Note: This information has been written in a way so that it is more like a dream or a vague memory. It is a story about you designed for your benefit. Treat it as such.

You have travelled all the way out to a small cottage in the middle of the woods.

It is dark, as the sun is setting, and you are feeling a little unsure of yourself.

Before you is the cottage, it is small, unremarkable, but beautiful. Made from oak wood, and built by someone who must have been a master craftsman, you are impressed.

You knock on the small wooden door, and wait a moment. You can hear shuffling from inside. A few moments later, the door opens, and a small old man stands there.

He looks up at you with cheerful, shining eyes. “Welcome,” He says, “Do come in, I have been expecting you.”

He sits you down, and talks to you about small matters like how he managed to do a lot of gardening today while the weather was good and how lovely the two birds were he saw in the afternoon.

You are given a piece of warm buttered bread and a cup of tea. You eat the bread first and then drink the tea, but all the while your mind is fixed on the issue. You want the old man to hurry up.

Finally, after the welcomes and the formalities, he sits down opposite you and smiles. The fire burns softly from the fireplace, and there is hardly any sounds outside.

“You came here to ask me something, yes?” He says to you.

Yes, you say, yes I have come to ask you something, and you begin to explain your problem. You have been so busy with work that you can’t focus on what you want to do. What you really want to do. Family and friends have also been keeping you busy, and there’s also the bit of drama at work that has been going on…

And so you talk, talk, and talk. You explain why you are just out of time to use on your passion, on how you can’t even begin on that project or that idea that has been in your mind for months.

You sigh, finish talking, and wait. He has been nodding politely the whole time, and seeing that you have finished, he waits some more. The silence grows, and grows, and grows.

Well, you ask, what do you think?

“Well,” He says, repeating your word, “How badly do you want it?”

You rise to speak, and then stop yourself. Somehow he has knocked the words out of your mouth. Now you are silent, and you think.

He begins to speak again, “Do you want to know how anyone can achieve what they want to achieve, even if they are pressed for time and have no room for themselves?”

You nod, yes, you say, yes please tell me.

He nods, and smiles politely, and then speaks in a gentle but energetic voice, “You must learn to pay yourself first. That is key. You are your own most important client, your own most important employee, the CEO and Thought Leader of You Inc.”

“When you find you have no time for yourself and you see your dreams slipping away from you, you must follow this principle of paying yourself first.”

How? You ask.

“One way,” He says, “Is to devote the first hour of everyday to whatever your true passion is. Whatever your mission is, the first hour of everyday belongs to it.

But, but, I am so busy! My mornings especially.

“When do you get up?”

You tell him.

“Then,” He says, “Rise an hour earlier and begin your work then. If an hour is too early, then half an hour earlier will do, and if that too is to early, then wake up fifteen minutes before your alarm, and do what you were put on this earth to do. That is where you will find the time to do what the Father has put you on this earth to do.”

Is that all? You ask.

“Yes,” He says, “Pay yourself first, and learn to give the first hour of the day to yourself and your mission.”

After some small talk about the plants on his windowsill, you stand, thank him, and leave.

As you walk back, you think over his words, and wonder if you can follow his advice. Can you follow his advice?

The truth is, it comes down what he said first, “How badly do you want it?”