…is the subject of this week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom.
“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” – Dale Carnegie

Success comes from goal-directed action. Period. You need to focus on your goals. Because you get what you work for. Because you are what you do repeatedly. This requires focus.
Your brain craves focus…
Multi-tasking doesn’t exist at any level other than the trivial. I don’t know what your critical goal-delivering activities are. Mine are writing, prospecting, selling and delivery of my services. If you can do these at the same time I’ve got a high paid job for you.
If you don’t focus on your goals…
… your brain will focus on trivia. Like the to-do list that never ends with all the little bits of banality that make up life. What a life – hey, I spent 40 years clearing my to-do list…and failed.
The two minute test…
Here’s what to do with trivia – if you cannot delegate it and MUST do it, and you can do it in two minutes, then do it. We are not robots and the little satisfactions we get from completing the small stuff are good for us. But for the rest of the trivia – write a to-do list by all means, then file it. Every day, look at it. When something on it has festered so much that you MUST act – then act. Otherwise – put it back in your file until tomorrow.
Please please me…
Don’t please other people for that reason alone. That’s just conditioning. Please yourself first and you will find you do please others – your customers, your partner, your bank manager.
Concentrate on High Payoff Activities – the critical actions that will deliver your goals, your potential, your future.  Getting through your to-do list is not a life goal, if you have life goals.
And reaching your potential is the primary objective of your life. Isn’t it?
It’s all too much…
Some people only have big goals and that’s great. But they can still be unfocussed because their capacity to deliver is less that their capacity to invent goals. They have too many big goals. Let’s grow two businesses at once – wrong. Let’s grow three businesses at once – even wronger.
Get proficient…
…at goal setting, goal achievement, identifying your high payoff activities, dealing with your barriers, correcting any faulty thinking, developing confidence and eliminating procrastination. Until then, one big goal and a small handful of little goals is quite enough for anyone.
You can only do so much.
Protect your time like it’s the most valuable thing you own, because it is.
You are what you repeatedly do.
You get what you deserve, not what you need.
Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on….

Procrastination – Part II – Solution to

“We are destined to suffer from one of two pains – the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” – Jim Rohn

Blowing bubbles…

This advice on how to overcome procrastination is for those with “normal” levels of it. If you really never start anything ever, go and see a doctor, unless you are a goldfish for whom this is normal.

Ok – so what to do?

Set goals and achieve them. That’s it. Dead simple.

Any idiot…

…can write a goal. It’s the achievement that’s a bit tougher. So to increase your chances of success, make sure it’s your goal, not your partner’s, children’s or society’s.

The good, the bad and the ugly…

Get motivated by going through all the good stuff that happens when you achieve your goal, and all the bad stuff avoided. Bad stuff avoided is better – we take more action to avoid pain than to get pleasure. We’ll come back to bad stuff.

Be accountable – it’s you that’s doing it and nobody cares about your pressures, childcare, lack of money or any other externality that you have chosen to blame in order to avoid the pain of discipline. Find a way. Overcome. Avoid regret.

Goal-directed action – is there another kind?

Know what your key activities are to achieve your goal and do them with maximum prejudice – anything or anyone who gets in your way will feel your wrath, unless you’re sleeping with them, sired them, gave birth to them or they fit in some other extremely limited group, and even then…. remember you are the most important person in your life. That’s not selfishness. It’s the truth.

Now, the really bad stuff…

The quote above by Jim Rohn, an American writer, puts a lump in my throat. The pain of regret. I’m not sure I can think of anything worse. The massive, self-inflicted pain of regret. Yet we procrastinate. Why? Because the pain of discipline, although small, is here, right now. Whereas the pain of regret, although massive, is in the future.

But when you feel the pain of regret it is too late to do anything about it. And I don’t think I could bear that. So I’m not going to.

This time it’s personal…

Choose a goal now. No – call it a promise. Make a promise to do something. Something you can do in one week, that you’ve been putting off. Decide what the first step is. Put it in your diary. Guard that time with your life and when the time comes, take the step and schedule the next step.

“I promise myself that by this time next week I will……”

Avoid the pain of regret.

Mark