Summary
Maintaining focus is a key challenge and skill that you need to acquire in order to be successful at achieving your goals and creating the life you want. Sometimes it may seem difficult to stay on point and keep moving forward. We all get distracted at times, or we may not be sure what the next step should be.
During times such as this, simply remind yourself to:
Do the most productive thing you can do at every given moment.
This instruction is deceptively simple yet powerful. Whenever you get stuck and are unsure about what the next step should be, or if you find yourself wasting time getting caught up in something that is not moving you forward, just go back and think of this simple instruction.
Notice that the first word in this simple sentence is a verb-an action word. You must DO the most productive thing at every given moment. The most productive thing will be that which will move you most effectively and efficiently toward your ultimate goal.
This is in fact where many people can get stuck. They may know what their end goal is, but they are not sure what specific actions they need to take at that moment. What is the most productive thing?
This is why it is essential to break down your larger ultimate goal into smaller intermediate goals, and continue breaking these down until you have created daily tasks that are manageable and which will move you steadily toward the achievement of your ultimate goals. This is essentially reverse engineering your larger goals, so that you understand what is required of you on a daily basis in order to continuously move yourself closer to your ultimate goal.
Doing the most productive thing “at every given moment”, also emphasizes that we need to consistently maintain our focus, effort and actions when striving to accomplish our goals and achieve the life we want. There is no time to waste. Even your downtime can and should be used productively to help you recharge, so you are better able to tackle your tasks when you return to work. There are some simple yet highly effective strategies, including the use of Personal Programming Messages (PPMs), which will enable you to maintain this focus on a consistent basis.
So just remember to, “Do the most productive thing you can do at every given moment”, whenever you feel stuck or find yourself getting off track. Memorize these words and use them to help you keep moving forward consistently toward your goals. And always remember, to Live Rich!
Transcript
I just finished reading the book, The One Thing, by Jay Papasan & Gary Keller. I found it quite interesting because the book expands on something that I have done most of my life; it’s something that I learned very early in my real estate sales days from one of my trainers and mentors, Tom Hopkins.
What Tom told me was this:
“Do the most productive thing you can do at every given moment.”
I have used this methodology as part of my goal achievement strategy for most of my life and it’s a part of the strategy that I teach today. I have you break down the larger overall end goal into smaller intermediate goals, and continue breaking these down to the point where you have created simple daily tasks to perform that move you continuously closer toward the end goal.
I met with Tom on a social and professional level a couple of weeks ago and we exchanged books. It was really a great time, for me especially because Tom had such a big influence in my sales career.
I talked with him about those words and how they really helped me stay focused and on task in my career and life. This is why I believe it is so important that you really get the point of them, and why I am going to spend some time in today’s article having a closer look at what they really mean.
Breaking Things Down
In my book, The 7 Minute Millionaire: How to Think Yourself Rich, I talk specifically about how to break down your goals to the point where they become very small manageable tasks that you can do each day, tasks that will move you step by step toward your bigger goals. This process is essentially reverse engineering your goals.
Once you have reverse engineered your goals in this way, you then need to take action.
Take Action
Now getting back to Tom’s statement above: What does taking action really mean? Think of the word, “Do” – this is the action part of Bob’s statement: What are you doing now? What should you be doing now? Doing is an action word-a verb that requires you to take action. More than just thinking about it, this is where real action is required.
Action is critical in any accomplishment. When is the best time to start? NOW! Today, not tomorrow. Taking action sounds easy and it is; however, remaining in action is often much more difficult than actually getting into action in the first place.
Maintain Focus
In fact, related to this, the question I get asked most frequently is: “How do I stay focused? How do I keep going when things get a little tough?” In other words, how can you maintain the momentum of your action?
There are some simple yet very effective ways to maintain your focus when performing daily tasks on route to your goals. Realize that if you maintain constant and persistent action on the right tasks, this will soon create results for you. Seeing these results materialize will inspire you, giving you even more energy and enthusiasm to do more of what you are doing.
Another powerful strategy for keeping laser focused on your tasks and goals each day is the use of what I call, PPMs, or personal programing messages. They really work and are simple to implement into your daily life. I help people do this in my courses, mentoring and in my book.
Moving Toward Your Goals
Now, getting back to the next part of Tom’s statement: “…the most productive” – What is the most productive thing you can do? It is the preeminent bit of “work” you can do right now in order to move you toward your goal. This is one of the keys to Tom’s statement, deciding what it is that you can do right now that will move you toward the goal you want to achieve.
When you have a small daily task, which is somewhat easily accomplished, it becomes easy to create the habit of accomplishing that task every day. Having reverse engineered the larger goal, you know for a fact that successful performance of these smaller daily tasks will inevitably lead you closer and closer to the achievement of your ultimate goal. This is why I have people break goals down into bite sized manageable “tasks.”
Next in Bob’s statement is the word: “thing.” The most productive “thing” – OK, I have talked about this a bit already. The thing is the “task” that you have decided on based on having reverse engineered your larger goal. Your larger goal is something you may want to accomplish in the next one to five years. This goal is broken down into what are your intermediate goals and then these are also further broken down, until you get to the point or creating smaller more manageable daily tasks. These are the tasks that will take you to that goal. Creating doable tasks, as I said, is critical to the success of accomplishing your goals.
So ask yourself, what is the most productive task? What is that one thing that is going to move you toward your next and then your ultimate goal? When you start to think about it in terms of just “one” task or thing, the action you should take becomes much clearer. So clear in fact, that you must just do it.
Next in Tom’s statement are the words: “…you can do” – OK, by now I think you are getting the theme of this strategy. Who is it that has to take the action I talked about already? You of course! So can you do it right now? You are the one in charge of you, so it is your responsibility to make this happen. There are no excuses and the action will eliminate any possibility of procrastination.
Every Moment Counts
This then becomes a perfect lead into the last part of Tom’s statement: “…at every given moment.” – Now I think this part of the statement could use a little clarification. The word “Every” doesn’t allow for the idea of every other, it clearly means all of them-every single moment. This means that when you are in your work or accomplishing mode time slot, you are doing just that. You are moving forward toward your goal every second. Every second wasted is time squandered and you never get back time that has been squandered.
In fact, “…at every given moment” even applies to your scheduled breaks. If you have set time aside that is downtime, then ask what is your most productive downtime activity. What activity will best be able to recharge your batteries and leave you feeling invigorated and ready to get back to the business of tackling your daily tasks, accomplishing your goals and creating the life you want?
You see the nice thing about this methodology is that it allows for scheduled down time. Just don’t mix your goal accomplishing time with your downtime, that will surely end up in opportunities wasted or time lost.
But when you are in your accomplish mode, which should be most of the time, every given moment means each and every moment. “Given,” means that we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and we need to use them effectively and efficiently. Each and every one of them.
If you are at your job, then that means being your best and as productive at your job as you can be. If your job is part of your wealth plan, then what task should you be doing at work? If you have a plan outside of work and you are working on your wealth plan now, then what task can you do right now that will move you the most rapidly toward your goal?
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Tom’s words have had a significant impact in my life. To this day, if I ever find myself lagging in the middle of the day and not getting where I want to go, I really do ask myself the question: “What is the one, most productive thing that I can do right now?” When I ask myself this question, I know that the answer will be the one thing that will move me toward either what I need to accomplish today or move me toward my bigger goal. They are usually one is the same.
It’s a good idea to have this question memorized, posted somewhere in your work-space, on a note in your smartphone or somewhere you can easily access it. Look at it whenever you aren’t quite sure to do next, or you notice yourself start to get off track, wasting or letting time slip by.
Leave your comments and questions below. Tell me what the most productive thing you did today to move you toward your bigger goal. And be sure to visit my web site and register to receive free trainings, videos and more. You can also subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
So until next time, continue to Live Rich!
