Every day, there’s going to be a moment when you’re at your absolute best – your most creative, energetic, motivated, savvy. The moment when you’re most “in the zone.” Likewise, there will be a moment when you’re the opposite of all that.
This is true even if the day overall is very bad or very good; there was still a zenith and a nadir. It’s true even if the gap between them isn’t that large on a given day, though the gap is often wider than you think.
The point is this – who is capturing the benefit of the highest point, and who is getting the worst work from the lowest?
Sadly, many people give the very best of themselves each day to something they don’t particularly care about, and save the very worst of themselves for… themselves. During the time of day when you’re at the height of your powers, you’re working for someone else, doing something that isn’t serving you beyond a paycheck. And when you want to work on your own goals, you’re doing so with whatever’s left over.
Reverse that. Make sure that you and your loved ones, your goals and your aspirations – make sure those are getting the very best of you every day. If you’re working a job you don’t really care about in order to pay the bills while you write the novel of your dreams, then why are you working the job during your brightest and most creative hours, and saving the novel-writing for when you’re tired and drained at the end of the day? Get a second-shift job so you can write when your heart is full, and go punch a clock with what’s left.
There is always a best and a worst, and someone gets both. Make sure it goes where you want it to.
The Opportunity Machine 