If we want to be successful this year, it’s important to streamline our plans and priorities. This way, we can achieve our maximum potential over the next coming months.

We all spend our lives juggling priorities and making sacrifices in some areas of our lives to excel in others. We burn ourselves out focusing on one goal while all of our other priorities get neglected.

The “Four Burners Theory” depicts life as four burners on top of a stove, each represents a core area in our lives.

Those four core areas include health, work, family, and friends. They divide our time, emotions, strength, and energy on a day-to-day basis.

We can harness our inner energy and grow across all four quadrants or we can choose to excel in only the areas that truly matter to us.

You can make your choices. After all, you control your own destiny.

What The Four Burners Theory Teaches Us

The Four Burners Theory teaches us that to be successful, we must cut off one of our burners. To be really successful, we must cut off two!

But would you trade family and friends for improved health and a better career? Would you leave your job or risk your health for family or friends?

Or are there ways to embrace this theory? Can you use it to your advantage to get the most out of life?

Maximize Productivity

You can become 100% more productive by following these points!

It would be difficult to allocate all of your time to one burner without dire consequences to the other three burners in your life.

Think about it.

What is the most important burner in your life right now? Are you spending enough time with your family or are you working too much?

Are you letting your health slip in order to work harder? When was the last time you sat down with friends and relaxed?

Once you’ve established which area to focus on, ask yourself some more questions…

• Can I spend time working out on my lunch hour?
• Can I exercise with my family with a fun activity or sport?
• How can I manage my time to become more productive at work?

By asking those simple questions, you can start managing your time more efficiently- without sacrificing a burner.

Outsource and Delegate

It’s up to you to decide how much or how little you do, but give yourself a break!

Modern life is full of difficult choices but it’s also full of positive opportunities and potentially magnificent outcomes.

Delegating or outsourcing certain tasks can seriously take the pressure off of your four burners, freeing up more time and allowing you to do the things you enjoy more often.

Applying this idea to just one quadrant of your life will immediately free up time for you to focus on the other three burners.

Here are some examples of how you can outsource each burner in order to maximize your time and effort.

Health: Instead of spending ten hours a week in the gym, develop a plan that will dramatically improve your overall well-being in just 5 hours or 30 minutes a day. Research online and consider diet and nutrition combined with exercise in order to maximize your overall well-being in just a short time. One of the easiest ways is to drink enough water each day.

Work: If there are tasks that you can outsource online or to your staff, then why are you still doing them? Sometimes, allowing others to complete arduous tasks on your behalf can free up time and maximize your overall productivity. Don’t be afraid to delegate!

Family: Have you considered day-care for your children or hiring a babysitter while you free up time to focus on the other three burners of your life? Have you considered hiring a cleaner so that you can spend an extra hour or two with your children or spouse? Think of all the options available that can make family life and time easier for you.

Friends: Delegating or outsourcing for your health, family, and work will ultimately give you more time to enjoy life with your friends. When was the last time you talked to a friend?

See Also: 5 Reasons to Outsource Your Crazy Life

The Seasons of Life

Remember, every season can feel like summer if you’re focused and motivated!

If you split your life into seasons and spend time focusing on a particular burner, this will lead to mastery in that area of your life.

There are several reasons why this can be beneficial:

• You can travel on longer vacations with your family and friends.
• You can set aside time to work on projects that you previously had no free time for.
• By dimming one burner or two, the others will spark and fire up brighter, leading to passion and understanding in key quadrants of your life.

Work-life balance is important. Using the above examples and ideas, fire up your inner stove and focus on the things that mean the most to you. Divide, delegate, constrain and most of all…

Be true to yourself and light the burners with the fire within your soul!

What is the most important burner in your life today?

A Work-Life Balance? 8 Steps to Help You Juggle It All

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One of the worst mass shootings in the United States is the Las Vegas shooting incident which has woken up everyone worldwide. Even I was deeply affected by the news as I read through what victims and the families of the dead have endured during the tragic event.

Because of what has happened, hundreds of people around the area and thousands of people all over the world probably have one thing in mind: How to survive a mass shooting?

To help spread awareness, we’re listing down the crucial steps which can help save lives if such incident happens. Here’s what you need to keep in mind.

Run Away

This is your first priority. Do your best to escape and run away as far as you can from the shooter.

Make sure that you have identified the escape routes around the building or area you are in. While running, avoid any rooms or areas where you can hear gunfire.

React Fast

If you do hear gunfire or panic ensure around you, do NOT freeze up or waste precious seconds trying to figure out what you should do next.

Go look for the escape route nearest to you. Take off anything that can slow you down, like your heels or your bag. Run in the opposite direction of those gunshots.

Do not bother trying to pack your belongings. They aren’t as important as your life!

Run to the Exit

When you run towards the exit, go straight ahead.

If you need to take cover from the shooter who’s blocking or following you to the exit, create a zigzag motion to make it harder for him to shoot you. If that’s not the case, simply run straight ahead and focus on your escape.

Bring Others

When you are running to the exit, it’s best to bring others around you or to encourage them to run with you. If they aren’t able to run, then drag them.

Just like saving yourself and looking for a way out, saving others should be a priority as well. Plus, it makes it harder for the shooter to target individuals when running as a group.

Hide

If you aren’t able to go to the nearest escape routes or if the shooter is around and the exit is blocked, then the next thing you should do is to hide in any room.

When you find an empty room to hide in, lock and barricade the door and try calling an emergency number while doing so. Get any weapon you can use to strike the attacker if he approaches you.

Take Cover

While you are finding cover, look for places that will be able to stop a bullet. Think of walls, thick trees or support beams.

For those in an office, hide behind a heavy desk or cabinet that would not restrict movement. Turn off whatever can make a noise, including your phone or watch. While hiding, stay cool and collected to avoid being noticed.

Teamwork Helps

If you manage to get other people to run or hide beside you, then it helps to assign tasks to everyone. One can keep watch while others try to connect to the authorities.

Play Dead

And if everything else fails and you are unable to escape or find cover while the shooter is active, then play dead. If ever the shooter does catch you, you can attack.

Do NOT bother reasoning out and simply attack with whatever sharp or heavy object you can find. Commit yourself to it until the weapon is out of the shooter’s hands or he is injured.

Wrapping It Up

And there you have it!

I hope that this article on how to survive a mass shooting helped you become more knowledgeable about what you need to do to keep yourself and others safe and alive.

All my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families of the dead. Hopefully, we don’t get to read another news about mass shootings ever again.

The post How to Survive a Mass Shooting: 8 Actionable Tips from Experts appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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