Will You Make Your Year LEAP?
February 24th, 2016 // 2:38 pm @ Scott Manning
Monday is, as you know, February 29th – the Day in Leap Year that only comes around every 4 years and I figure this is as good a time as any to remind you of that ‘law’ we live by about work and time.
The one that says “the work will fill the time allowed.”
For me personally, and for everyone I have ever met who ambitiously strives to be successful, we suffer from two edges of the same sword when it comes to time.
We either allow too much time or not enough. Seldom find the balance of achievement.
I guess when you think about it, this year having one extra day, what’s the real difference? There won’t be any – truly measurable, sizeable, orchestrated difference. I’d bet you on that.
But this message isn’t about planning your life around an extra day every four years, it’s more about how you are using the 7 days a week that you have now.
Here’s the reality I see successful entrepreneurs living with…
1 – they try to cram way too much into a short period of time and never fully finish and then end up frustrated and with diminishing returns.
This is on the task-based daily actions. Your day is filled with a whole lot of mixed priorities and there is never fully enough time dedicated and protected for the completion of the highest and best priorities that are going to drive results.
2 – contrary to that we give, allow, and accept way too much time and space for conquering your obstacles, achieving your goals, and getting your results.
Daily we often try to do too much.
Weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly we often do not do enough, in fact we stretch out things that should take a fraction of the time and always our goals end up never making it because we fizzle out, get distracted, lose motivation, or simply just miss the opportunity completely.
This is why I love working backwards, what I call reverse engineering your success because it sets you up for reality and to be in control over time and expectations.
Here are a few tips for you to ponder and integrate into your life when you are celebrating this extra 29th day of February. If you want to have dramatic and consistent breakthroughs you will make every day a LEAP DAY for you in your life and business.
First, day to day, allocate every minute, don’t be crazy and pretend you can do two things at once or be in two places at once or be talking to two people at the same time, it’s very simple, you have one stream of consciousness that is going to serve your immediate focused purpose.
If you allocate every minute many people call this “scripting your day.” I learned it from my friend and mentor Dan Kennedy. You will always be able to accomplish more than not having a plan or giving everything a slot in your schedule.
Now, what goes in this day, what is scripted for your success must be based on your overall goals and objectives, not random to-do lists, not things other people want from you but what is going to drive you forward with your progress and growth.
So many people wake up and go into their day without a plan and at best with a list but without any strategy – their list is not tied directly to and dictated by what they are actually trying to accomplish.
Remember this – you can’t fill up more minutes than you have – focus on completion, execution, effective results – not just activities or ‘being productive’ think about progress and what you have to show for it – and above all else what was this day worth to you in value of money today and in value of future money, wealth, customers, growth in the future.
Next, when you look at your week and month you need to have “finish lines” what is going to get done based on results and what has to happen to do it.
Make a list of all the benchmarks and action steps and have a structured set timeline that will drive you and then do not relent, do not distract, do not waver in your follow-through.
Setting goals for the year is a failing proposition. You can set a VISION for the year and a growth target but you have to have daily actions, weekly plans, monthly strategies and implementation that are going to drive your success. At the very least you must hustle quarterly, no different than quarters in a football game you can’t wait until the last one to show up…you need to be winning along the way.
I do not like people who think ONLY about ‘year over year growth’ how about day over day, week over week, month over month, how about how is this afternoon going to be more valuable than this morning.
If you are really serious about making it big then we need to break it down to the hourly actions and value not just of your time but of your company overall that must occur.
We think in terms of how many leads per day, calls per day, closes per week, clients per month, value per relationship, and all of these have actions and benchmarks that are not allowed endless amounts of time but are raced to the finish.
Bottom line, you want to accomplish more in a year whether it has one extra day or you want to take more time off, you must give yourself less time to achieve your goals and have more discipline over the way you fit the tasks and actions into your life.
And no matter how good or bad you are at this, the people under you, they’re worse, so you have to help control, focus, organize, train them in this way too.
There is nothing new here, just a reminder that there are two sides to the sword, trying to do too much in the time available and giving yourself too much time to accomplish your goals.
Condense the latter, be realistic with the former and prioritize everything based on progressive value to your end result and global vision. You will be able to achieve more in any one interval of time than anyone, especially you, could ever imagine.
Next week we’ll begin talking about the ‘leverage points’ every business has that will allow you the power to accelerate and multiply your growth, results, money, and time.
Category : Blog
