If there are three things I preach, they are:
- Having a purpose
- Doing what excites you
- Continuous improvement
Probably in that order of importance, too.
Looking at it again, it’s basically you’re why, what and how.
Without a purpose, it’s difficult to get excited and difficult to know how to improve.
It’s possible, but I think it drastically increases the time it takes to get, have and do what you want in/out of life.
Everything just becomes so much easier when you know what the purpose is of anything you’re doing or related to.
Next, we have ‘doing what excites you’.
I don’t immediately dismiss activities that don’t excite me.
I ask myself “can I frame this differently so I can get excited about it?”
I don’t want to say no to opportunities presented to me, after all.
I feel that too many people give up too quickly.
They adjust their plans by changing their ‘what’.
I tend to only do this after having given it some time.
One, I want to improve myself in that field and see if that changes things for me and two, not everything has a quick feedback loop.
It’s those two that make me stay with my ‘what’ for a month, a quarter, a year or sometimes even longer before I decide to move on to other things.
This leads me to the final component: continuous improvement or the ‘how’.
Rather than changing the ‘what’ I spend most of my time changing and improving the process, the ‘how’.
Often by changing the process, things that once produced no results become fruitful and those that were sapping my energy start giving me energy instead.
If you’re not reflecting upon your life, your priorities, your activities and your relationships on a regular basis, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Most people have annual reflections in the form of ‘resolutions’, but I’d argue those serve as your ‘purpose’ for that year, rather than an improvement to your process.
To make the most of your year, I’d suggest doing a weekly review of what went well and what didn’t, learn from that and adjust your plan for the upcoming week – including what you have to research or learn – accordingly.
Personally, I’ve gotten so used to reflection and process improvement that I do it subconsciously when deciding on tomorrow’s efforts.
Compounding at its finest.
To sum it up, I think:
- Purpose largely decides your performance (results) and fulfilment in life
- Activities that excite you are all about the effectiveness with which you spend your time
- Continuous improvement is all about the efficiency
Some people tend to prioritize the above differently, but from my own experience and what I’ve read, heard, watched and seen with others, it’s prioritizing things in the above order that produce the greatest “results” (however you define that for yourself) over time.
I’ll end with a reminder to myself:
Results come with the application of an ever-increasing depth of knowledge and consistent effort over time.
All to make the most of our most valuable resource: time.