Recently, I walked in on my children as they were playing a racing game on our home video game system. Their cars plunged forward at frightening rates of speed as they whizzed around corners and narrowly avoided obstacles, such as trees, signposts and other cars. Of course, they didn't always avoid those obstacles, resulting in horrific crashes. Yet, within seconds, they were at it again; racing with abandon towards the finish line. They certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves but it seemed very stressful to me.

As I watched them, I began to realize that, for years, I lived my life as if I were in a video game. I raced through life at top speed. I skidded through turns, made dangerous passes and even drove on the wrong side of the road in my haste to reach the finish line. And yes, just like in the video game, I eventually crashed. However, unlike in a video game, a crash in real life has consequences; in my case, prison.

While most people won't have to deal with such a horrific crash, many people are racing towards their own calamities. For example, in my coaching practice, I come across many people who are living in the fast lane. They work up to 80 hours per week. They serve on the boards of several business and civic organizations. And, in addition, they have the responsibility of being spouses and parents.

As a result, they often feel that their lives are whizzing by as they race from one responsibility to the next. In a sense, they've become trapped in a real-life video game - eyes forward trying to avoid the obstacles in their paths. And while this type of lifestyle can be exhilirating in the short-term, it leads to burnout or worse over time. If you find yourself similarly trapped in a two-dimensional world of frantic motion, then it's time to start living 3D. And you can do this by learning to properly order the 3 "D"s of life - doing, delegating and dumping.

Whenever you're faced with an opportunity or responsibility in life, you have three choices - you can do it yourself, you can delegate it for someone else to do or you can dump it (decline). The problem for most of us lies in the fact that we process our choices in this order - do, delegate, dump. Someone comes to use with a request and if it's at all possible, then we take on the responsibility ourselves. If we have some other confliciting obligation, then we usually try to find someone else to do it. And finally, if we are unsuccessful in this effort, then we can dump the responsibility back to the other person or drop it completely.

So, for example, someone on the board of your organization asks if you would organize this year's breakfast fundraiser. You check your calendar and realize that you're free on that particular morning, so you agree. A week later, you receive a promotion at work. Before long, you realize that you don't have as much free time to devote to the breakfast. So you begin to look to other members to help you organize the event (i.e., you delegate). If you're unsuccessful in this effort, then you're stuck with the options of either piling this responsibility on your already full plate or dumping it back in the lap of your board member. Obviously, neither one of these are great options.

For this reason, you should reverse the process. First, you should decide whether to accept or decline (dump) the opportunity or responsibility. And don't be too hasty to accept just because you happen to have some free time in your schedule now. You don't know what the future holds. Therefore, you don't want to put yourself in a position where you have to turn down a wonderful future opportunity just because you're previously committed to a mediocre one.

Second, if you do accept the opportunity, you should immediately find a way to delegate any task that can be better performed by others. The reason for this is two-fold. By delegating to others, you free up more of your time for the tasks that only you can perform. And perhaps, more importantly, you allow others a chance to use their special gifts and talents. After all, a task that may be a burden for you, like cooking, may be someone else's greatest joy.

Third, as a last resort, you should handle a task yourself. After all, you won't always have the time or money to delegate the task someone else. During those times, you will have to "just do it." However, the key is to just do it now. Remember, you don't know what opportunities are in store for you in the future. Therefore, don't wait until later just because it doesn't "have" to be done now. Clear that obstacle out of your path now so that the future will provide an open road for the opportunities that come your way.

By dumping, delegating and doing (in that order), you can reduce a lot of the craziness in your life and add a whole new dimension to your dash. I have been known to tell many people I am considered the smartest person in the world. The reason I can make that statement is due to the fact that I know that I do not know everything and I surround myself with people that are smarter than me. The 3 "D's" were taught to me by my dear friend Michael Maturo. Someone who I look up to and respect in many aspects of life. Find someone in your DASH that can give you advice the way Michael gave me, and I can only guarantee that your life will be better than it was.

"To get all there is out of living, we must employ our time wisely, never being in too much of a hurry to stop and sip life, but never losing our sense of the enormous value of a minute." Robert Updegraff