[Index: INTRO, Step 1, 1b, 2, 3, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 9b, 10, 10b, 11, 12]

WARNING… you might be successfully failing! Even a finely tuned and designed Ferrari will fail if driven in the direction of a brick wall.

STEP 3 – Separate Efficiency from Effectiveness

What if you are doing the WRONG things RIGHT?

Here is where we are so far:

In Step 1 we figured out the things we needed to stop doing—our compulsive responses to work addictions, and the things that suck up most of our time, attention and life force.

In Step 2 we learned to set and protect our boundaries so other people or outside forces would not fill our newfound time, energy and capacity with derailing activities.

Now, in Step 3, we need to ensure our time is focused to gain maximum success in the shortest amount of time, allowing us to compound achievements at a much faster rate.

Take a look at the graph to the left. Direction is more important than speed. The right side of this chart is the “right” side. Even the upper right—doing the right things not very well—will take you further.

A Ford Pinto going in the right direction is better than a Ferrari headed toward disaster. The goal is to do the right things right. It’s tough to beat a Ferrari heading in the right direction and squarely at the finish line.

I have friends on both extremes of this principle:

1. One friend is a rather unsophisticated person in his business acumen. Everything in his business is done on paper, he does his accounting by hand, all his transactions are entered manually, none of his systems are automated and he is still baffled by e-mail. But his business is incredibly successful, and he is worth a significant fortune.

2. My second friend is an amazing talent. His business is automated in a way that would awe-inspire Bill Gates. He is on the cutting-edge of every technology and gadget you and I still don’t know about. He is operationally efficient, and has flawless and relentless execution. His business is failing miserably, and he is on the verge of bankruptcy.

What’s the difference? read more »

[Index: INTRO, Step 1, 1b, 2, 3, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 9b, 10, 10b, 11, 12]

The speed of life has never been faster than it is today… and it is speeding up exponentially.

Consider this:
• There is more information in a daily edition of The New York Times than a person experienced in their lifetime in the 18th century.

• More information is added to the Internet in one week than was available in the history of mankind up through the 19th century.

• In 2006, the amount of data created and captured is more than 3 million times all the information in all the books ever written. On top of that, 3,000 new books are published each and every day.

• 210 billion e-mails are sent every day, more than 2 million every second. For the 1.3 billion e-mail users, that equals an average of 161 demands on our time every day.

• The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.

• In 2004, it was estimated that knowledge was doubling every 18 months. IBM now predicts in the next couple of years, information will double every 11 hours.

For a workaholic, these are dangerous times. The natural boundaries of work, personal and family times have been obliterated. Technology has pierced the walled garden between these important segments of our lives. There is now a constant open door to our attention, one that is always connected, always available for contact and always at the mercy of a never-ending stream of information and demands. Each day we wake up with an inbox full of e-mail and we swim all day in incoming phone calls, instant messages, text messages, news updates, notes, files and paperwork—all with new requests and demands on our time.

In STEP 1 we discussed read more »

[Index: INTRO, Step 1, 1b, 2, 3, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 9b, 10, 10b, 11, 12]

It was difficult to select from your excellent STOP DOING suggestions. Below are 10 great ones with bonus suggestion I particularly like!

1. STOP doing tasks that do not pay me my appropriate hourly rate.
2. STOP trying to make everything perfect.
3. STOP letting my days go on forever. Get a good night’s rest.
4. STOP checking email all day long and STOP replying them immediately.
5. STOP shortchanging my health by replacing exercise with work
6. STOP doing other people’s work for them; train them to do it for themselves.
7. STOP being distracted by work during family time.
8. STOP ‘pausing’ so often in the middle of major tasks.
9. STOP wasting time (mindless T.V, gaming & nonessential social networking) and replace with quality motivational reading and DVD’s.
10. STOP taking meetings and appointments that are not using my best time to produce the results and goals that I have.

10.5. STOP listening to news talk radio and listen to only material from SUCCESS magazine.

Some additional great STOP DOING ideas: read more »

[Index: INTRO, Step 1, 1b, 2, 3, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 9b, 10, 10b, 11, 12]

In my last blog post (read here) I took a major step in making this my best year ever: I admitted that I’m a workaholic in need of intervention. I know many of you out there are like me—in constant motion but never quite able to move beyond relative success.

So, as promised, I’m going to share what I have learned from the super-achievers I’ve interviewed in SUCCESS over the past year. I’ve outlined 12 Steps for changing those behaviors that block our creative juices and stifle our potential. This week, we’re going to focus on putting a stop to the little things that keep us from achieving our big goals in life.

STEP 1: Make a STOP-Doing List

We all have our to-do lists, those sometimes endless tasks that we believe, when finished, will shoot us into the stratosphere of success. However, have you noticed that while you check some tasks off, the list keeps growing? Your work days get longer, your time with family dwindles, and you find that even though you are in constant motion, you’re really standing still.

Your personal transformation has to begin by read more »

[Index: INTRO, Step 1, 1b, 2, 3, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 9b, 10, 10b, 11, 12]

My 12-Step Program to Recovery and Life Revival

I am a card-carrying workaholic. Don’t get me wrong; I love to work – that’s my problem. I have discovered that my addiction to work is actually costing me achievement. I have recently had some insights into superachievement—several behaviors that separate the hardworking, ambitious-minded person from the superachiever.

Over the past year I have interviewed some of today’s greatest achievers for SUCCESS—Donald Trump, Richard Branson, Maria Shriver, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Arnold Palmer, Tony Hawk, John Wooden and Colin Powell. I discovered that I work longer and harder than all of them, but they have much bigger results! They also have more joy, freedom and personal peace than I do. I realized something is wrong here, and that I needed to figure it out.

I spent much of the holiday break thinking about what it will take to make 2009 my best year ever—not just incremental improvements, but quantum leaps in many areas of my life. I knew I would be going through my traditional goal-planning process (Design Your Best Year Ever) on New Year’s Day, but before I set specific goals, I needed to figure out the gap between these superachievers and me.

On December 31 I read more »