One of the hardest truths to acknowledge is that everyone has
the same 24 hours a day. This is particularly hard for me. Especially
when I look around at others who have accomplished so much!
Why do some people become so much more successful than other people,
who also seek success?
People who are also single parents with broken down cars (e.g.
Roseanne), people who had no money to start with, (e.g. Madonna,
John Rockefeller, Bill Gates or Thomas Edison) and people who
had WAY MORE failures than successes (did you know Abe Lincoln
was defeated for office 10 times between 1831 and 1858, when he
was finally elected President of the U.S. in 1860?)
Laser-like focus on the thing that you want, until
you get what you want.
But, you say, how can I get laser-like focus when there's so much
going on around me, so many things I must attend to just LIVING
my life?
This is of course how everyone feels. Still, there's that gnawing
fact that with that same 24 hours you have, others in similar
situations are accomplishing things that you are not, that you
want to accomplish, too. Ugh. So what to do?
Around 100 years ago, Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel,
wanted to increase his own efficiency, and that of his key people
at the steel company. A renowned 'efficiency expert' of the day,
Ivy Lee, approached Mr. Schwab, and made a proposition Schwab
could not refuse:
IVY LEE: I can
increase your people's efficiency – and your sales –
if you will allow me to spend fifteen minutes with each of your
executives.
CHARLES SCHWAB: How much will
it cost me?
LEE: Nothing, unless it works.
After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel
it's worth to you.
SCHWAB: It's a deal.
The following day, Lee met with Schwab's top executives,
spending only fifteen minutes with each in order to say: LEE:
I want you to promise me that for the next ninety days, before
leaving your office at the end of the day, you will make a list
of the six most important things you have to do the next day and
number them in their order of importance.
EXECs: That it?
LEE: That's it. Scratch off
each item after finishing it, and go on to the next one on your
list. If something doesn't get done, put it on the following day's
list.
"Each Bethlehem executive consented to follow Lee's instructions.
Three months later, Schwab studied the results and was so pleased
that he sent Lee a check for US$35,000. At the time, the average
worker in the US was being paid $2 per day…
If
Schwab, one of the smartest businessmen of his day, was willing
to pay so much money for this advice, I decided I would follow
it, too. …Each night, I put together my list for the following
day. If I don't get something on my list accomplished, it goes
on the next day's list. I put the hardest or most unappealing
task at the top of the list. This way, I tackle the most difficult
item first, and once it's out of the way, I feel my day is off
to a good start."
So, when are you writing up your list of 6 most important things
and ranking them in order of importance? For your business? For
your personal, spiritual or other lives?
What if you 'refused to do anything else' except #1 on your list,
until it's done, then #2, then #3 …?
Would anything change?
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