The One Thing Part 8

The accountable manager immediately tunes in: What's happening here? She investigates exactly what she's up against. The other manager refuses to acknowledge what's happening. It's a blip, a glitch, an anomaly. He shrugs it off as simply a "bad month." Meanwhile, the accountable manager, having discovered how a compet.i.tor is grabbing market share, bites the bullet and says, So, this is the way it is, and takes ownership of the problem. If it's to be, it's up to me, she thinks. Being willing to address reality head-on gives her a huge edge. It puts her in a position to start thinking about what she can do differently.

The other manager keeps fighting reality. He comes up with an alternative view, placing responsibility elsewhere. That's not how I see it, he counters. If people in the company would just do their jobs, we wouldn't have problems like this!

The accountable manager looks for solutions. More important, she a.s.sumes she's a part of the solution: What can I do? The moment she finds the right tactic, she acts. Circ.u.mstances won't change by themselves, she thinks, so let's get on with it! The other manager, having blamed everyone else, now excuses himself altogether. It's not my job, he declares, and settles in to hoping things change for the better.

Told in this way, the difference is pretty stark, isn't it? One is actively trying to author her destiny. The other is simply along for the ride. One is acting accountable; the other is being a victim. One will change the outcome. One won't.

Granted, "victim" is a tough word. Please know that I'm describing the att.i.tude, not the person, though if kept up long enough these could become one and the same. No one is a born victim; it's simply an att.i.tude or an approach. But if allowed to persist, the cycle becomes a habit. The opposite is also true. Anyone can be accountable at any time-and the more you choose the cycle of accountability, the more likely it is to become your automatic answer to any adversity.

Highly successful people are clear about their role in the events of their life. They don't fear reality. They seek it, acknowledge it, and own it. They know this is the only way to uncover new solutions, apply them, and experience a different reality, so they take responsibility and run with it. They see outcomes as information they can use to frame better actions to get better outcomes. It's a cycle they understand and use to achieve extraordinary results.

One of the fastest ways to bring accountability to your life is to find an accountability partner. Accountability can come from a mentor, a peer or, in its highest form, a coach. Whatever the case, it's critical that you acquire an accountability relationship and give your partner license to lay out the honest truth. An accountability partner isn't a cheerleader, although he can lift you up. An accountability partner provides frank, objective feedback on your performance, creates an ongoing expectation for productive progress, and can provide critical brainstorming or even expertise when needed. As for me, a coach or a mentor is the best choice for an accountability partner. Although a peer or a friend can absolutely help you see things you may not see, ongoing accountability is best provided by someone to whom you agree to be truly accountable. When that's the nature of the relationship, the best results occur.

Earlier, I discussed Dr. Gail Matthews's research that individuals with written goals were 39.5 percent more likely to succeed. But there's more to the story. Individuals who wrote their goals and sent progress reports to friends were 76.7 percent more likely to achieve them. As effective as writing down your goals can be, simply sharing your progress toward your goals with someone regularly even just a friend, makes you almost twice as effective.

Accountability works.

Ericsson's research on expert performance confirms the same relationship between elite performance and coaching. He observed that "the single most important difference between these amateurs and the three groups of elite performers is that the future elite performers seek out teachers and coaches and engage in supervised training, whereas the amateurs rarely engage in similar types of practice."

An accountability partner will positively impact your productivity. They'll keep you honest and on track. Just knowing they are waiting for your next progress report can spur you to better results. Ideally, a coach can "coach" you on how to maximize your performance over time. This is how the very best become the very best.

Coaching will help you with all three commitments to your ONE Thing. On the path to mastery, on the journey from "E" to "P," and in living the accountability cycle, a coach is invaluable. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find elite achievers who don't have coaches helping them in key areas of their life.

It's never too soon or too late to get a coach. Commit to achieving extraordinary results and you'll find a coach gives you the best chance possible.

BIG IDEAS.

Commit to be your best. Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work. This is, in essence, the path to mastery-and because mastery takes time, it takes a commitment to achieve it.

Be purposeful about your ONE Thing. Move from "E" to "P." Go on a quest for the models and systems that can take you the farthest. Don't just settle for what comes naturally-be open to new thinking, new skills, and new relationships. If the path of mastery is a commitment to be your best, being purposeful is a commitment to adopt the best possible approach.

Take ownership of your outcomes. If extraordinary results are what you want, being a victim won't work. Change occurs only when you're accountable. So stay out of the pa.s.senger seat and always choose the driver's side.

Find a coach. You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who achieves extraordinary results without one.

Remember, we're not talking about ordinary results- extraordinary is what we're after. That kind of productivity eludes most, but it doesn't have to. When you time block your most important priority, protect your time block, and then work your time block as effectively as possible, you'll be as productive as you can be. You'll be living the power of The ONE Thing.

Now you just have to avoid getting hijacked.

17 THE FOUR THIEVES.

"Focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do."

-John Carmack In 1973, a group of seminary students unknowingly partic.i.p.ated in a grand study known as "The Good Samaritan Experiment." These students were recruited and divided into two groups to see what factors influenced whether or not they would help a stranger in distress. Some were told they were going to prepare a talk about seminary jobs; the others, that they were going to give a talk about the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a Biblical story about helping people in need. Within each group, some were told they were late and had to hurry to their destination, while others were told they could take their time. What the students didn't know was that researchers had planted a man along the way-slumped on the ground, coughing, apparently in distress.

In the end, fewer than half the students stopped to help. But the deciding factor wasn't the task-it was time. Ninety percent of the students who were rushed failed to stop and render aid to the stranger. Some actually stepped over him in their hurry to get where they were supposed to go. It didn't seem to matter that half of them were on their way to deliver a talk on helping others!

Now, if seminary students can so easily lose focus on their real priority, do the rest of us even have a prayer?

Clearly, our best intentions can easily be undone. Just as there are the Six Lies that will deceive and mislead you, there are Four Thieves that can hold you up and rob you of your productivity. And since there's no one standing by to protect you, it's up to you to stop these thieves in their tracks.

THE FOUR THIEVES OF PRODUCTIVITY.

Inability to Say "No"

Fear of Chaos Poor Health Habits Environment Doesn't Support Your Goals 1. INABILITY TO SAY "NO".

Someone once told me that one "yes" must be defended over time by 1,000 "nos." Early in my career I didn't understand this at all. Today, I think it's an understatement.

It's one thing to be distracted when you're trying to focus, it's another entirely to be hijacked before you even get to. The way to protect what you've said yes to and stay productive is to say no to anyone or anything that could derail you.

Peers will ask for your advice and help. Co-workers will want you on their team. Friends will request your a.s.sistance. Strangers will seek you out. Invitations and interruptions will come at you from everywhere imaginable. How you handle all of this determines the time you're able to devote to your ONE Thing and the results you're ultimately able to produce.

Here's the thing. When you say yes to something, it's imperative that you understand what you're saying no to. Screenwriter Sidney Howard, of Gone with the Wind fame, advised, "One-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it." In the end, the best way to succeed big is to go small. And when you go small, you say no-a lot. A lot more than you might have ever considered before.

No one knew how to go small better than Steve Jobs. He was famously as proud of the products he didn't pursue as he was of the transformative products Apple created. In the two years after his return in 1997, he took the company from 350 products to ten. That's 340 nos, not counting anything else proposed during that period. At the 1997 MacWorld Developers Conference, he explained, "When you think about focusing, you think, 'Well, focusing is saying yes.' No! Focusing is about saying no." Jobs was after extraordinary results and he knew there was only one way to get there. Jobs was a "no" man.

The art of saying yes is, by default, the art of saying no. Saying yes to everyone is the same as saying yes to nothing. Each additional obligation chips away at your effectiveness at everything you try. So the more things you do, the less successful you are at any one of them. You can't please everyone, so don't try. In fact, when you try, the one person you absolutely won't please is yourself.

Remember, saying yes to your ONE Thing is your top priority. As long as you can keep this in perspective, saying no to anything that keeps you from keeping your time block should become something you can accept.

Then it's just a matter of how.

All of us struggle to some degree with saying no. There are many reasons. We want to be helpful. We don't want to be hurtful. We want to be caring and considerate. We don't want to seem callous and cold. All of this is totally understandable. Being needed is incredibly satisfying, and helping others can be deeply fulfilling. Focusing on our own goals to the exclusion of others, especially the causes and the people we value the most, can feel downright selfish and self-centered. But it doesn't have to.

Master marketer Seth G.o.din says, "You can say no with respect, you can say no promptly, and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can't bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work." G.o.din gets it. You can keep your yes and say no in a way that works for you and for others.

Of course, whenever you need to say no, you can just say it and be done with it. There is nothing wrong with this at all. In fact, this should be your first choice every time. But if you feel there are times you need to say no in a helpful way, there are many ways to say it that can still lead people forward toward their goals.

You can ask them a question that leads them to find the help they need elsewhere. You might suggest another approach that doesn't require any help at all. You might not know what else they could do, so you could help them by gently prompting them to get creative. You can politely redirect their request to others who might be better able to a.s.sist them.

Now, if you do end up saying yes, there are a variety of creative ways you can deliver it. In other words, you can leverage your yeses. Help desks, support centers, and information resources couldn't exist without this kind of strategic thinking. Preprinted scripts, frequently asked question pages or files, written explanations, recorded instructions, posted information, checklists, catalogs, directories, and prescheduled training cla.s.ses can all be used to effectively say yes while still preserving your time block. I started doing this in my first job as sales manager. I leveraged training sessions to cut frequently asked questions off at the pa.s.s, and then by either printing or recording them, created a library of answers my team could access whenever I wasn't personally available.

The biggest lesson I've learned is that it helps to have a philosophy and an approach to managing my s.p.a.ce. Over time I developed what I refer to as the "Three-Foot Rule." When I hold one of my arms out as widely as possible, from my neck to my fingertips is three feet. I've made it my time-managing mission to limit who and what can get within three feet of me. The rule is simple: A request must be connected to my ONE Thing for me to consider it. If it's not, then I either say no to it or use any one of the approaches I shared above to deflect it elsewhere.

Learning to say no isn't a recipe for being a recluse. Just the opposite. It's a way to gain the greatest freedom and flexibility possible. Your talent and abilities are limited resources. Your time is finite. If you don't make your life about what you say yes to, then it will almost certainly become what you intended to say no to.

In a 1977 article in Ebony magazine, the incredibly successful comedian Bill Cosby summed up this productivity thief perfectly. As he was building his career, Cosby read some advice that he took to heart: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." This is advice worth living by. If you can't say no a lot, you'll never truly be able to say yes to achieving your ONE Thing. Literally, it's one or the other-and you get to decide.

When you give your ONE Thing your most emphatic "Yes!" and vigorously say "No!" to the rest, extraordinary results become possible.

2. FEAR OF CHAOS.

A not-so-funny thing happens along the way to extraordinary results. Untidiness. Unrest. Disarray. Disorder. When we tirelessly work our time block, clutter automatically takes up residence around us.

Messes are inevitable when you focus on just one thing. While you whittle away on your most important work, the world doesn't sit and wait. It stays on fast forward and things just rack up and stack up while you bear down on a singular priority. Unfortunately, there's no pause or stop b.u.t.ton. You can't run life in slow motion. Wishing you could will just make you miserable and disappointed.

One of the greatest thieves of productivity is the unwillingness to allow for chaos or the lack of creativity in dealing with it.

Focusing on ONE Thing has a guaranteed consequence: other things don't get done. Although that's exactly the point, it doesn't automatically make us feel any better about it. There will always be people and projects that simply aren't a part of your biggest single priority but still matter. You will feel them pressing for your attention. There will always be unfinished work and loose ends lying around to snare your focus. Your time block can feel like a submersible, where the deeper you commit to your ONE Thing, the more the pressure mounts for you to come up for air and address everything you've put on hold. Eventually it can feel like even the tiniest leak might trigger an all-out implosion.

When this happens, when you give in to the pressure of any chaos being left unattended, it can be a total relief. But not when it comes to productivity.

It's a thief!

The truth is, it's a package deal. When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up. In fact, other areas of your life may experience chaos in direct proportion to the time you put in on your ONE Thing. It's important for you to accept this instead of fighting it. Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola warns us that "anything you build on a large scale or with intense pa.s.sion invites chaos." In other words, get used to it and get over it.

Now, in anybody's life or work there are some things that just can't be ignored: family, friends, pets, personal commitments, or critical job projects. At any given time, you may have some or all of these tugging at your time block. You can't forgo your power hours, that's a given. So, what do you do?

"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

-Albert Einstein I get asked this a lot. I'll be teaching and know that, as soon as I finish, hands are going to shoot up. "What do I do if I'm a single parent with kids?" "What if I have elderly parents who constantly depend on me?" "I have absolute obligations I must take care of, so what do I do?" These are obviously fair questions. Here's what I tell them.

Depending on your situation, your time block might initially look different from others'. Each of our situations is unique. Depending on where you are in your life, you may not be able to immediately block off every morning to be by yourself. You may have a kid or a parent in tow. You may be doing your time block at a day care, nursing home, or some other place you have to be. Your alone time may have to be at a different time of day for a while. You may have to trade off time with others so they protect your time block and you in turn protect theirs. You may even have your kids or parents help you during your time block because they simply must be with you or you actually need the support.

If you have to beg, then beg. If you have to barter, then barter. If you have to be creative, then be creative. Just don't be a victim of your circ.u.mstances. Don't sacrifice your time block on the altar of "I just can't make it work." My mom used to say, "When you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them," but this is one you can't afford. Figure it out. Find a way. Make it happen.

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."

- William James When you commit to your ONE Thing each day, extraordinary results ultimately occur. In time, this creates the income or opportunity to manage the chaos. So, don't let this thief pickpocket your productivity. Move past your fear of chaos, learn to deal with it, and trust that your work on your ONE Thing will come through for you.

3. POOR HEALTH HABITS.

I was once asked, "If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?" It was a real question. I had been fighting the painful side effects of interst.i.tial cyst.i.tis (you don't want to know) and was dealing with continually shaking legs, a debilitating side effect of cholesterol-fighting statins. My ability to function, much less focus, was extremely compromised, and the challenge to overcome this was daunting. My doctor gave me some options and asked me what I wanted to do. The answer was to change my health habits. It was then that I discovered one of the greatest lessons of extraordinary results: Personal energy mismanagement is a silent thief of productivity.

When we keep borrowing against our future by poorly protecting our energy, there is a predictable outcome of either slowly running out of gas or prematurely crashing and burning. You see it all the time. When people don't understand the power of the ONE Thing, they try to do too much-and because this never works over time, they end up making a horrific deal with themselves. They go for success by sacrificing their health. They stay up late, miss meals or eat poorly, and completely ignore exercise. Personal energy becomes an afterthought; allowing health and home life to suffer becomes acceptable by default. Driven to hit goals, they think of cheating themselves as a good bet, but this gamble can't pay off. Not only does this approach consistently short-circuit your best work, it's dangerous to a.s.sume that health and hearth will be just waiting for you to come back and enjoy anytime in the future.

High achievement and extraordinary results require big energy. The trick is learning how to get it and keep it.

So, what can you do? Think of yourself as the amazing biological machine you are and consider this daily energy plan for high productivity. Begin early with meditation and prayer for spiritual energy; starting the day by connecting with your higher purpose aligns your thoughts and actions with a larger story. Then move straight to the kitchen for your most important meal of the day and the cornerstone of physical energy: a nutritious breakfast designed to fuel your day's work. You can't run long on empty calories, and you can't run at all on an empty tank. Figure out easy ways to eat right and then plan all your daily meals a week at a time.

Fueled up, head to your exercise spot to relieve stress and strengthen your body. Conditioning gives you maximum capacity, which is critical for maximum productivity. If you have limited time to exercise, the simple thing to do is to wear a pedometer. Toward the end of the day, if you haven't walked at least 10,000 steps, make it your ONE "exercise" Thing to reach your 10,000-step goal before you go to bed. This one habit will change your life.

Now, if you haven't spent time with your loved ones at breakfast or during your workout, go find them. Hug, talk, and laugh. You'll be reminded why you're working in the first place, and motivated to be as productive as possible so you can get home earlier. Productive people thrive on emotional energy; it fills their heart with joy and makes them light on their feet.

Next, grab your calendar and plan your day. Make sure you know what matters most, and make sure those things are going to get done. Look at what you have to do, estimate the time it will take to do them, and plan your time accordingly. Knowing what you must do and making the time to do it is how you bring the most amazing mental energy to your life. Calendaring your day this way frees your mind from worrying about what might not get done while inspiring you with what will. It's only when you make time for extraordinary results that they get a chance to show up.

When you get to work, go to work on your ONE Thing. If you're like me and have some morning priorities you must get done first, then give yourself an hour at most to do them. Don't loiter and don't slow down. Clear the decks and then get down to the business of doing what matters most. Around noon, take a break, have lunch, and turn your attention to everything else you can do before you head out for the day.

Last, in the evening when it's time for bed, get eight hours of sleep. Powerful engines need cooling down and resting before taking off again, and you're no different. You need your sleep so your mind and body can rest and recharge for tomorrow's extraordinary productivity. Anyone you know who gets little sleep and appears to be doing great is either a freak of nature or hiding its effects from you. Either way, they aren't your role model. Protect your sleep by determining when you must go to bed each night and don't allow yourself to be lured away from it. If you're committed to your wake-up time, you can stay up late only so many nights before you're forced to hit the hay at a decent hour. If your response is that you have too much to do, stop right now, go back to the beginning of this book, and start over. You apparently missed something. When you've connected proper sleep with success, you'll have a good enough reason to get up and you'll go to sleep at the right time.

THE HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE PERSON'S DAILY ENERGY PLAN.

Meditate and pray for spiritual energy.

Eat right, exercise, and sleep sufficiently for physical energy.

Hug, kiss, and laugh with loved ones for emotional energy.

Set goals, plan, and calendar for mental energy.

Time block your ONE Thing for business energy.

Here's the productivity secret of this plan: when you spend the early hours energizing yourself, you get pulled through the rest of the day with little additional effort. You're not focused on having a perfect day all day, but on having an energized start to each day. If you can have a highly productive day until noon, the rest of the day falls easily into place. That's positive energy creating positive momentum. Structuring the early hours of each day is the simplest way to extraordinary results.

4. ENVIRONMENT DOESN'T SUPPORT YOUR GOALS.

Early in my career, a married mom of two teenagers sat in front of me and cried. Her family had told her they would support her new career as long as nothing at home changed. Meals, carpooling, anything that touched their world couldn't be disrupted. She had agreed, only to discover later how bad a deal she'd cut. As I listened, I suddenly realized I was hearing about a productivity thief almost everyone overlooks.

Your environment must support your goals.

Your environment is simply who you see and what you experience every day. The people are familiar, the places comfortable. You trust these elements of your environment and quite possibly even take them for granted. But be aware. Anyone and anything at any time can become a thief, diverting your attention away from your most important work and stealing your productivity right from under your nose. For you to achieve extraordinary results, the people surrounding you and your physical surroundings must support your goals.

No one lives or works in isolation. Every day, throughout your day, you come in contact with others and are influenced by them. Unquestionably, these individuals impact your att.i.tude, your health-and ultimately, your performance.

The people around you may be more important than you think. It's a fact that you're likely to pick up some of the att.i.tudes of others by working with them, socializing with them, or simply being around them. From co-workers to friends to family, if they're generally not positive or fulfilled on the job or away from it, they'll probably pa.s.s on some of their negativity. Att.i.tude is contagious; it spreads easily. As strong as you think you are, no one is strong enough to avoid the influence of negativity forever. So, surrounding yourself with the right people is the right thing to do. While att.i.tude thieves will rob you of energy, effort, and resolve, supportive people will do what they can to encourage or a.s.sist you. Ultimately, being with success-minded people creates what researchers call a "positive spiral of success" where they lift you up and send you on your way.

FIG. 33 Create a productivity-specific environment to support your ONE Thing.

Who you hang out with also has serious implications for your health habits. Harvard professor Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis and University of California, San Diego a.s.sociate professor James H. Fowler wrote the book on how our social networks unmistakably impact our well-being. Their book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, connects the dots between our relationships and drug use, sleeplessness, smoking, drinking, eating, and even happiness. For instance, their 2007 study on obesity revealed that if one of your close friends becomes obese, you're 57 percent more likely to do the same. Why? The people we see tend to set our standard for what's appropriate.

In time, you begin to think, act, and even look a little like those you hang out with. But not only do their att.i.tudes and health habits influence you, their relative success does too. If the people you spend your time with are high achievers, their achievements can influence your own. A study featured in the psychology journal Social Development shows that out of nearly 500 school-age partic.i.p.ants with reciprocal "best friend" relationships, "children who establish and maintain relationships with high-achieving students experience gains in their report card grades." Further, those who have high-achieving friends appear "to benefit with regard to their motivational beliefs and academic performance." Hanging out with people who seek success will strengthen your motivation and positively push your performance.

Your mother was right when she cautioned you to be careful of the company you keep. The wrong people in your environment can most certainly dissuade, deter, and distract you from the productivity course you've set out on. But the opposite is also true. No one succeeds alone and no one fails alone. Pay attention to the people around you. Seek out those who will support your goals, and show the door to anyone who won't. The individuals in your life will influence you and impact you-probably more than you give them credit for. Give them their due and make sure that the sway they have on you sends you in the direction you want to go.

If people are the first priority in creating a supportive environment, place isn't far behind. When your physical environment isn't in step with your goals, it can also keep you from ever getting started on them in the first place.

"Surround yourself only with people who are going to lift you higher."

-Oprah Winfrey I know this sounds oversimplified, but to succeed at doing your ONE Thing you have to be able to get to it, and your physical environment plays a vital role in whether you do or not. The wrong surroundings may never let you get there. If your environment is so full of distractions and diversions that before you can help yourself you've gotten caught doing something you shouldn't, you won't get where you need to go. Think of it as having to walk down an aisle of candy every day when you're trying to lose weight. Some may be able to handle this easily, but most of us are going to sample some sweets along the way.

What is around you will either aim you toward your time block or pull you away. This starts from the time you wake up and continues until you get to your time-block bunker. What you see and hear from the time your alarm rings to when your time block begins ultimately determines if you get there, when you get there, and whether you're ready to be productive when you do. So, do a trial run. Walk through the path you'll take each day, and eradicate all the sight and sound thieves that you find. For me, at home it's simple things like e-mail, the morning paper, the morning TV news shows, the neighbors out walking their dogs. All wonderful things, but not wonderful when I have an appointment with myself to accomplish my ONE Thing. So, I check off e-mail quickly, I never see the paper, I keep the TV cabinet closed, and I choose my driving route carefully At work, I avoid the community coffee pot and the information boards. They can come later in the day. What I've learned is that when you clear the path to success- that's when you consistently get there.

Don't let your environment lead you astray. Your physical surroundings matter and the people around you matter. Having an environment that doesn't support your goals is all too common, and unfortunately an all-too-common thief of productivity. As actor and comedian Lily Tomlin once said, "The road to success is always under construction." So don't allow yourself to be detoured from getting to your ONE Thing. Pave your way with the right people and place.

BIG IDEAS.

Start saying "no." Always remember that when you say yes to something, you're saying no to everything else. It's the essence of keeping a commitment. Start turning down other requests outright or saying, "No, for now" to distractions so that nothing detracts you from getting to your top priority. Learning to say no can and will liberate you. It's how you'll find the time for your ONE Thing.

Accept chaos. Recognize that pursuing your ONE Thing moves other things to the back burner. Loose ends can feel like snares, creating tangles in your path. This kind of chaos is unavoidable. Make peace with it. Learn to deal with it. The success you have accomplishing your ONE Thing will continually prove you made the right decision.