“So what do you wish to do along with your life?”
Tim Ferriss sat throughout from me, at a boutique resort by a brackish seashore in Lamu Island, Kenya.
It was July, 2011. I used to be simply shy of 26 years outdated.
It was an enormous query, and greater than something on this planet at that second, I needed to impress him.
He had been my hero for years, I had learn his first e book 7 instances, and his potential to seemingly bend actuality to his will round him was already gaining legendary standing.
We had run into one another and had a pleasant trade, simply two Lengthy Island boys on the health club in Cooper Sq., NYC just a few years earlier, and when the chance to spend 10 days collectively touring arose together with his newest e book launch, I jumped throughout it.
I instructed him a bit about my burgeoning profession in equities buying and selling, my objectives and desires. I had misplaced my dad unexpectedly the 12 months earlier than, and I used to be clearly nonetheless spinning a bit.
He thought for a minute, and eventually mentioned: “Do you wish to go to North Korea?”
I couldn’t course of the query – “Why?” was all I may muster.
Tim: I believe it will be good for you, my good friend is working a mastermind group there.
Me: Who’s your good friend?
Tim: I can’t let you know that, he’s a non-public however well-known individual.
Me: Are YOU going to North Korea?
Tim: No.
Me: File not discovered
Suffice to say, I didn’t go to North Korea, however after I obtained house and recovered from the malaria I contracted that very night time on the journey (mosquito nets, individuals) I obtained an electronic mail from Neil Strauss, who had simply gotten again with a small group to North Korea for a brand new mastermind group he had began, to assist males evolve into their greatest selves.
Not prepared to tempt destiny by ‘refusing the decision’ a second time, I rang his staff up, and joined right away.
Little did I do know, I might lastly enter my entrepreneurial incubation interval, surrounded by individuals who I might study invaluable classes with, touring the world, and eventually changing into a extra productive, efficient and aligned model of myself.
Now I’m simply shy of 40, and for a few years I’ve been constructing, main, becoming a member of, and serving to individuals launch and scale numerous mastermind teams, all of the whereas assembly and studying from all kinds of profitable individuals.
Masterminds are nonetheless my primary hack, the one factor I might deal with if I may solely deal with one factor. Completed proper, they’re the largest power multiplier in my life.
3 of the companies I’ve began have hit the 7 determine mark, and I’m nonetheless in love with the sport, studying, rising and sharing what I study as I’m going.
One factor I consider holds a variety of entrepreneurs again is a failure to persistently prioritize and keep on monitor towards their objectives.
All of us need what we do to matter, as an alternative of attending to the tip of the day and feeling such as you ‘did a variety of stuff’ however nothing necessary obtained performed.
It additionally sucks when there’s extra ‘month’ on the finish of the cash.
Each entrepreneur has additionally confronted that overwhelming feeling of staring down a protracted record of duties, unclear on the place to start out. It’s simple to get misplaced within the swirl of to-dos, conferences, emails, and messages that demand our consideration.
Nevertheless, with out clear priorities, progress stalls, and because the good e book says: “With out a imaginative and prescient, individuals perish.”
Or binge watch Netflix and doom scroll on Insta.
The power to hone in on what issues most is usually what separates the people who find themselves thriving from simply surviving or worse, giving up solely.
On this article, we’ll discover just a few key productiveness hacks and mindset shifts to assist entrepreneurs (such as you!) prioritize successfully, preserve move, and obtain outcomes that actually matter.
Tony Robbins RPM
One of the vital impactful ideas I realized from Tony Robbins is the RPM technique—Outcomes, Function, Huge Motion.
Merely put, it’s about getting clear on what you need (outcomes), understanding why it issues (function), after which aligning your power and actions to attain it (large motion).
Many individuals have countless to-do lists, checking off small duties that preserve them busy however not essentially productive. They haven’t outlined what success seems like or why it’s necessary to them. Once you outline your outcomes, you get readability. Once you perceive your function, you construct drive.
And once you decide to large motion, you create momentum. 1% higher per day doesn’t appear to be a lot, nevertheless it compounds, 3778% higher in a 12 months, in actual fact.
The three×5 Word Card Approach
One of many easiest, handiest hacks I’ve adopted for prioritization comes from, you guessed it, Mr. Tim Ferriss: the three×5 be aware card approach.
Each night, I write down 3-5 high-priority duties that should be accomplished earlier than anything the next morning. You’re pressured to be clear, exact and transient, and you’ll’t match an excessive amount of crap on the cardboard.
For me, the very best time to deal with this record is true after I get up, throughout my most efficient hours.
Earlier than checking my cellphone, emails, or social media, I dive straight into this prioritized work. This has the twin profit of making a transparent path for the day and making the most of my peak psychological readability.
Issues which might be priorities for the longer term, are placed on the calendar to be positioned on one other card for one more day, or discarded if they’re now not related once we get there.
I work on priorities and train within the morning, and talk and take calls within the afternoon.
I try and remove, automate, or delegate something and every part that’s not a thousand greenback an hour activity or extra.
That’s it.
What makes this technique highly effective is its simplicity. It forces you to confront what really issues and can transfer the ball ahead every day. When your duties are restricted to solely a handful, the impetus to execute on these particular objects will increase, and the probability of attaining them turns into increased.
Attaining move, that state of full immersion and heightened productiveness, is essential for tackling high-priority duties successfully.
Steven Kotler, a world main move skilled I had the pleasure of getting dinner with not way back in Scottsdale AZ, shared a easy hack that has helped him write 14 books and counting, a lot of them bestsellers:
Edit your writing from the day prior to this.
This technique eases you into move since you’re revisiting current content material, which naturally engages your thoughts and eliminates the friction that always comes with beginning contemporary.
In my very own routine, I mix this idea with one other productiveness hack—listening to the identical songs on repeat.
I do know it’d sound odd, however enjoying tracks like “Animals” by Martin Garrix and “Tsunami” on loop offers a rhythmic background that helps me keep centered for hours. No lyrics, no distractions, and also you practice your mind to understand it’s ‘go’ time when that exact track comes on.
With that form of sustained focus, I can simply knock out 2,000-3,000 phrases in a sitting. Lately, I used to be capable of prove a 42,000 phrase manuscript for my 4th e book in 21 days.
The hot button is beginning straight away within the morning. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate. Soar straight into it, and move will observe. Begin the place you might be, and preserve going. You bought this.
When to Shift Priorities: Well being, Household, Enterprise
The problem of priorities isn’t simply realizing what to deal with; it’s realizing when these priorities ought to shift. For entrepreneurs, priorities ought to fall right into a hierarchy: well being, household, and enterprise.
- Well being First: For those who’re not wholesome, you’ll be able to’t assist anybody else. Bodily and psychological well-being is the muse upon which all different achievements are constructed.
- Household Subsequent: These are the relationships that make life price residing. Success with out somebody to share it with is the final word failure. A scarcity of household focus can result in attaining outcomes that really feel empty. This consists of not simply your default household, however your loved ones of selection, your experience or die individuals, your sisters from different misters, your brothers from different moms.
- Then Enterprise: Your profession is significant for offering the sources to assist your life, nevertheless it mustn’t come on the expense of your well being or household.
Nevertheless, life is unpredictable, and there are occasions when imminent hazard, sudden alternatives, or private emergencies necessitate a brief shift in priorities.
The hot button is to acknowledge when to regulate with out shedding sight of your final imaginative and prescient and objectives. And getting again on monitor as rapidly as doable.
Understanding the R&R Matrix (Outcomes & Relationships)
One essential idea I realized from Scott Whitaker is the Outcomes & Relationships (R&R) matrix. This instrument helps you steadiness the necessity to drive outcomes with the significance of constructing and sustaining relationships.
Right here’s a fast overview of how the matrix works:
- Low Outcomes / Low Relationships: Folks received’t be part of or keep in your group (e.g., mastermind, staff) in the event that they don’t see outcomes or really feel linked.
- Low Outcomes / Excessive Relationships: If persons are solely in your group for the relationships, they’ll ultimately really feel like they’re simply paying to hang around with associates, resulting in dissatisfaction.
- Excessive Outcomes / Low Relationships: Folks get the outcomes they need however go away rapidly as a result of there’s no sense of household or connection preserving them engaged.
- Excessive Outcomes / Excessive Relationships: The candy spot. Folks keep, obtain their objectives, construct significant relationships, and assist unfold your message to others, making a cycle of development and success, together with that recurring income all of us must thrive.
The aim for any entrepreneur, chief, or group builder is to try for this high-results, high-relationships quadrant. This steadiness creates sustained success, whether or not in enterprise masterminds or different ventures.
I consider that relationships are to be prioritized increased than money- they will and do grow to be infinitely extra beneficial as time goes on, and the correct relationship on the proper time can create infinite cash.
Steve and Steve at Apple, Invoice and Steve at Microsoft, Larry and Sergei at Google, Mark and Sheryl at Meta, and so forth.
Caring for individuals, including worth to their lives, and persistently constructing over time implies that you had been there earlier than they ‘blew up’ when everybody now desires a chunk of their success for their very own causes.
All of the ‘Johnny come latelies” have to face in line whilst you can proceed to be a beneficial and trusted good friend, confidant and companion, rising and profitable collectively.
Individuals are at all times shocked at who I do know, and I may write a complete e book simply on that one slender subject, however I’ll go away you with a pair inquiries to ponder for now: ‘Do you’ll want to know every part if you already know all people? How are you going to dig the properly earlier than you want it so you might be by no means thirsty for the remainder of your life?”
It’s not laborious, per se, nevertheless it does require self-discipline, consistency and giving a rattling. Your values aren’t your values until you’ll be able to select them when selecting is troublesome. When selecting them means you might lose one thing else you worth, at the least within the brief time period, to win the lengthy recreation.
The Tony Hawk Story: Realigning Priorities
Upon getting readability in your priorities, the following step is to speak them successfully. Whether or not it’s inside your loved ones, staff, or broader group, clear communication is essential to make sure everyone seems to be on the identical web page and understands the explanations behind your choices.
Transparency fosters belief and eliminates pointless friction. By aligning your priorities along with your actions and phrases, you create an atmosphere the place these round you already know what to anticipate and how one can assist you.
Take, for instance, the legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, as associated on the “Blocks” podcast with Neal Brennan.
For years, Hawk would make his household depressing if he missed a trick after engaged on all of it day.
The frustration he felt would spill over into his interactions, creating rigidity at house. They weren’t enrolled in his imaginative and prescient. He felt remoted, they felt not noted.
Ultimately, his household helped him realign his priorities, and he adopted a more healthy perspective on his efficiency.
Remarkably, this shift didn’t make him a worse skater—in actual fact, it made him a happier one.
This story is a robust reminder that as we undergo life, our priorities should evolve, particularly after they’re inflicting unfavorable externalities in {our relationships} or well being.
Progress doesn’t at all times imply sacrificing what’s necessary to you; generally, it’s about reshaping your method to create a extra sustainable concord between your priorities.
Steadiness could also be elusive and never an awesome goal to intention for, however an awesome track has a concord that ebbs and flows to create an exquisite expertise.
Constructing Wealth and Sustaining Priorities
For entrepreneurs trying to construct wealth, the trail isn’t at all times simple.
As you develop, your priorities ought to shift in a manner that protects your wealth whereas fostering development.
Consider it like this:
- Revenue First: The quickest strategy to wealth is to extend your earnings. Give attention to buying expertise like management, negotiation, gross sales, and private growth that help you commerce up for larger and higher property and earnings streams.
- Safety and Security: When you’ve constructed a basis, the following precedence is defending that wealth via diversified investments, emergency funds, and danger administration. That is HARD as a result of what obtained you right here, received’t get you the place you wish to go subsequent. You will need to study to play offense AND protection to win video games persistently, and know when to modify gears and why. In any other case, every part you constructed may go away.
- Progress and Danger Buckets: With safety in place, you’ll be able to then search development alternatives and take calculated dangers, whereas persevering with to maintain ‘the primary factor the primary factor’ and develop your earnings, whereas leveraging your capital successfully over the long run, creating and buying property that help you obtain monetary escape velocity.
Balancing these monetary priorities along with your private {and professional} objectives will help you create a life the place success doesn’t come on the expense of well-being or success.
On a private be aware: I’ve gotten all of this incorrect earlier than, and this text is simply as a lot a reminder for me as it could additionally make it easier to.
It’s my honest hope that at the least one in all these methods make it easier to discover what you’re on the lookout for, since you are price it and deserve the very best in life.
Wherever you might be in your journey, I see you and it will get higher. Maintain combating the great combat.
Okay, let’s recap:
Key Takeaways: Your Information to Prioritization
- Begin Every Day with Intentional Motion: Use the 3×5 be aware card approach to establish 3-5 high-impact duties every night earlier than signing off.
- Discover and Defend Your Stream: Interact in actions that make it easier to obtain a state of move, like modifying work from the day earlier than or listening to a repetitive playlist.
- Outcomes and Relationships: Use the R&R matrix to make sure you’re hitting the mark in each areas, and preserving your eyes on the prize.
- Alter When Crucial: Be versatile and prepared to shift your priorities briefly primarily based on well being, household, or enterprise wants.
- Lead with Transparency: Talk your priorities successfully to create alignment with these round you.
- Construct Wealth with Prioritization in Thoughts: Give attention to growing earnings first, then transfer on to safety, development, and calculated dangers.
By understanding and making use of these rules, you may make every day depend, obtain your objectives extra effectively, and shock your self with how your productiveness skyrockets.