“So what do you want to do with your life?”
Tim Ferriss sat throughout from me, at a boutique resort by a brackish seaside in Lamu Island, Kenya.
It was July, 2011. I used to be simply shy of 26 years previous.
It was an enormous query, and greater than something on the earth at that second, I wished to impress him.
He had been my hero for years, I had learn his first e book 7 instances, and his skill to seemingly bend actuality to his will round him was already gaining legendary standing.
We had run into one another and had a pleasant alternate, simply two Lengthy Island boys on the fitness center 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 informed him a bit about my burgeoning profession in equities buying and selling, my targets and goals. I had misplaced my dad unexpectedly the yr earlier than, and I used to be clearly nonetheless spinning a bit.
He thought for a minute, and at last mentioned: “Do you want to go to North Korea?”
I couldn’t course of the query – “Why?” was all I might muster.
Tim: I believe it could be good for you, my pal is working a mastermind group there.
Me: Who’s your pal?
Tim: I can’t let you know that, he’s a personal however well-known particular person.
Me: Are YOU going to North Korea?
Tim: No.
Me: {File not discovered}
Not prepared to tempt destiny by ‘refusing the call’ a second time, I rang his crew up, and joined immediately.
Little did I do know, I’d lastly enter my entrepreneurial incubation interval, surrounded by individuals who I’d study invaluable classes with, touring the world, and at last 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 sorts of profitable individuals.
Masterminds are nonetheless my primary hack, the one factor I’d give attention to if I might solely give attention to one factor. Finished proper, they’re the most important pressure 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 imagine holds a number of entrepreneurs again is a failure to constantly prioritize and keep on observe towards their targets.
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 lot of stuff’ however nothing essential obtained performed.
It additionally sucks when there may be extra ‘month’ on the finish of the cash.
Nonetheless, with out clear priorities, progress stalls, and because the good e book says: “Without a vision, people perish.”
Or binge watch Netflix and doom scroll on Insta.
The flexibility to hone in on what issues most is commonly what separates the people who find themselves thriving from simply surviving or worse, giving up completely.
On this article, we’ll discover just a few key productiveness hacks and mindset shifts to assist entrepreneurs (such as you!) prioritize successfully, preserve circulation, and obtain outcomes that really matter.
Tony Robbins RPM
One of the crucial impactful ideas I discovered from Tony Robbins is the RPM technique—Outcomes, Function, Large Motion.
Merely put, it’s about getting clear on what you need (outcomes), understanding why it issues (function), after which aligning your vitality and actions to attain it (huge motion).
Many individuals have countless to-do lists, checking off small duties that hold them busy however not essentially productive. They haven’t outlined what success appears like or why it’s essential to them. If you outline your outcomes, you get readability. If you perceive your function, you construct drive.
And if you decide to huge motion, you create momentum. 1% higher per day doesn’t look like a lot, however it compounds, 3778% higher in a yr, in truth.
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 word card approach.
Each night, I write down 3-5 high-priority duties that have to be accomplished earlier than the rest the next morning. You might be compelled to be clear, exact and temporary, and you may’t match an excessive amount of crap on the cardboard.
For me, the most effective time to deal with this checklist is true after I get up, throughout my most efficient hours.
Issues which are priorities for the long run, are placed on the calendar to be positioned on one other card for an additional 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 to remove, automate, or delegate something and the whole lot that’s not a thousand greenback an hour job 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 chance of attaining them turns into greater.
Reaching circulation, that state of full immersion and heightened productiveness, is essential for tackling high-priority duties successfully.
Steven Kotler, a world main circulation knowledgeable 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 yesterday.
This technique eases you into circulation since you’re revisiting present content material, which naturally engages your thoughts and eliminates the friction that always comes with beginning recent.
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 gives a rhythmic background that helps me keep centered for hours. No lyrics, no distractions, and also you prepare your mind to realize it’s ‘go’ time when that individual track comes on.
With that sort of sustained focus, I can simply knock out 2,000-3,000 phrases in a sitting. Not too long ago, I used to be capable of end up a 42,000 phrase manuscript for my 4th e book in 21 days.
The bottom line is beginning straight away within the morning. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate. Leap straight into it, and circulation will observe. Begin the place you’re, and hold going. You bought this.
When to Shift Priorities: Well being, Household, Enterprise
The problem of priorities isn’t simply realizing what to give attention to; 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: If you happen to’re not wholesome, you may’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 value dwelling. Success with out somebody to share it with is the last word failure. An absence of household focus can result in attaining outcomes that really feel empty. This contains not simply your default household, however your loved ones of selection, your journey or die individuals, your sisters from different misters, your brothers from different moms.
Then Enterprise: Your profession is important for offering the sources to assist your life, however it shouldn’t come on the expense of your well being or household.
Nonetheless, life is unpredictable, and there are occasions when imminent hazard, sudden alternatives, or private emergencies necessitate a brief shift in priorities.
The bottom line is to acknowledge when to regulate with out shedding sight of your final imaginative and prescient and targets. And getting again on observe as shortly as potential.
Understanding the R&R Matrix (Outcomes & Relationships)
One essential idea I discovered from Scott Whitaker is the Outcomes & Relationships (R&R) matrix. This software helps you stability 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: Individuals gained’t be part of or keep in your neighborhood (e.g., mastermind, crew) in the event that they don’t see outcomes or really feel related.
Low Outcomes / Excessive Relationships: If individuals 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: Individuals get the outcomes they need however depart shortly as a result of there’s no sense of household or connection preserving them engaged.
Excessive Outcomes / Excessive Relationships: The candy spot. Individuals keep, obtain their targets, 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 objective for any entrepreneur, chief, or neighborhood builder is to try for this high-results, high-relationships quadrant. This stability creates sustained success, whether or not in enterprise masterminds or different ventures.
I imagine that relationships are to be prioritized greater than money- they will and do grow to be infinitely extra useful as time goes on, and the fitting 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 constantly constructing over time implies that you have 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 when you can proceed to be a useful and trusted pal, confidant and accomplice, rising and successful collectively.
Individuals are at all times shocked at who I do know, and I might write an entire e book simply on that one slim subject, however I’ll depart you with a pair inquiries to ponder for now: ‘Do it’s worthwhile to know the whole lot if you realize everyone? How are you going to dig the properly earlier than you want it so you’re by no means thirsty for the remainder of your life?”
It’s not exhausting, per se, however it does require self-discipline, consistency and giving a rattling. Your values aren’t your values except you may select them when selecting is tough. When selecting them means you might lose one thing else you worth, a minimum of within the quick 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, crew, or broader neighborhood, 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 setting the place these round you realize 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 stress at residence. They weren’t enrolled in his imaginative and prescient. He felt remoted, they felt unnoticed.
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 truth, 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 adverse externalities in {our relationships} or well being.
Development doesn’t at all times imply sacrificing what’s essential to you; generally, it’s about reshaping your strategy to create a extra sustainable concord between your priorities.
Stability could also be elusive and never an amazing goal to goal for, however an amazing track has a concord that ebbs and flows to create a lovely 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 method that protects your wealth whereas fostering development.
Consider it like this:
Revenue First: The quickest solution to wealth is to extend your earnings. Give attention to buying abilities like management, negotiation, gross sales, and private growth that will let you commerce up for larger and higher belongings and earnings streams.
Safety and Security: When you’ve constructed a basis, the following precedence is defending that wealth by diversified investments, emergency funds, and danger administration. That is HARD as a result of what obtained you right here, gained’t get you the place you need to go subsequent. You have to study to play offense AND protection to win video games constantly, and know when to modify gears and why. In any other case, the whole lot you constructed might go away.
Development and Danger Buckets: With safety in place, you may then search development alternatives and take calculated dangers, whereas persevering with to maintain ‘the main thing the main thing’ and develop your earnings, whereas leveraging your capital successfully over the long run, creating and buying belongings that will let you obtain monetary escape velocity.
Balancing these monetary priorities along with your private {and professional} targets will will let you create a life the place success doesn’t come on the expense of well-being or achievement.
On a private word: I’ve gotten all of this mistaken earlier than, and this text is simply as a lot a reminder for me as it might additionally make it easier to.
It’s my honest hope that a minimum of certainly one of these methods make it easier to discover what you’re on the lookout for, since you are value it and deserve the most effective in life.
Wherever you’re in your journey, I see you and it will get higher. Preserve combating the nice struggle.
Okay, let’s recap:
Key Takeaways: Your Information to Prioritization
Begin Every Day with Intentional Motion: Use the three×5 word card approach to determine 3-5 high-impact duties every night earlier than signing off.
Discover and Shield Your Circulation: Have interaction in actions that make it easier to obtain a state of circulation, like enhancing 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.
Modify When Mandatory: Be versatile and prepared to shift your priorities quickly 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 rely, obtain your targets extra effectively, and shock your self with how your productiveness skyrockets.
