I have this mindset that I have developed lately. Could be good, not sure yet. It has come via an iterative process of trying different approaches to accomplishing my daily “365 List” for 419 days in a row. For a while now, I have fell into this path of focusing on accomplishing my core commitments. Not always first, sometimes I am dragging tired (like today) and other days I am ambitious and energetic. On those days I get all my core commitments done in the early AM. When I wake in the morning and come up with a plan for the day, I am always concerned about completing the core commitments (running, body weight routine, meditation, reading plan, memory work, my nutrition plan, stretching routine, writing this blog). By force, I have had to get really efficient at these things. I do have a busy schedule almost every day, not a lot of time to spend doing any of these things. I have to utilize the time I have the most effectively possible.
Anyway the point is to illustrate that once I have completed the core, or have a plan to complete the core then I really ask myself what am I going to get accomplished today? Lets be honest, just because your inbox is full, just because you are on 20 conference calls, just because your phone is ringing all the time does not mean that you are being effective. Busy is never Productive. Busy is never Profitable. When I was younger, I thought my business was a rip roaring success because I was really busy. Well the truth was, I was busy doing the wrong things. I was busy working for people and not getting paid. When people ask me – how are you doing today? I am trying to change my default response from “I am busy” to “I am anxiously engaged.” Are you busy or are you deliberately focused?
So the pattern I have fallen into, is that I am identifying only a few things that I am really going to focus on today. Ambitions that I am going to try to get to an outcome on. Create a plan, design a new strategy, solve a problem. If every day of my life, I produce a meaningful outcome – then I think that is productive progress. The danger is always that string of 100 days that you cannot tell the difference between. Have you noticed this? You can barely remember those days. They all just bleed into one. Your mind remembers that time of your life with one simple memory. Your brain is basically de-duplicating a mindless, reactionary time of your life when you were not engaged – you were just existing. Funny, one of the most stressful times of my life happened several years back. I barely remember anything in particular. I remember the times when I was accomplishing something significant, or had a major challenge – but I do not remember the daily fight at all. I was constantly stressed out, constantly worried, constantly fretting. Yet now I cannot tell you what even one of those concerns were.
So here we are, ready to start the day. Are you going to become absorbed and focused on the crisis of today? I can promise you that you will not remember what that was a year from now. Perhaps instead you are going to choose to become deliberately focused on accomplishing something great today!!? Something you will remember in year from now?! That is what I am trying to accomplish lately. Once I am confident I will complete my core personal commitments – I then set myself on a course to become deliberately focused. I fail more often then succeed, but I am learning. I am getting better at it. In another 419 days from now, I wonder how much easier that will be for me? How much more razor focused on the important can I become?
Guy Reams (419)
365 Alumni
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