Author: cbarney.45

If everything is a priority, then nothing is. What is the MOST important task for you to complete today that will bring you closer to your one year, three year, and ten year goals?

When of the greatest separators of being human versus being any other animal on planet earth is our ability to plan for the long term future and prioritize our to tasks to help us achieve those plans. Do you think a lion is thinking about when he wants to retire or even what he’s going to do next Thursday? But the sad reality is that many of us do not take advantage of our ability to plan. We live day-to-day, doing just enough to survive, but not enough to thrive or make real progress towards a better future.

How can we start to live with a purpose or plan in mind? At the start of every week, look at the week ahead and rank what your priorities are from most important/most urgent to least important/least urgent. Think about your future goals and look to see if your planned actions for the week will help get you there. What action steps absolutely need to be taken to keep you on track to achieving your goals and what tasks/steps do not need to be taken this week (or ever)? Are there redundant tasks that you find you’re constantly performing and can you find a way to automate those to free up your time? Are there frequently asked questions (FAQs) that you find yourself responding to regularly? If so, do you have a website or an email template that can answer those questions before people get the chance to ask them? The key is to minimize tasks that don’t move the needle in making progress towards your future goals and instead focusing only on the most important and highest priority actions. Once you are able to do that, you will be able to make significant progress towards your goals and finally be able to thrive.

Learn how to say, “I don’t know” and you will grow much more quickly as a person.

First of all, if you can say you don’t know something, you’re being honest with yourself. You won’t spend hours (or longer) toiling, trying to figure something out when you could have asked somebody and gotten an answer immediately. There’s an idea amongst many great entrepreneurs that “failing faster” will lead to quicker success. That is because you are gaining more experience and learning what not to do by attempting (and sometimes failing) more frequently. For example, if it really did take Thomas Edison 1,000 tries to invent a successful lightbulb, would he have been better off attempting those 1,000 tries over one year or ten years? Speed up your learning curve by failing quickly and being able to say to others “I don’t know.”

Secondly, when you say “I don’t know,” you’re showing a vulnerability that makes you more approachable and likable to others. Most people like helping others because it allows them to show their value. It makes them feel good about themselves by providing their expertise on something.

Third, by saying “I don’t know,” it will increase your credibility. If you act like a know-it-all and give a response without actually knowing the answer, everything you say will be more likely to be questioned. Whereas if you say “I don’t know” frequently, when you do give a response, others can feel confident that you didn’t make up an answer due to being fearful of looking dumb. Your ego is the enemy. Don’t let it stand in your way.

You will only go as far as your weaknesses. What are your limitations? Do you have the technical skill to do something, but not enough time to do it? Do you have more time than you know what to do, but not enough money to invest in something (school, investment properties, etc.)?

Your ceiling is determined by your capacities. Unless you can increase your capacities, you can only make it so far. The best businesses (large and small) realize this and put together programs to combat this.

How do you increase what you’re capable of doing? Either by outsourcing your weaknesses (hiring someone to do what you don’t like doing, aren’t good at doing, or don’t receive the best return on your time investment) or by working to improve your weaknesses (increasing your skill with more practice, talking with experts, reading, etc.).

In the beginning, it may make sense for you to try to improve upon your weaknesses to raise your ceiling. If you’re a business owner or a manager, you should have at least a basic understanding of what you will be asking someone else to do. The best way to gain that understanding is by doing it yourself. But over time, as your daily task list piles up, the best way to grow will be to delegate tasks to qualified, trusted individuals on your team.

How do you know when it’s right to hire someone new? Once you get to the point where your time is almost at capacity (say 80-90%), you need to hire someone to replace you and your weaknesses. Hiring too soon cuts into your profits (if the new hire is getting paid to work 40 hours a week, but really they’re only busy for 25-30 hours, you’re basically paying them to sit around). But hiring too late, when you’re already crunched on time, won’t allow you to properly train the new hire, leading to frustration and decreased productivity in your other tasks.

Before hiring someone though, make sure you develop an Operations Manual to hand to them on day one. This will be used as a reference guide, so they do not always have to ask you the same questions. It also gives them direction and lets them know what to expect, including daily tasks and what we feel are current best practices. It should be communicated to the new hire that the Operations Manual reflects the way we did things when we wrote it, but it should be viewed as a template that is a work in progress. You should always be open to changing specifics (tactics) as you find better ways to achieve your strategic goals.

Having goals is important, but hitting them is not the be all and end all. If your goal is to lose 15 pounds in 3 months, but you “only” lose 14 pounds in that timeframe, did you fail? If you think about it from a black or white (yes or no) perspective, then, yes. You didn’t lose the 15 pounds. But that’s not how you should view it. You lost 14 pounds! You made changes to your lifestyle, overcame obstacles, and you’re healthier because of it.

Don’t get dejected when you don’t hit an arbitrary number. Did you give your best effort? If not, how can you improve your efforts to reach or surpass your next goal? Just because you didn’t reach one milestone doesn’t mean that you should give up.

Do not make too much of the results. Yes, you should look at the results – but that’s only so you can reverse engineer how you obtained those results. Understand how the results came to be and why they are what they are. What efforts and actions did you take to get to the final outcome?Work on improving processes to obtain better results. Are there actions that are repetitive in your daily tasks that you can automate, delegate, or eliminate so they don’t take up your valuable time or brain power? What can you do differently for the next goal? Was there a critical decision that should have been handled in another way or were there many small, subtle changes that you should have made? Focus on the processes, efforts, and actions you took leading to the results, but do not overemphasize the results themselves.

One last note…We should always be seeking to make progress, not perfection. If progress is the goal, succeeding is realistic and motivating. But if perfection is the goal, ultimate success will be unattainable. Nobody is perfect and achieving a goal doesn’t change that fact.

“I don’t want the fear of failure to stop me from doing what I really care about.” – Emma Watson

If you’re unhappy with your job, make a change. Ask yourself what you are interested in and then ask yourself what you are good at. Do those overlap at all? What skills do you have that are a commodity? What is your biggest fear for making a change? Are you afraid that you won’t be capable of performing a particular job – that you might fail?

Think it over before you make the switch. Do you due diligence on what you want to achieve next. Don’t be irrational and leave your current position without having another job lined up. Before you leave, ask yourself if the new place of employment fits with your core values. Talk to people in the position you’re applying for about what it takes to succeed. Ask about what their daily tasks/operations look like. After you gain a better understanding of the job description, do you still want it and do you feel that you’re capable of doing it at a high level? If you need training, will it be readily available for you?

Figure all of this out before making a final decision. Talk it over with your loved ones. But ultimately, you have to listen to your heart. Do not let the fear of failure stop you. Everyone fails at something, but it’s only permanent if you don’t get back up and try again. If something is important to you, if you have a passion for it, you have to find a way to try to do it. When you’re on your deathbed, you can proudly say that you tried to make your dreams a reality. If you make a change and it’s all that you dreamt it to be, that’s awesome. But even if you don’t achieve your goals, or if you achieve them and they’re not all that you expect them to be, at least you will know. You won’t be left wondering, “what if…?” And that is far better than the alternative of not trying.

Lastly, remember that the more focused effort you put into something, the more likely you are to achieve the results you’re looking for. Your actions (plus a little luck) will determine your success. Are you willing to put forth the effort?