My learnings from over 25 years of consulting and working closely with proven leaders, millionaires and billionaires can be condensed into three key factors.
- The Goals we set
- The Company we keep
- The Disciplines we form
PURPOSE
The Goals we set!
Priorities and Goals!
It is not just about getting things done but about getting the right things done.
One successful leader I worked closely with said that his greatest regret was not what he accomplished but what he did not. “I did not set big enough goals,” he confessed late in his life. It’s the things I didn’t do that I could have done.”
A close second is getting our priorities wrong.
Finally, doing, even doing well, those things that must not be done at all. Only by purposeful abandonment can we focus on our priorities and manage the time and energy we spend on them.
NEXT STEPS
The key here is to be purposeful.
Again, working with seemingly successful people, a valuable lesson has been BALANCE.i
For what joy is there in being financially successful, even outrageously wealthy, famous, powerful, influential even authoritative if the rest of your life is a mess?
My simple rule of thumb is balancing Fitness, Family & Finance in that order.
Fitness: Mental and physical Health, including faith, spirituality, well-being, and general physical conditioning (muscle and movement).
Family and friends: Having deep, healthy relationships with people—husbands, wives, children, parents, siblings, and friends—is important. Building and maintaining regular contact is also important. More than 70% of our happiness comes from our relationships. There’s no joy in being a lonely millionaire.
Finances: Ensuring we have enough not just to get by, but to pursue those activities, pursuits and passions that can leave the world a better place.
PEOPLE
The Company We Keep!
We are the sum total of our peers.
We tend to average out the same pay, similar material possessions and comparative career trajectories as those around us.
We normalise their behaviours, their aspirations, their cadence and their accomplishments.
When someone in our peer group outperforms, it creates a dissonance that can only be resolved if others rise or the outlier leaves.
Peer pressure, or the network effect, is a powerful force in our personal lives, as well as in teams and workplaces.
NEXT STEPS
Again, we must be conscientious and strategic in the company we keep. Choosing to join peer groups that align with our values and our goals is important. What are our shared passions? What are our shared objectives? What shall we accomplish together? What shall we contribute?
For a relationship to be fair, mutually beneficial, and sustainable, it must be two-way.
PERFORMANCE
The Disciplines we form
In the end, it comes down to effort.
Movement will fuel motivation.
Motion will drive emotion.
Not the other way around.
Knowing what to do and who to spend time with is meaningless if we don’t change our behaviours and take action.
It doesn’t matter what direction we face if we are not moving forward.
What will our changed behaviours be?
NEXT STEPS
What are the right things to do, and in what order—not just for our organisation but also our personal lives?
We must form new habits – DISCIPLINES! Committed routines that move us towards our goals.
We must resist the temptation to set unrealistic targets.
A key learning for us here is the power of the compounding effect of small incremental disciplines.
- Start with one push-up and increase it by just one every day. Compounding will take care of the rest.
- Never fail twice in a row. As humans, we are bound to fail. Whatever the discipline is, stick to it. The key is not to fail twice in a row. It’s much harder to regain momentum if we string too many days off in a row.
In closing, it is worth remembering the words of the late great sports reporter Craig Sager, who said before his passing, “Time is something that cannot be bought, it cannot be wagered with God, and it is not in endless supply. Time is simply how you live your life.”
DOWNLOAD OUR WEEKLY SNAPSHOT TEMPLATE
We must habitually take a weekly snapshot to understand how we spend our time. This gives us a reality check and a foundation for improvement.
It pays to schedule our priorities, not prioritise our schedule. Making time for the right things and the right people.
I’ve attached a worksheet that I have used for many years. It helps me record and direct my time and ensures meaningful engagements with those in my work and personal life.