Zero Dark Thirty

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I was very curious to watch it. Did you know that depending on what they show in the trailers, you can tell whether it's going to be a nice movie or not?

For example, if they show a lot of the story, a lot of scenes; if they give a lot of the plot away, then it’s probably not a good movie and they are trying to convince you to go watch it by showing you the whole story in the trailer.

When a movie is good, they usually show only bits and pieces of it. They give you just an idea, a small hint of what the movie is about and that’s exactly what makes people want to see it… they want to find out what happens next.

But that can be quite tricky sometimes. It could also be that they don’t show you a lot because the movie is just plain garbage and therefore they don’t want you to find out before time hahaha…

So when I saw the trailer for “Zero Dark Thirty”, I was a bit divided. They don’t show a lot of things, just that a woman was probably responsible for the capture of Bin Laden.

Ok, so let me tell you a bit about the story of the movie.

It’s about a team of CIA agents who were assigned to track down the hiding location of Osama Bin Laden after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. In the beginning all the agents were working tirelessly to hunt him down, but after using numerous strategies and investigating all the leads they had, they started accepting the fact that they might never find him.

Until a female agent was hired to work on the investigation and boy, did she make a difference!

There are lots of nice things about this movie, but if I tell you then I will be saying too much. So instead let me say what I liked the most about this movie.

It shows how strong, determined, efficient and influential a woman can be when she decides to.

It clearly illustrates how sometimes in life people will not believe in you or your ideas, sometimes no one will, but that shouldn’t be a reason for you to give up.

And here’s my favorite: The power of focusing and investing on something you believe in.

There’s a scene in particular that I really liked and that got stuck in my head since I watched it.

One of the heads of the CIA came to speak to the agent I was telling you about, and trying to make small talk, he asked:

“What else have you done for us in these 12 years you’ve been working for the CIA?”

Her reply was:

“Nothing. I’ve done nothing else.”

This sums it all up for me. This is the scene that spoke louder that all the others, but in order for you to understand it, you will have to watch it ;)

The famous "little list"

“I’m afraid to write my list lol, I have the tendency to leave my responsibilities aside… Having to FACE everything I have to do will not be easy!”

This was a comment left by one of my partners in the new round of the Time Challenge and it spoke to me a lot because it reveals the truth about many of us.

For those of you who don’t know, the first task in the Time Challenge is to make a to-do list and after that, the challenge really begins. But who has never heard of the famous to-do list?

I had heard about and even done it many times but it was not something I did often and do you know why? First of all because writing a to-do list shows your reality, it makes you see everything you have to do and have been postponing for who knows how long.

This list can really be dreadful. Sometimes it seems to work against us because most of the time it shows that we simply don’t have time.

It’s also the list that shows our failures, everything we couldn’t do or didn’t have enough time to do. One look at all those undone items and we can almost hear that voice inside us:

“See? You can’t do it! Look how many things left undone! It’s no use…”

That’s why most people adopt the out-of-sight-out-of-mind method. They prefer to never make the list so that they are never reminded that they failed.

But that’s exactly what we need to do if we want to change the way we manage our time. We need to do like my partner described above, we need to FACE everything we have to do, face the truth about where and in what we’ve been spending our time and see where we need to improve/change.

To face the truth about ourselves is no easy task, but totally necessary if we want to cause any change in our life.

And that’s one way the Time Challenge has been helping us: To see where we need to change and how to go about it. So let’s do something, shall we? Even if you are not taking part in the Time Challenge, try making the list this week. Make a daily list of all the things you have to do. Start with the worst one, the most difficult one or the one you simply don’t want to do. Do not go to the next one until you finish it.

After you finish it, cross out that item and go to second one and so on and so forth. See how you do it :)

So, are you up to the challenge of the list? If yes, come back here at the end of the week and tell us your experience ok? If you do well, maybe… maybe I will post one other task that has been helping us oh so much… let’s see ;)

Time Challenge - New Round

I started this Challenge because I wanted to improve my time management skills and help whoever I could do the same.

But it was when I received this comment on my blog that I understood that this could REALLY help people in many different ways:

"I made my list on Saturday night and yesterday I managed to eat the biggest of all the frogs I had… For about ONE YEAR I wasn’t able to go to church on Sundays but yesterday I was able to wake up when my alarm went off and I went to church. I am soooooooo HAPPY! Let’s go all out… 2013 is going to be a good year! This challenge is a blessing!"    Phaty

I remember one time in my life when I too was overwhelmed with too many things to do and didn’t know what to do or where to start. Until a friend of mine showed me a light at the end of the tunnel…

And that was when this whole frog idea started :)

We started a new round of Challenge this week and those who persevere in following the tasks will also see the results in their life.

So for those starting with me, welcome to the Time Challenge. Expect to be challenged indeed.

And for those who would like to join us next time, here’s the link.