The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win

Highlights

To Reach a Goal, Don’t Focus on the Goal

The distance between your dream and the stark reality of your present is incredibly demoralizing—no wonder you give up on that goal.

Chapter 2: The Greater Your Focus, the Lower Your Chances of Success

TO REACH A GOAL, DON’T FOCUS ON THE GOAL

So for Gosh Sakes, Don’t Always Keep Your Goal in Mind

As I learned from James Clear, a leading thinker on the subject, the best use of a goal is to inform the process you will follow to achieve it.

Step 7: Take productive breaks, not relaxation breaks.

Take productive breaks, not relaxation breaks.

Momentum is everything on an EPD (and on every other day). Don’t take a walk or watch a little TV or check out your friends’ latest humblebrags on Facebook. You will definitely need to take breaks, but those breaks should reinforce your sense of activity and accomplishment. Pick a few productive tasks you like to perform—and gain a sense of accomplishment from—and use those for your breaks.

Spending even a few minutes in the land of inactivity weakens your resolve.

Step 8: Take your breaks at a counterintuitive moment.

Take your breaks at a counterintuitive moment.

When you take a break, don’t stop when you complete a particular task. Stop in the middle.

That approach works in the middle of an EPD or at the end of a workday. The key is to take a break—or end the day—by leaving yourself a fun place to start back up.

Why? Stopping in the middle of doing something awesome—or stopping right before you’ll start doing something awesome—ensures you’ll avoid the temptation of procrastination. Stopping short ensures you’ll ignore all the enticing distractions that inevitably pop up when your motivation has flagged. Stopping short allows you to instantly focus and concentrate when you resume whatever you were doing. You won’t be able to help diving right in because you’ll be too excited, and that initial enthusiasm will positively affect the rest of your day.

Step 9: Don’t stop until you’re done—even if finishing takes longer than expected.

Don’t stop until you’re done—even if finishing takes longer than expected.

Stopping short is an easy habit to form. If you quit this time, what will stop you from quitting the next time? (Answer: pretty much nothing.) Quitting is a habit.

Staying the course is also a habit.

Make sure your first EPD is the first block in the foundation of a great new habit: achieving what you want to achieve.

Finishing what you start, achieving what you set out to achieve, also produces a fun side benefit. Accomplishing more than you may have thought possible unconsciously resets your internal limit on your output.

Step 9: Don’t stop until you’re done—even if finishing takes longer than expected.

We all have a little voice inside that says, “I’ve done enough” or “I’m exhausted. I just can’t do more.”

But that little voice lies. We can always do more. Stopping is a choice.

Step 9: Don’t stop until you’re done—even if finishing takes longer than expected.

Here’s the thing,” Ray told me, “about being ‘done.’ When you truly have nothing left in the tank, you either black out, pass out, or die. That’s it. Otherwise you have more in you. It’s all about getting past your comfort zone. We always have more gas in the tank. We just don’t think we do because no one wants to run on reserve. They don’t want to go past what they think is their limit.

“Winning is a mind-set. Refusing to give up is a mind-set. When you learn that you can do more than you thought in one aspect of your life, you can apply that to every other area of your life. Get out and do things that are hard. Refuse to quit. Push past your comfort zone. Over time that ability will become a habit—and you’ll accomplish a lot more than you ever believed you could. Success is a mental game. Learn to win the mental game and you can do anything.”

Step 6: Refuel before you think you need to refuel.

Refuel before you think you need to refuel.

When you’re exercising, waiting until you’re thirsty to get a drink means you’re already dehydrated.

The same is true when you work. Plan to eat or snack a little earlier than normal. If you sit while you work, stand up long before your butt gets numb. If you stand, sit long before your legs start to ache. When you allow yourself to feel discomfort, your motivation and resolve will weaken—so do everything possible to keep that from happening.

Step 2: Actively block out task time.

Every Sunday, map out your week.

Every Sunday evening Jim sits down with his list of important objectives for the month and year. Those goals inform the upcoming week and help keep him on track. While long-range goals may not be urgent, they are important, and if you aren’t careful, the important can easily be pushed aside by the urgent.

Then he looks at his calendar for the week. He knows what times are blocked out by meetings, etc. Then he looks at what he wants to accomplish and slots those tasks into his to-do list.

The key is to create structure and discipline for your week. Otherwise you’ll let things happen to you instead of making things happen. Otherwise you’ll let “urgent” push aside what is truly important.

Step 3: Follow a realistic to-do list.

Actively block out task time.

You already schedule meetings and appointments. Go a step further and block out time to complete specific tasks. Slot periods for “Write new proposal” or “Craft presentation” or “Review and approve marketing materials.”

If you don’t proactively block out that time, those tasks will slip. Or those tasks will get interrupted. Or you’ll lose focus. Whatever the reason, important tasks will never be completed

Step 4: Default to thirty-minute meetings.

Follow a realistic to-do list.

Once upon a time Jim created to-do lists, but he didn’t assign time to each task. What happened? He always had more items on his to-do list than he could accomplish, and that turned his to-do list into a wish list. If you have six hours of meetings scheduled today and eight hours of tasks on your to-do list, those tasks won’t get done.

Assigning realistic time frames forces you to prioritize. Assigning realistic time frames also helps you stay focused. When you know a task should take only thirty minutes, you’ll be more aggressive in weeding out and ignoring distractions

Step 5: Stop multitasking.

Default to thirty-minute meetings.

Whoever invented the one-hour default in calendar software wasted millions of people-hours. Most subjects can be handled in thirty minutes. Many can be handled in fifteen minutes—especially if everyone who attends knows ahead of time that the meeting will last only fifteen minutes.

Don’t be a slave to the default settings on your calendar tool. Schedule an hour only if you absolutely know you need an hour.

Step 6: Obsess about leveraging “edge” time.

Stop multitasking.

During a meeting—especially an hour-long meeting—it’s tempting to take care of a few mindless tasks. (Who hasn’t cleaned up their in-box during a meeting?) The problem is that splitting your focus makes those meetings less productive.

Even though you’re only doing mindless stuff, still, you’re distracted. And that makes you less productive.

Multitasking is a personal-productivity killer. Don’t try to do two things sort of well. Do one thing really, really well.

Step 9: Protect your family time.

Jim admits he’s something of a workaholic

Step 10: Start every day right.

Start every day right.

Jim exercises first thing in the morning, partly to stay fit but also because exercise is energizing. Research shows that moderate aerobic exercise can improve your mood for up to twelve hours—so why not exercise first thing and take advantage of being in a good mood for the rest of the day? Research also shows that exercise boosts energy; why not take advantage of a natural energy surge when you probably need it the most?

Jim gets up early and runs. Then he cools off while he reads the newspaper, and he gets downstairs before his kids do so he can eat breakfast with them.

Quick Sidetrack: How to Have the Most Productive Mind-Set Ever

being efficient and productive in the morning will set the stage for the rest of your day. Getting something productive done right away is fun, and it’s motivating. Success → Motivation → More Success → More Motivation … so why not get your virtuous cycle started right away?

Step 1: Stop making excuses for doing less.

Stop making excuses for doing less.

Step 1: Stop making excuses for doing less.

HOW TO HAVE THE MOST PRODUCTIVE MIND-SET EVER

Step 2: Stop letting disapproval, or even scorn, stand in your way.

Stop letting disapproval, or even scorn, stand in your way.

Step 2: Stop letting disapproval, or even scorn, stand in your way.

Stop letting fear hold you back.

How to Have Willpower … Without Needing Willpower

Willpower isn’t something you either have or don’t have.

Willpower is sometimes a function of necessity. (There are lots of things you can do when your back is against the wall and you feel you have no choice.)

More often, willpower is a function of success. It’s easy to stay the course when you feel good about what you’re accomplishing.

Willpower is also a muscle that can be developed; the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

And that’s great, but what if you need help doing the things you need to do right now? What if you can’t wait for the virtuous cycle of motivation to kick in?

How to Have Willpower … Without Needing Willpower

The process starts with designing your life so it supports your goals.

How to Have Willpower … Without Needing Willpower

Here are some tips you can start using today to help you accomplish what you want to accomplish, without needing to possess incredible willpower—or, really, any willpower at all.

How to Have Willpower … Without Needing Willpower

We all have a finite store of mental energy for exercising self-control. Some of us have less, some have more … but we all eventually run out of willpower steam.

Step 1: Eliminate as many choices as possible.

That’s why the more choices we need to make during the day, the harder each one is on our brain—and the more we start to look for shortcuts. (If you like, call this the “Oh, screw it” syndrome.) Then we get impulsive. Then we get reckless. Then we make decisions we know we shouldn’t make … but it’s like we just can’t seem to help ourselves.

In fact, we can’t help ourselves: We’ve run out of the mental energy we need to make smart choices.

Step 1: Eliminate as many choices as possible.

That’s why the fewer choices you are forced to make, the smarter the choices you can make when you do need to make a decision.

Step 1: Eliminate as many choices as possible.

Step 1: Eliminate as many choices as possible

Step 1: Eliminate as many choices as possible.

Choices are the enemy of willpower. So are ease and convenience. Think of decisions that require willpower, and then take willpower totally out of the equation

Step 3: Do the hardest things you need to do first.

You have the greatest amount of mental energy early in the morning. Science says so: In a landmark study performed by the National Academy of Sciences, parole board judges were most likely to give a favorable ruling early in the morning. Just before lunch, the odds of a favorable ruling dropped to almost zero.*

Should the judges’ decisions have been affected by factors other than legal ones? Of course not—but they were. Why? They got mentally tired. They experienced decision fatigue.

That’s why the best time to make tough decisions is early in the day. That’s why the best time to do the most important things you need to do is early in the day. Decide what those things are and plan to tackle them first thing.

Step 4: Refuel often.

It turns out glucose is one of the foundations of willpower. Although your brain does not stop working when glucose is low, it does start doing some things and stop doing others: It responds more strongly to immediate rewards and pays less attention to long-term outcomes.

How can you avoid that? Um, duh: Eat healthy meals.

Step 4: Refuel often.

Not only will you feel better, but you’ll also make better decisions—and you’ll be able to exercise more willpower in making those decisions.

Step 4: Refuel often.

Create reminders of your long-term goals.

You want to build a bigger company, but when you’re mentally tired it’s easy to rationalize doing less than your best. Or you want to lose weight, but when you’re mentally tired it’s easy to rationalize that it makes better sense to start your workout program tomorrow

Step 5: Create reminders of your long-term goals.

Mental fatigue makes you take the easy way out—even though the easy way almost always takes you the wrong way.

The solution is easy: Create tangible reminders designed to pull you back from the impulse brink. For example, a friend keeps a copy of his bank loan taped to his computer monitor as a constant reminder of an obligation he must meet. Another keeps a photo of himself when he weighed fifty pounds more on his refrigerator as a constant reminder of the person he never wants to be again

Step 5: Create reminders of your long-term goals.

Think of moments when you are most likely to give in to impulses that take you further away from your long-term goals. Then use tangible reminders of those long-term goals to interrupt the impulse and keep you on track.

Step 5: Create reminders of your long-term goals.

Remove temptation altogether.

Every time you have to decide not to do something you would like to do—even though what you would like to do runs counter to your goals—simply rework your environment so you eliminate your ability to be impulsive.

Then you don’t have to exercise any willpower at all.

Step 6: Remove temptation altogether.

Finding ways to avoid temptation is a great way to avoid needing to exercise willpower. So is the guilt you’ll feel when you are required to take a physical action to avoid making the right choice. (If your child is watching TV, it’s easy to avoid reading her a story … but if she’s standing in front of you, holding a book … ouch.)

Step 6: Remove temptation altogether.

the key to accomplishing your goals is to build the right habits and follow the right routines. When you control your environment, you make building those habits easy—and you make following the right routines as close to automatic as possible.

Want to Go Beyond Practical Tricks? Learn the Philosophy of Willpower

I’m big on processes, but I’m also big on mind-set. The thought really is the parent of the deed.

Want to Go Beyond Practical Tricks? Learn the Philosophy of Willpower

So what can you do when you need greater willpower and perseverance, and one of the practical tips just described won’t get you over the determination hump?

Take a step back and rely on the power of perspective.

Consistently doing what you need to do to succeed, with total focus and resolve, is incredibly difficult. That’s why the ability to work hard and respond positively to failure and adversity is so crucial. Resolve, willpower, and determination help successful people work hard and stick to their long-term goals.

Let Your Past Inform Your Future—but Don’t Let It Define Your Future

The past is valuable. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others.

Then let it go.

See Your Life—and Future—as Within Your Control

everything depends on your perspective. When something bad happens to you, it’s an opportunity to learn. When another person makes a mistake, it’s an opportunity to be kind, forgiving, and understanding.

Learn to Ignore the Things You Have No Control Over

See Your Life—and Future—as Within Your Control

There’s a quote often credited to Saint Ignatius of Loyola (and you have to love a fighting saint): “Pray as if God will take care of all; act as if all is up to you.”

The same premise applies to luck. Many people feel luck has a lot to do with success or failure. If they succeed, luck favored them, and if they fail, luck was against them.

Most successful people do feel that good luck played some role in the success they enjoy. But they don’t wait for good luck or worry about bad luck. They act as if success or failure is totally within their control. If they succeed, they caused it. If they fail, they caused it.

By not wasting mental energy worrying about what might happen to you, you can put all your effort into making things happen. (And if you do get lucky … hey, even better.)

Learn to Ignore the Things You Have No Control Over

Be your own change—but don’t try to make everyone else change.

(They won’t.)

Don’t Just Aim for Tenacity; Aim for Adaptability

Discomfort is growth,” Tyler says. “To constantly improve, and to be more resilient and adaptable, whenever there is a fork in the road, choose discomfort over comfort and you will grow. We’re used to choosing comfort. We’re used to choosing the easy way. Yet all our success and growth comes from choosing the hardest and least comfortable way. Say you’re an entrepreneur: You chose the discomfort of giving up a paycheck and starting a company. Every success comes from taking the harder path.

Don’t Just Aim for Tenacity; Aim for Adaptability

if you want to increase the level of success, you need to increase the level of failure. There’s a difference between quitting and failing. I’m okay with failing a thousand times. As long as you just keep going and don’t quit, you haven’t really failed.”

Embrace that mind-set and you will never fail. You just won’t have succeeded—yet.

Resist the Temptation to Complain, Criticize, or Whine

Don’t Resent; Celebrate the Success of Others

Many people—I guarantee you know at least a few—see success as a zero-sum game: There’s only so much to go around. When someone else shines, they think that diminishes the light from their stars.

Resentment sucks up a massive amount of mental energy—energy better applied elsewhere.

When a friend does something awesome, that doesn’t prevent you from doing something awesome. In fact, where success is concerned, birds of a feather tend to flock together—so draw your successful friends even closer.

Don’t resent awesomeness. Create and celebrate awesomeness wherever you find it, and in time you’ll find even more of it in yourself.

Resist the Temptation to Complain, Criticize, or Whine

Your words have power—especially over you. Harping about your problems always makes you feel worse, not better.

If something goes wrong, don’t waste time complaining. Put that mental energy into making the situation better.

Resist the Temptation to Complain, Criticize, or Whine

And do the same with your friends or colleagues. Don’t just serve as a shoulder they can cry on. Friends don’t let friends whine; friends help friends make their lives better

Resist the Temptation to Complain, Criticize, or Whine

Count Your Blessings

Before you turn out the light every night, take a moment to quit worrying about what you don’t have. Quit worrying about what others have that you don’t.

Think about what you do have. You have plenty to be thankful for. Doesn’t reminding yourself of all the things you have in your life—all the things you would miss desperately if they were taken away—feel amazing?

Feeling better about yourself is the best way of all to recharge your mental batteries.

And it’s the best way to be happy, because happiness is easily found when you appreciate what you already have.

Step 5: Stop turning down the help you need.

Stop turning down the help you need.

Pretend you’ve traveled to an unfamiliar country, you know only a few words of the language, and you’re lost and a little scared. Would you ask for help? Of course.

Step 5: Stop turning down the help you need.

Ask for help. Asking for help is a sign of strength—and is the key to achieving a lot more. Ask Dany Garcia, cofounder of Seven Bucks Productions with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. “One of Dwayne’s keys to success is he can detach his ego completely and care solely about who has the best answers,” Dany says. “He’s extremely coachable. He’s really coachable in wrestling; as an actor he’s really coachable… . He’s totally detached from the ego side of decision making. When you’re talented and coachable and willing to find the best answer, no matter who has it or where it comes from, that’s extremely powerful.”

Step 3: Stop letting fear hold you back.

Anyone hoping to achieve great things gets nervous. Anyone trying to achieve great things gets scared.

To succeed, you don’t have to be braver than other people; you just need to find the strength to keep moving forward. Fear is paralyzing, but action creates confidence and self-assurance.

Step 2: Stop letting disapproval, or even scorn, stand in your way.

To succeed, hear the criticism, take the shots, endure the laughter or derision or even hostility—and stick to measuring yourself and your efforts by your own standards.

Seemingly every successful person has faced tremendous criticism and rejection. Stephen King’s first book was rejected by thirty different publishers. Soichiro Honda flunked his interview with Toyota and decided to make scooters. Lucille Ball was told by acting teachers to try another profession. If you’re trying to do something different—if you’re trying to be different—other people will think you’re odd. That’s okay. Do what you want to do.

That’s the only way to achieve what you want to achieve

Step 2: Stop letting disapproval, or even scorn, stand in your way.

Norman Mailer said, “Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.”

Say you’re a manager. When you’re having a bad day, are you a great leader? If not, you’re not a real leader.

Step 2: Stop letting disapproval, or even scorn, stand in your way.

Establishing great habits takes considerable time and effort. Success and achievement are habits, and it’s incredibly easy to instantly create a bad habit by giving in, even just once.

Plus, the moment you make an excuse for doing less is the moment you stop the virtuous cycle of motivation in its tracks. Without achievement, there is no motivation.

There are just excuses.

Step 7: Track your time.

Track your time.

Once you start tracking your time, you’ll be amazed by how much time you spend doing stuff that isn’t productive. (You don’t have to get hyperspecific. The info you log can be a summary of activities, not a minute-to-minute diary.)

Tracking time was an eye-opening experience for Jim—and one that has really helped him focus.

Step 6: Refuel before you think you need to refuel.

Delay and space out your rewards.

Say you like to listen to music when you work. On an EPD, keep the music turned off for the first few hours. That way, when your motivation starts to flag, a little music will provide a great boost to your morale.

Whatever ways you typically tend to “treat” yourself, think of those treats as personal productivity bullets. If you use all your ammunition too early, you’ll have nothing left when you really need it. Whatever typically carries you through your workday, hold off on it for a while.

Delayed gratification is always better gratification—and better motivation.

How to Have Your Most Productive Day Ever

HOW TO HAVE YOUR MOST PRODUCTIVE DAY EVER

Step 1: Let everyone know you won’t be available.

Step 3: Totally commit to how long you decided to work.

Step 2: Decide how long you will work.

Don’t create a plan based on “I’ll work as long as I can” or “I’ll work as long as I feel productive.” Set a concrete target.

Step 4: Start your EPD at an unusual time.

Have you ever taken a long car trip and left at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.? The first few hours always fly by, because you stepped outside your norm. The same trick works for an EPD. Start at 4:00 a.m.

Step 5: Delay and space out your rewards.

An EPD is not a normal day. Set the stage for atypical by breaking free of your usual routine.

Step 2: Decide how long you will work.

An EPD is about getting things done, not wimping out because you get bored or tired. Two, the longer the time frame you set, the quicker the early hours seem to go by.

How to Have Your Most Productive Day Ever

on an occasional basis, an Extreme Productivity Day (okay, I’ve already given up hoping the folks from Monster Energy will call) is the perfect cure for the “I am never going to get this done” flu.

Let’s say you have a major task that will take you eleven or twelve hours to complete. Here are the steps to get everything done in one day.

Chapter 5.5: One Question Provides Nearly Every Answer

Will this help me reach my goal? If not, I won’t do it.”

If you feel like you’re constantly struggling to make decisions, take a step back. Think about your goals; your goals will help you make decisions.

That’s why the most successful people seem so decisive. Indecision is born of a lack of purpose: When you know what you truly want, most of your decisions can—and should—be almost automatic.

Yes, I Did 100,000 Push-Ups (and What That Means to You)

improving—at anything—is always fun.

Yes, I Did 100,000 Push-Ups (and What That Means to You)

YES, I DID 100,000 PUSH-UPS (AND WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU)

Working your number is based on consistently doing, over and over and over again, the things that make the biggest difference in your life. In short, working your number is about grinding: working hard every day to achieve your long-term goals.

To prove that—and to prove something to myself—in 2016 I decided to do a total of 100,000 push-ups and 50,000 sit-ups, in addition to my normal workouts.

I don’t particularly enjoy push-ups. And I definitely don’t like sit-ups. (Sit-ups can just fuck right off.) That was partly the point. The more you enjoy what you do, the easier it is to persevere.

So how do you achieve a huge goal when that goal involves doing something you really don’t like to do?

Good question.

Here’s the answer. Exactly 100,001 push-ups later (because hey, you can always do one more) and 50,000 sit-ups later (because that doesn’t mean you have to do one more), the answer is that it was surprisingly easy.

Granted, I didn’t do them all in one day. I didn’t have to do 100,000 push-ups all at once; I just had to do 274 a day to hit 100,000 for the year. I didn’t have to do 50,000 sit-ups all at once; I just had to do 137 a day to hit 50,000 for the year. The daily numbers were still big numbers, but they weren’t that big, especially compared with the total. The daily number made the distance between here and there seem short. Setting a daily number meant “all” I had to do was go day by day, one day at a time, and grind it out.

As long as I stuck with my routine every day, success was guaranteed.

That doesn’t mean every day went like clockwork. Most did, but several times along the way I fell behind due to illness or personal issues. I didn’t fall too far behind, because most days I did an extra 30 or 40 push-ups and 20 or 30 sit-ups to build up a buffer against the occasional days that I knew I would miss. And at one point I caught up in a big way: I did 5,000 push-ups in one day. (How did that go? I have two words for you: It sucked.) I didn’t do 2,500 sit-ups in one day, though. (No way was I going to do that.) Instead I added 50 sit-ups to my normal daily total until I caught up. (The nice thing about doing 190 sit-ups per day for a few weeks is that when I went back down to 140 per day, it seemed like I got done with that day’s sit-ups relatively quickly.)

I also worked to improve over time, because working your number also means seeking to improve your number. At first it took me about thirty minutes to do 300 push-ups and 160 sit-ups. (I always rounded up to round numbers.) Within a month or so, I knocked four or five minutes off the total time. By the end of the year, a day’s session took less than fifteen minutes, and that was without pushing myself. I could do all the sit-ups without stopping to take a break. I could do the first set of 80 push-ups with no problem, then continue with sets of 50.

To mix things up, and work on improvement, sometimes I did 30 push-ups at a time with twenty-second rest breaks in between, sometimes sets of 50 with forty-second rest breaks. After all, variety really is the spice of an otherwise boring routine.

Reps Are Repetitive but Must Never Be Mindless

successful people are successful because they approach learning in a consistent, systematic, results-focused way. Bravery isn’t a requirement for success. Innate talent isn’t a requirement for success. Talented, highly skilled people don’t take big risks … yet they still learn to accomplish big things.

How? They prepare. They train. They constantly experiment and adapt and refine, refine, refine. Highly accomplished people gain superior skills not by bursting through the envelope but by approaching and then slowly and incrementally expanding the boundaries of that envelope

Reps Are Repetitive but Must Never Be Mindless

The key to learning is to make small, smart changes, evaluate the results, discard what doesn’t work, and further refine what does work. When you constantly modify and refine a skill you already perform well, you can perform it even better.

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Daniel Coyle’s The Little Book of Talent is a cool book filled with easy and proven methods to learn to do almost anything.

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Dan’s REPS methodology:

R: Reaching and Repeating

E: Engagement

P: Purposefulness

S: Strong, Speedy Feedback

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Reaching and Repeating

Practice should require you to operate at the edge of your abilities. In short, you have to consistently reach and constantly repeat.

You can also use this approach to teach students or develop employees. Say you’re leading a training session. Should you …

call on one person, ask a question, and have him or her answer it, or

pose the question first and then randomly choose someone to answer (and maybe even turn the exercise into a game)?

The second is the best approach because everyone will have to reach every time—even those who aren’t called on.

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Always put yourself—or the people you’re training—in a position where you or they must reach, over and over again. Don’t just do what you already know how to do. Try to do what you can’t do—yet. That’s how you learn.

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Engagement

Practice must command your attention and make you feel emotionally invested in striving for a goal

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Make sure the outcome of every session is something you care about. You’ll try harder and be more engaged, and you’ll improve more rapidly.

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Purposefulness

Practice must directly connect to the skill you want to build. (Sounds obvious, but often what we practice has little to do with what we need to accomplish.)

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Strong, Speedy Feedback

Practice must provide an immediate and consistent flow of accurate information about performance.

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

Immediate feedback is the best feedback. You’ll better connect the dots because you’re in the flow. Waiting even a day for feedback creates a mental distance and a lack of engagement that is hard to overcome

What If You Find Yourself in a Rep Rut?

another way to learn to do almost anything a lot better.

Try one—or all—of these:

What If You Find Yourself in a Rep Rut?

GO SIGNIFICANTLY SLOWER.

Force yourself to go slower and you’ll identify techniques or strategies that hold you back. Plus, you can experiment with new techniques that aren’t apparent at normal speed.

What If You Find Yourself in a Rep Rut?

GO SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER.

Force yourself to go much faster than normal. You’ll screw up, and in the process you’ll adapt and find new improvements.

What If You Find Yourself in a Rep Rut?

BREAK A COMPLICATED TASK INTO SMALLER PARTS.

Almost every task includes a series of discrete steps. Pick one step, deconstruct it, master it … then put the whole task back together. Then choose another component to deconstruct. Incrementally improve enough steps and the overall improvement can be huge.

What If You Find Yourself in a Rep Rut?

USE A DIFFERENT METRIC.

Pick a different measurement than you normally use to analyze your performance. Measure speed instead of accuracy, for example.

Step 1: Get over the company-name thing.

Plenty of people endlessly agonize over dreaming up the perfect company name. Don’t. If you’re waiting until you come up with the perfect name, you’re also waiting to start making money.

Instead, at least for now, forget branding and unique selling propositions and all that business-identity stuff. And don’t worry about finding the perfect URL or Web site design or promotional literature. You’re putting those carts way before your business horse too.

Just pick a name so you can get the administrative ball rolling.

Step 2: Get Your Employer Identification Number (EIN).

An EIN is the federal tax number used to identify your business. You don’t need an EIN unless you will have employees or plan to form a partnership, LLC, or corporation.

But even if you don’t need an EIN, get one anyway: It’s free, it takes minutes, and you can keep your Social Security number private and reduce the chance of identity theft, because if you don’t have an EIN, your SSN identifies your business for tax purposes.

Step 4: Get your business license.

Step 3: Register your trade name.

If you won’t be operating under your own name, your locality may require you to register a trade name. In most cases, you’ll be approved on the spot (unless you try to register a name someone else has already registered).

Step 4: Get your business license.

Your county or city will require a business license. The form takes minutes to fill out. Use your EIN instead of your Social Security number to identify your business (for privacy reasons if nothing else).

You may be asked to estimate annual gross receipts. Do your best to estimate accurately, but don’t agonize over it. You’re just providing an estimate.

Step 5: Complete a business personal property tax form (if necessary).

Businesses are taxed on “personal” property, just like individuals are in many states. Where I live, no form is required for the year the business is established.

If you are required to file a business personal property tax form and you plan to work from home using computers or tools that you already own, you shouldn’t need to list those items.

Step 6: Ask your locality about other permits.

Every locality has different requirements. Where I used to live, for example, a “home occupation permit” was required to verify that any business based in a home met zoning requirements.

Your locality may require other permits. Ask. They’ll tell you.

Step 8: Open a business bank account.

A moment ago I advocated for simplicity—but I won’t in this case. One of the easiest ways to screw up your business accounting and possibly run afoul of the IRS is to commingle personal and business funds (and transactions). Using a business account for all business transactions eliminates that possibility.

The Most Rewarding Number to Work

Step 9: Set up a simple accounting spreadsheet.

Down the road you can worry about business accounting software, like QuickBooks. For now, just create a spreadsheet you can use to enter and track the money you spend and the money you receive.

Bookkeeping is simple, at least at first. All you need are revenue and expense columns; you can add line items as you go. Instead of spending hours playing with accounting software, dreaming up potential expense and income categories, and creating fancy reports with no data, spend that time generating revenue. As long as you record everything you earn and spend in your spreadsheet, creating a more formal system later will be fairly easy. It will also be more fun, because then you’ll have real data to enter.

The Most Rewarding Number to Work

Maybe you’re still struggling to think of your “and.” Maybe you’re still struggling to determine what goal you want to pursue. If that’s you, here’s a perfect use for “work your number”: Focus on other people.

The Most Rewarding Number to Work

“I have never seen a great leader that didn’t have the generosity gene. Take care of your people, let them know where they stand, cheer them, never take credit for what they do, and they’ll go to the moon for you.”

Give Greater Autonomy and Independence

Great organizations are built on the optimizing of processes and procedures. Still, every task doesn’t deserve a best practice or a micromanaged approach

Give Greater Autonomy and Independence

Engagement and satisfaction are largely based on autonomy and independence. I care when it’s “mine.” I care when I’m in charge and feel empowered to do what’s right.

Plus, freedom breeds innovation: Even heavily process-oriented positions have room for different approaches

Give Greater Autonomy and Independence

Whenever possible, give the people around you the autonomy and independence to work the way they work best. When you do, they almost always find ways to do their jobs better than you imagined possible.

Give Greater Autonomy and Independence

it definitely applies to your kids; tell them what you would like them to do, but give them the freedom to figure out how to do it. Every parent’s goal is to raise children who become independent adults—so start now.

Give Clearer Expectations

While every task should include some degree of independence, every task also needs basic expectations for how specific situations should be handled.

Give Clearer Expectations

Few things are more stressful than not knowing what is expected from one day to the next.

Give Clearer Expectations

When you change a standard or guideline, communicate the change beforehand—and when that is not possible, take the time to explain why you made the decision you made and what you expect in the future.

Give Clearer Expectations

Children seek independence, but they also crave structure and predictability. Provide both.

Give More Meaningful Objectives

Meaningful targets can create a sense of purpose and add a little meaning to even the most repetitive tasks. Plus, goals are fun. Without a meaningful goal to shoot for, work is just work.

No one likes work.

Give a Better Sense of Purpose

Everyone likes to feel a part of something bigger. Everyone loves to feel that sense of teamwork and esprit de corps that turn a group of individuals into a real team.

The best missions involve making a real impact on the lives of the people you serve. When the people around you know how their effort contributes to the business, or to customers, or to the community, work takes on greater meaning. That’s especially true when people are given the freedom to create a mission or two of their own.

Feeling a true purpose starts with knowing what to care about and, more important, why you should care.

Give More Opportunities to Provide Significant Input

Engaged employees have ideas; take away opportunities for them to make suggestions, or instantly disregard their ideas without consideration, and they immediately disengage.

Make it incredibly easy for people to offer suggestions. Ask leading questions. Probe gently. Help people feel comfortable proposing new ways to get things done. When an idea isn’t feasible, always take the time to explain why.

Employees who make suggestions care about the company, so do everything you can to ensure they know their input is valued—and appreciated.

Give a Better Sense of Connection

Employees work for a paycheck (otherwise they would do volunteer work), but they want more than a paycheck: They want to work with and for people they respect and admire—and who respect and admire them.

A kind word, a quick discussion about family, an informal conversation to ask if an employee needs any help—those moments are much more important than group meetings or formal evaluations.

Give Greater Consistency

A true sense of connection is personal. Show that you see and appreciate the person, not just the worker.

Give Private Criticism

Consistency and fairness are based on communication. The more employees understand why a decision was made, the less likely they are to assume unfair treatment or favoritism.

Give Private Criticism

Every employee needs constructive feedback. Every employee deserves constructive feedback. Good bosses give that feedback.

Great bosses always do it in private. So do great partners and great parents.

Give Public Praise

Every employee—even a relatively poor performer—does something well. That’s why every employee deserves praise and appreciation. It’s easy to recognize and praise the best employees, because they’re consistently doing awesome things. (Maybe consistent recognition is a reason they’re the best employees? Something to think about.)

You may have to work hard to find reasons to recognize someone you work with who simply meets standards, but that’s okay; a few words of recognition—especially public recognition—might be all the nudge an average performer needs to start becoming a great performer.

Give More Opportunities to Provide Significant Input

Give a Better Sense of Connection

Give Greater Consistency

Give Private Criticism

Give Greater Consistency

Give Public Praise

Give Everyone a Chance for a Meaningful Future

How can you know what another person hopes to someday do? Easy: Ask.

And if you are a boss, employees will care about your company only after you have shown you care about them. One of the best ways to do that is to not just say but show that while you have hopes for your company’s future, you also have hopes for your employees’ futures.

While We’re at It … Working Your Number Can Also Be Fun

no one gets enough praise. No one gets enough recognition. Few of us praise and recognize people as often as we should

While We’re at It … Working Your Number Can Also Be Fun

in the spirit of challenging myself, I decided I would compliment every person I ran into for an entire day—even if I ran into them only in passing, even if I didn’t know them, even if it didn’t seem socially appropriate … and even if I had a tough time thinking of something (thinking of anything) I could compliment them for.

My Rules

Challenges work best when you impose structure, helping you stay on track and reducing the temptation to lose resolve and rationalize that you should change your goal midstream.

For this challenge, the structure was simple:

If I made eye contact with someone, I had to compliment them in some way.

To make sure I never chickened out, I had to actively try to make eye contact. I couldn’t intentionally look away.

But I didn’t have to compliment people who were already having a conversation or on the phone or wearing headphones. (I didn’t want to be rude.)

And I couldn’t hide away all day. I had to go out into the world at least four times.

My Rules

The first few compliments were really easy.

I was rolling a trash can out to the street and saw my neighbor. She has a great collection of plants and flowers, so I said, “I’m always impressed by how beautiful your plants are. You have a real gift.” Her face lit up. I don’t think I made her day, but I do think I helped get her day off to a good start.

Then I went for a quick walk on the beach. Because this was fall, many of the people I met were walking their dogs or throwing balls into the surf for the dogs to retrieve.

“You have a beautiful dog,” I said to the first person I walked by. He smiled, but I realized I had complimented his dog, not him. Although many dog owners don’t see a difference … Still, rules are rules.

So I followed up with “She seems so happy. You must take really good care of her.” He beamed and I realized I was right: Complimenting a person’s dog (or child or car or whatever) is nice, but complimenting the person makes a bigger impact.

So that’s what I did. I told one man he had done an amazing job training his dog. I complimented a lady on how well she groomed her dog.

I was rolling. I felt pretty darn smug. This “compliment every person you meet” thing was easier than I thought.

Then, off in the distance, I saw a fit, pretty, twentysomething woman headed my way. No dog. No third-person-ish thing to compliment. Uh-oh.

I didn’t want to be that guy, that older guy who goes around randomly complimenting young women and comes off creepy and, well, icky.

I started to walk more slowly. I thought furiously. But I had nothing. Crap.

Then, from about twenty feet away, she made eye contact and smiled. Not a half smile, not an automatic “good morning” smile, but a big, genuine smile.

I smiled back and said, “Thanks.”

“For what?” she said.

“Lots of times when I’m walking people don’t even make eye contact. I always think that’s kind of rude. You saying hi to me was really nice.”

She smiled even bigger and said, “How could I not be happy when I’m out here? Have a great day.”

I know: What I came up with was lame. But I like to think she walked away feeling good about herself, if only for a moment or two, which was the whole point of the exercise.

And I felt pretty good about myself too

My Rules

Then I went to the grocery store.

And let’s just say that no one in a grocery store expects you to walk by and compliment them—not even the people who work there.

And let’s just say that “Wow, you picked the perfect melon” isn’t the right way to go.

And neither is “You look like you’re on a mission. You seem extremely well organized.”

And “I wish I was as good at choosing the right steaks as you are” falls pretty flat.

And let’s just say I wanted to give up. In some settings, it seemed, compliments are not just unexpected but also unwanted.

Still, I decided to try one more time, but with a twist. I decided to ask for help, because asking for help is implicitly complimentary. If I ask you for help, I’m saying you know something I don’t know or you can do something I can’t do. Asking for help is like saying, “I respect your (knowledge/skill/experience).”

That’s what I did. I was in the seafood section and made eye contact with a thirtysomething woman. She didn’t smile or nod (gulp!) but I forged ahead.

“I’m terrible at picking the right piece of salmon,” I said. “Can I bother you for a second and ask you to help me?” And she did. In fact, she appeared to enjoy it.

And I got to say, “I really appreciate it. Thanks for helping me, and for being so nice.”

My Takeaways

“I really like your tattoo,” I said.

He smiled, said thanks, and then spent the next five minutes talking all about it: where he got it, how he came up with the design, what it meant to him … I realized that sometimes the easiest thing to compliment is the thing that people seem to want you to notice

My Takeaways

It’s not hard to compliment people you meet who are doing their jobs: grocery clerks, managers, front-desk people at the gym … Saying thanks and telling them they did something well is not difficult at all.

All that’s required is that you remember to actually do it.

Complimenting “random” people is harder but surprisingly rewarding. It was fun to watch people’s faces light up.

Try it. You’ll think so too. Every day, people around you do good things. Most of those people don’t work for you; in fact, most of them have no relationship with you, professional or personal. Compliment them for something they would least expect.

Expected feels good.

Unexpected makes an even bigger impact.

Don’t just take my word for it.

Complimenting people who try something different can also be hard. Do it anyway. Status quo is often status safe. Taking a risk, however small, is hard, especially if you’re insecure. Insecurity feeds off silence, so mention when you see someone trying something different. Compliment the effort. Praise the risk.

Even if what they have tried doesn’t work, they will know you noticed. Everyone likes to be noticed. And they’ll know, regardless of how it turns out, that you respect them for trying.

Give More Meaningful Objectives

Give Greater Autonomy and Independence

Step 7: Get a certificate of resale (if necessary).

A certificate of resale, also known as a resale certificate or seller’s permit, allows you to collect state sales tax on products sold. (In some states, there is no sales tax on services.)

The Second-Most-Rewarding Number to Work: The One You Own

my neighbor. He talked for at least six months about starting a business. Whenever I saw him, that was all he talked about. Eventually I got tired of it.

“What the heck are you waiting for?” I finally asked.

It turns out he thought the process of starting a business was really complicated. “I don’t want to go through all that stuff,” he said, “unless I’m absolutely sure my idea is perfect.” Like a lot of would-be entrepreneurs, he was stalling because he was intimidated by the apparent complexity of the administrative and legal tasks involved in starting a business.

And he didn’t realize that “idea” should always be a verb.

I bet him lunch that we could take care of all that in less than three hours. (I won.) And that means you can definitely commit to knocking off one or more of the following every day. Just keep in mind that I’m talking only about setting yourself up to do business; I’m not talking about writing a business plan, sourcing financing, developing a marketing plan, actually selling a product or service, etc. The goal here is to get off square one and get on to the fun stuff.

Here’s your list.

How to Do a Lot of REPS (Although Not the Kind We’ve Talked About)

How to Do a Lot of REPS

Reps Are Repetitive but Must Never Be Mindless

REPS ARE REPETITIVE BUT MUST NEVER BE MINDLESS

That Sinking Feeling Means You’re on the Right Track

Your pro can get you to where you want to go because he won’t coddle you or tell you what you want to hear; he’ll tell you what you need to hear and need to do.

That Sinking Feeling Means You’re on the Right Track

pro will often simply lay out what other highly successful people did to achieve that level of success—people you will never meet. For example, Stephen King writes two thousand words a day and, as he says in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, “only under dire circumstances” will he allow himself to shut down before he gets his two thousand words. (Yep, the Kingster works his number.) If you want to be a writer, you could do a lot worse than simply doing what that pro does.

That Sinking Feeling Means You’re on the Right Track

you don’t need a coach. You don’t need someone to encourage you, to coddle you to adapt their knowledge and skills and expertise to your capabilities… . You need someone to say, “This is how I do it,” and then let you do it.

How to Pick Your Pro

if you want to accomplish what the pros have accomplished, you don’t need a coach. You need a pro. All you have to do is choose people who have accomplished things that you wish to accomplish and follow their leads.

How to Pick Your Pro

If you’re into fitness, workout plans abound. If you’re into business, biographies abound. If you want to learn a particular skill, the blueprints are there. Just be willing to follow them. Don’t think you can somehow “hack” your way to the same level of success. You aren’t that smart. I’m not that smart. Maybe Tim Ferriss is that smart, but there’s only one Tim Ferriss. Ask him. He’ll tell you.

How to Pick Your Pro

Whom you choose to admire—and it is a choice—says more about you than about that person. We tend to admire certain people because we see something of ourselves in them. We like to think that what they do and how they do it indicates what we would do if given the chance.

The Difference Between Pros and Motivational Coaches

my pro had zero interest in supervising me even if he did have the time. That’s one of the reasons he excels in his sport: From his perspective, anyone who states a goal must naturally be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.

The Difference Between Pros and Motivational Coaches

Cycling coaches advise, mentor, and motivate but, like a supervisor overseeing remote teams or a business owner managing multiple locations, they cannot and do not directly supervise or enforce.

The Difference Between Pros and Motivational Coaches

Coaches think about making the process fun and uplifting. Pros show you how to succeed—and expect you to take full responsibility for your own success.

How to Connect With Your Pro

Pros will help you stop believing that making a few small tweaks will somehow change your life. Pros will help you stop believing that you can just do a little bit more of what you have always done and somehow that minor change will make all the difference. I stopped trying to just think positively. I stopped setting only reachable goals. I stopped thinking I could somehow “hack” my way to success. I didn’t do all the stuff we’re told to do … because all the stuff we’re told to do never, ever works.

Take a different approach. Ask someone who has been there and done that—a real pro—what they would do in your shoes.

And then do what they tell you to do, because unlike most people, however well-meaning they may be, a pro knows.

How to Connect With Your Pro

“I can’t believe I did that” is incredibly powerful. You start to crave that feeling. You start to crave the suffering (whether physical or mental) because you crave that feeling of accomplishment when you finish the day’s routine. You look forward to the “pain” because it is followed by the joy of success.

How to Connect With Your Pro

while you may never be as accomplished as the pro you emulate, you will be a member of the club. You will become a cyclist … or a runner … or a leader … or an entrepreneur … or a philanthropist … or whatever it is you set out to be.

And that feels amazing too, because when you’ve become something, you need almost no motivation at all in order to keep being what you have become.

It’s no longer what you do. It’s what you are.

How to Connect With Your Pro

HOW TO CONNECT WITH YOUR PRO

How to Connect With Your Pro

Some people prefer not to emulate from afar. Some prefer direct contact and the sense of connection it imparts. That approach means finding a pro who will work with or mentor you.

The process starts with finding a way to fit in with the community you hope to join: leaders, parents, entrepreneurs, fitness enthusiasts, etc.

Fortunately, that’s a natural urge. We all want to feel like we’re part of a community or that we’re part of something larger than ourselves.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

Granted, we all have limits. Some limits are physical. Some are mental. Some we simply can’t do anything about.

But in most cases, our limits are self-imposed.

Here’s an example of a self-imposed limit: effort. It’s easy to rationalize that we’ve done enough. It’s tempting to think we’ve done all we can, especially when we’re tired. And so we stop.

But that little voice lies: With the right motivation, or under the right circumstances, we can always do more. Stopping is nearly always a choice. We don’t have to stop; we choose to stop.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

The same is true for skill. Once you reach a certain level of expertise, your rate of improvement typically slows … and it’s natural to assume you’re near your limit.

But you really aren’t. You just think so because you’ve started comparing your present self with your past self instead of with what is actually possible. You’ve started to look back at how far you’ve come instead of looking forward to see just how far you can still go. You assume you’re as good as you’re likely to ever be.

And so, often unconsciously, you stop trying.

Help Other People Feel They Belong

Maybe it’s the guy in shipping who always eats lunch alone. Maybe it’s the lady in accounting who always stands at the edge of a group. It’s easy to spot people who feel hesitant and out of place.

Pick one. Say hi. Say something nice. Say, or do, something that makes the person feel a slightly bigger connection—to the company, to a group, or just to you.

Reach the point at which you feel confident helping others fit in and that’s when you truly fit in—because then it’s no longer about you: It’s about the group and the people in that group.

Which, when you think about it, is the perfect definition of fitting in.

Help Other People Feel They Belong

when you think even harder about it, is the perfect time to ask someone you admire how they gained the skill or expertise they possess—and how you can too.

I promise they won’t ignore your request, because you’ve proven yourself as someone who helps others … which means people will gladly help you.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

Nothing changed except my perspective—and, as a result, my skill.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

What changed? My skill wasn’t the problem. My self-imposed limit was the problem. I didn’t think it was possible to go flat out … so it wasn’t. Once I knew it was possible, it was possible.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

Stop comparing yourself with yourself. Stop comparing yourself with the people around you. Go see a superstar in action. Whether it’s a speaker, a musician, a performer, an athlete, or an entrepreneur, find a way to expose yourself to exceptional skill, exceptional expertise, and exceptional talent.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

While you may never be as good, when superstar performance is your bar, you automatically set your goals higher—and that makes you achieve more.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

Stop looking back. Start looking forward to see how far you can still go.

And then work hard to get there. Do what the pros do.

You may never be as talented as the absolute best in the field or pursuit you choose, but you will definitely achieve much more than your self-imposed limits allowed you to think was ever possible.

Your Biggest Limits Are Self-Imposed—But Those Limits Are the Easiest to Overcome

TO ACCOMPLISH A HUGE GOAL, GO VIKING

Decide what is important to you and then structure your life—and your process—to ensure you accomplish the things that really matter.

TO ACCOMPLISH A HUGE GOAL, GO VIKING

Do you have a choice? If your goal means enough to you, then you don’t

TO ACCOMPLISH A HUGE GOAL, GO VIKING

Confidence is earned each and every day … and the process often starts when you dive in and do what you’re most afraid to do.

TO ACCOMPLISH A HUGE GOAL, GO VIKING

“The key to my perseverance was absolutely loving the craft of acting,” she said. “I just figured that if I kept doing it, at the very least I would get better at acting. Even if I didn’t become a tremendous success, so long as I knew I was improving and getting better, to me, that was success. Feeling successful is internal, not external.

TO ACCOMPLISH A HUGE GOAL, GO VIKING

even the smallest successes helped fuel her motivation.

TO ACCOMPLISH A HUGE GOAL, GO VIKING

Embrace the challenge, embrace the “pain,” embrace the fact that you will stretch and push yourself beyond your normal limits … because every time you do, you’ll feel motivated to do it again.

And in time you’ll find yourself living the life you want to live

Be the Biggest Fish

we can’t all be great at everything.

But we can be the best we can be at the things we choose to do

“Will Doing This Benefit Me in Some Way?”

if you want to achieve a huge goal, as well as succeed at all your other responsibilities, you need to learn how to say no to most things that come your way. Otherwise other people—and other choices—will place incredible demands on your most valuable resource: your time.

“Is This More Important Than What I’m Currently Doing?”

No matter what your business, one or two things truly drive results. Maybe it’s quality. Maybe it’s service. Maybe it’s being the lowest-cost provider. Maybe it’s the personal connection made with each individual customer.

“Is This More Important Than What I’m Currently Doing?”

Want to succeed? Spend all the time you can working on the area that drives real value for your business. That’s how you’ll stand out. That’s what you should do best—and do more of.

Kill One Sign-off

everything you do “trains” the people around you to treat you a certain way. Let employees interrupt your meetings or phone calls because of “emergencies,” and they’ll feel free to interrupt you whenever they want. Drop what you’re doing every time a friend calls, and that person will always expect immediate attention. Return e-mails immediately, and people will learn to expect an immediate response.

In short, your actions give other people permission to keep you from functioning the way you function best.

“Is This More Important Than What I’m Currently Doing?”

Kill One Sign-off

You probably have at least one sign-off in place because somewhere along the way an employee made a major error and you don’t want the same mistake to happen again. In the process, though, you decrease the degree of responsibility your employees feel for their own work, because your authority has been inserted into the process.

Do this instead: Train, explain, trust … and remove yourself from processes where you don’t belong.

Fire One Customer

That also works where kids are concerned. Set guidelines and then allow your kids to make decisions within those parameters. They’ll learn to be more responsible and independent, and you’ll regain all that time you spend (fruitlessly) micromanaging their lives.

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The Motivation Myth - Jeff Haden

The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win

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