To all our highly valued clients and acquaintances:
Don Sardella here, Business Development Coach for Financial Advisors and beyond
I am often told, as I have spoken to hundreds of audiences over the years, “I know what to do. I’m just seriously challenged to do what I know.” Aka, “The Execution Challenge.’
A majority of what I work on with people often sounds like common sense, which, as we all know, doesn’t always translates into common practice. I think we all stand to benefit from improved organization and discipline, which then translates into speed to execution.
A question that I suggest we may want to review and reconsider, in writing, is this:
How do I keep myself consistently energized and focused to keep following up and through on what really matters most for me and my most important life relationships?
We’ve all heard the idea that the quality and effectiveness of our lives is not a function of how many breaths we take. It’s really how many moments we live that truly take our breath away, regardless of whatever our circumstances are, that makes the difference.
I often talk about it’s not the time we put in, but what we put into our time, that counts.
As we approached The New Millenium in the late 90’s, economic forecaster, Harry Dent, repeatedly wrote that time was the new currency of the future. Why do most people dream/think that financial freedom/independence is such a great idea? I’ve found that the idea of being able to follow your heart, to do whatever you want with whomever you whenever you want is a quality of life place that many want to achieve.
From one of my mentors, Alan Weiss, also known as “The Consultant’s Consultant”
“True wealth is discretionary time. Your passion should engage you and also provide the leverage you need to maximize discretionary time. But so many people are trying to be passionate about merely making money that they actually erode their wealth—the have no discretionary time, just a wad of money.
That’s not a career. That’s not living. That’s just work.” © Alan Weiss 2015
What do you want more than anything else? Why don’t you already have it or at least at the level you envision is possible, dream and yearn for? What you going to do about it? Most people in today’s world spend 45-60% of their time/life/energy reacting/fighting fires. Maybe 5-15% invest in proactive planning, relationship building and real training.
Reverse that ratio and you’ll find yourself more in the driver’s seat of your own life/biz.
On to some practical guidelines, to optimize and master this most precious resource.
#1) If it isn’t on the calendar, it isn’t likely to happen
That which gets scheduled gets done – fully utilize the power of pen and paper, to help establish an indisputably crystal clear focus, to get freshly energized and motivated, and to get into highly effective action and momentum to get things, done with joy and juice.
Plan time to plan – those who don’t plan for the future won’t have much of a future.
Prioritize it – determine the next 2-3 main things that need to be kept as the main things.
Perform it – execute your most important priorities with vigor and relentless tenacity.
#2) 4 Core Effectiveness Practices
Here are 4 Core Effectiveness Practices that I use (like a set of universal principles), based upon a 5 year longitudinal study of 300,000 people working in Fortune 500 Companies. These practices account for about 80% of their effectiveness.
- Plan inside a 2-3 year+ vision and picture of your future
- Plan your week the week before and plan your day the day before
- Write down and schedule every commitment at the time that it is made
- Have 1 system for coordinating all your communications, activities, and projects
#3) Let me ask a question, which I suggest you write for yourself (takes 5 minutes 🙂 )
If we were meeting here in 3-6 month’s time, what practices, and habits would I want to have mastered, personally and professionally, for me to be happy with my progress?
#4) The Key to Your Personal Effectiveness, according to speaker/author Brian Tracy.
“Much of success is simply method: writing things down, putting them in order, and then doing things one at a time, and doing them properly, until you get to the other end. The more you do that, the more capable you become … The key to personal effectiveness is the ability to focus on the high payoff activities.”
You can do this!! For some of you, you can seriously up your game and further refine it.
For even more detail, I suggest you visit our one page tip sheet:
Don Sardella 5 Fundimentals of time use MAY 2016
I look forward to an opportunity to catch up with you soon. Until that next time, may you easily access highly relevant, money making ideas. Here’s to your total success!!
Sincerely,
Don