1. You and I know how good we have become, but we don’t have any idea of how good we could be.
What great projects are you undertaking in your business? In your life? Many people go through life driving with their dome lights on instead of their headlights. What you have become is important, but not nearly as important as what you can be.
2. More important than achieving your goals is pursuing your potential.
It is satisfying to achieve your goals and objectives, but that’s no proof that you are living up to your true capabilities. Keep experimenting and trying new things in the pursuit of your true potential.
3. Losers make excuses. Winners provide explanations.
Excuses don’t teach you anything and keep you from making needed changes. Explanations help you learn what went wrong and give you insights for needed changes.
4. Don’t copy the crowd—follow the leaders.
One of the quickest ways to become a leader is to learn from the leaders. Watch what the best are doing. Learn to do it. Then learn to do it even better.
5. In the past, leaders were those who knew the right answers. Today, leaders are those who know the right questions.
Customers today are asking different questions. So are employers, regulators, vendors and competitors. It doesn’t do any good to get the answers right if you’re addressing old and outdated questions.
I agree with my friend Eric Chester who once reminded me that to keep growing you need a healthy form of skepticism that can be summed up in these words: “answer your questions but question your answers.”
6. Live by your values and your life will have value.
Clearly identified values keep you on track and allow you to prioritize.
A wise person once said, “The bad news is that you can’t have it all. The good news is that when you know what’s really important, you don’t want it all anyway.”
7. Focused attention beats brains and brawn every time.
Continually ask yourself, “What gives me the biggest payback on my investment of time and energy?”
Focus on your mvp activities (most valuable and profitable). Spend 60-80% of every day on those mvp activities. That still leaves you with 20-40% of your time to deal with interruptions, crises and the unexpected.
8. You can’t put more time in your life, but you can put more life into your time.
Do you “save time”? How much have you got saved up? Saving time is a myth. Time is a flow that cannot be interrupted. The best we can hope for is to use it wisely as it courses through our existence.
Put more life in your time by filling every moment with the richness of experience, learning, love and growth.
