cash so but the clear difference that I did from just setting up a goal was that let me try to understand what is this challenge is all about what I really want to achieve I want to manage my finance but what is it all about I just take a piece of paper and at least started like pointing down what I am spending every day and what are my source of income and then how I am really managing them so it took some time the point was that I was keeping recording them looking at them then I started understanding okay there are some patterns okay I am spending too much on some time transportation or sometimes in junk food or in many other things and because that one I might not have the capacity to invest on the things that I wanted to so within few months maybe couple of years I really started understanding which I should be really focusing on my finance my personal finance and what sort of sources that can really bring them to me so with that ability after about two years I was able to really manage to make sure that I am self financially sustainable not from my parents money from my own finances but in 3 years 3 2 3 4 years I was able to make sure that I have enough personal money to do further education and also invested in my own social enterprises to start up a businesses so but however when I really dig down into achieving this goal of financial management which I had in 2009 but sort of achieved in 2011 tour I was again went to the same with my experience of at least trying to achieve with that happiness of achieving a goal I went back these finance is the main composition or is it the main driver that we have in our life is it is it finance he standalone so then on 2013 near to a January first again I had this aha moment they need realize me that finance is not just what is it is it's just not a standalone but it really in acts on who you are and what you want to be what are your dreams your visions your missions your aspirations that relates to how you earn money and how you spend money so with that regard I thought okay that means that is my stage - that should be my step - I should be able to set up a better management for myself in terms of what I want to achieve in the future so with my own background being in born in the village working with communities I had this strong desire to empower young people achieve in their development so with that vision I set up my own missions smaller targets that I have pillars of my success on one is on education having good education capacity and on entrepreneurship that really building my successful enterprises communities through that one last but not least on networks they're really making sure that I am part of communities engaging with networks and building the career that I have so but that was only one part of my challenge then I discovered this concept of that we love life the life cycle approach because I wanted to achieve thinking about my future rather than just having a degree or a good job or what will really makes me happier what should be my real mission in my life then it realized to me that it's not about just achieving a career development but more than is to having an overall and all-round growth in my life so with this we love life approach I thought is one but it's all about relationships is about the the connections that you have the religion and the networks that you have it's more about health it's more about spending your time on activities that you really aspire to achieve so with that development I started okay I want to achieve an overall growth in my life and then I started to manage things on this eight path that I want to achieve success so on a day-to-day manner when I was going to work or studies it was not about just getting a degree or having a good business but it's about can I make sure that I am making at least one person in this world a happier because I exist was that my question that I asked every day before I sleep because as a human being we have a bigger mission of helping other communities and other people around us because we exist in this planet so it was not rocket science not starting very big things and creating the biggest change in the planet but just as an example in a day-to-day manner the the house that I live in in Thailand just nearby there's a there's a the cooking person who come there 3:30 every day morning just to prepare so that he can make breakfast packs for the working people around six seven o'clock in the morning but when the normal normal people comes in they pay some money get their goods and then walk away but that person is putting so much effort to make sure that and that person has two small kids I see them in a manner to make sure that they are happier and they have a better life and he actually tries a lot to send them to school I have been saying them like taking the opportunity he carries them to the school and take them from the school so I cannot do much I don't understand the language much but I just and I'm a vegetarian or eating meat the shop sells meat but at least I go to in the every morning before I leave to work I go to that person and have a good smile at him and he actually spend at least two three seconds just to turn back and and read me so that small difference makes me really mean that I have a bigger vision not to just to achieve a success everyday by working out but also having a community and making someone else smile in a small manner so these these small things are making sure that I am achieving an overall growth in my life so that also has a better path because even if I am achieving not achieving success on my day to day activity on a working life for example the exams might not go that well oh you're working they might not be the best but when I manage it with my own tools is only about 30 to 35 percent of my life so what I am talking about this tool so I have a personal management tool which I manage for about seven eight years after seven eight years looks like similar to this the top part explains about how I manage my day-to-day expenses so it's just tracking so after years and years I have categories and seeing how I am spending my my daily expenses English Lankan rupees way but also what are my daily focuses and on this Eightfold Path of life we love life that how I am really incorporating my time but the most important thing is not actually making a tool for yourself is you can manage your day-to-day activities in a way that you like for me it's maybe numbers about gamification of life for me me for you maybe writing a journal or writing a day-to-day diary or having a video or a painting is up to you so it's more about having a smaller step-by-step approach and the fundamental is not managing your time but managing your focus which will enable you to progress on the dreams that you have for the future but what were the key most ingredients that helped me to achieve the success the two most fundamental such a story that I have one is on personal integrity none of these tools none of these challenges none of these personal resolutions maybe you agree the people who achieve them are successful if you are not true to yourself if you are not telling yourself talking to yourself selling what are my challenges and how I can make sure that I am really making sure that I am progressing through if you lie to yourself I can put any number wrong and make myself happy okay I'm good every day it's being true to yourself and the other is self-discipline it's about taking initiative every day no matter how hard it is taking small steps not very big one small steps every day to build upon to this area that you want to achieve but am I telling you this is the best tool or am I the perfect human being who has achieved so many things though I am sitting for my PhDs or right now I have started about five businesses so working for you and project development it has never been the perfect story for me even right now these trackers doesn't look same so this is like a monthly analysis of the detector so there's blues and greens where I have over achieved or achieved my targets per four month but there are always orange or red days where I'm not that successful or have done very worse even sometimes still after six seven years on Finance but it's more important is that you take the initiative of discipline this month you do bad but you start doing again from next day that's why I mean living a life of being a first of January every day you wake up from the morning you jump from your bed because it's a first of January for you every day because you are making your bigger dreams counted down to smaller targets and you are achieving them every day so V I V what we can do is as a community as a as as in a day-to-day manner to see how we can make sure that we are achieving smaller things in a daily manner and cell bread in the success so I believe that you all can make sure that your lives are also a 1st of January starting from tomorrow suggests anyway so hopefully that we can make sure that we achieve our bigger missions and change the statistics as well so wish you all a very happy new year thank you you [Laughter] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 456,501

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Thailand, Life

Id: R7cUvp3XnYs

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2017