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

Promote Yourself from Soldier to General of Your Own Life

As stated in Step 7 we all have exactly the same number of days in a week and number of hours in a day. Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump and the checker at the grocery store have exactly the same amount of time each day. It doesn’t matter if you are young, old, black, white, Canadian, American, male, female—it’s all equal.

In this step I am going to share a success tip that could not only significantly reduce the stress in your life, but also make you far more productive and successful.

How would you like to get 2X, 5X, 10X or more done each day in half the time?

Sound good? OK, here is all you have to do…
STOP TRYING TO DO IT ALL YOURSELF!!

One of the greatest success disciplines of superachievers and enlightened Zen masters is delegation. Learn to ask for help. Learn to trust and empower others to accomplish what needs to be done.

Let me give you two examples, one that relates specifically to stress reduction and the other to increased productivity.

Example—Stress Reduction

My wife and I have struggled to have a baby for some time. It has been a trying and arduous process. We have gone the route of IVF and have had several failures. Not knowing what the issue could be our doctor suggested we try to eliminate any stress factors affecting my wife.

When we got home I asked my wife what would help her feel more relaxed and centered. She said:
1) Long walks on the beach

2) Quiet reading time
3) Extended time for personal care

She quickly added this was unrealistic, since she had so much to do each day. Sound familiar?

I asked her to make a list of what those things were and had her “star” the ones that were particularly stressful. The top of the list was:
1) Paying bills
2) Cleaning the house
3) Some aspects of her interior design business

Simple, here is what we did:
1) We hired a book keeper to come in once a week for a couple of hours to manage monthly finances.
2) We hired a housekeeper to come in biweekly for the major cleaning.
3) We hired a part-time assistant to handle the functions of her business that doesn’t require specific talent, but is laborious and time consuming nonetheless.

She scheduled in her day-planner long beach walks and reading time and I scheduled her for a biweekly massage—for extra insurance.

Before you start with your “yeah-buts,” let me give you example No. 2.

Example—Increasing Productivity

When I was in residential real estate sales five lifetimes ago, I was a productivity maniac (go figure). I analyzed every activity and function of the business to determine how to gain competitive advantage and increase production.

There are a thousand things a realtor can be doing at any given time—and all the time; it’s a 24/7 business. I figured out, however, that there were only three PRODUCTIVE things I could be doing at any given time:
1) Negotiating a contract
2) Sitting in front of a seller listing a house
3) Prospecting, for more No. 2’s to get more No. 1’s

Those are the activities where my talent was needed and specifically affected the money meter. Everything else, while it might be necessary and still needed to be done, was unproductive.

So, besides those three activities, I delegated everything else. At one point I had nine assistants working for me. I also produced more real estate sales than any other agent in the city, times two or three, and made boatloads of money.

Alright, let’s go through your excuse list (I know you are dying to!):

I can’t afford to hire help.
That’s hogwash! You can’t afford NOT to. What is your time worth (revisit Step 3)? What does it need to be worth to earn the equivalent of your goals? Is that per hour time more than what you pay your housekeeper, bookkeeper, janitor, receptionist, data entry person, etc.? If you make more or want to make more you cannot afford to keep doing those jobs—period.

Stop doing them and two wondrous things will happen:
1) You will have more time to be productive so you CAN make what you are worth
2) You will have less stress because you will not have to do all that mundane and tedious work.

I could do it better myself.
Either,
1) Give up on your goals and become a full-time bookkeeper, gardener or whatever, or
2) Find someone who CAN do it as good as you or at least adequately enough just to get it DONE.

I don’t know if I can trust him to do it.
Most people who are distrusting are untrustworthy. Maybe you just need to lighten up and trust a little more, or if they are in fact untrustworthy, fire them and hire someone else.

He isn’t qualified to do it.
Train him to be qualified to do it or find someone else who is.

I don’t have the time to show anyone how to do it.
I hear this one a lot. How much longer do you want to keep having to say this? Make time or you will NEVER have time.

I don’t want to give up this task because I like doing it.
Do you like it as much as a massage or a walk on the beach? Would you rather do IT on Saturday afternoon than get together with friends? If the answer is no, then stop doing it, because you don’t REALLY like doing it and it isn’t productive.

I’m the only person who knows how to do this.
Let’s hope you don’t get hit by a bus. Train someone else how to do it—NOW.

She messed up last time, so I’m not giving her anything else to do.
Maybe it was the instruction? Hmmm, never thought of that did you? If you feel you have given thorough instructions, clearly spelled out expectations, encouraged questioning and interactive guidance, yet performance is still poor, fire her and get someone else. Chances are, though, it was the former issue that was the real problem.

I love watching movies of kings, presidents, generals and industrialists. You will observe something very interesting: You don’t ever see them in front of a computer, filing, cleaning, balancing their checkbook or DOING much of anything, but thinking, making decisions and directing. That is the highest and best use of their genius.

Be like Ike (Dwight D. Eisenhower): We all should strive to promote ourselves from frontline soldier, up the ranks, to one day “Supreme Commander”. When you can spend most of your day using your mind and empowering others to execute on your ideas, you will become wealthy and powerful beyond your imagination.

Think of three people right now who could live to their potential better if they just did less and delegated more—send them this article: http://darrenhardy.success.com/2009/05/wa-step10

I can hear you asking…
“How do I go about hiring someone to do some of my basic tasks? Where do I find them? What do I pay them? How do I hire them, train them, keep them accountable?”

I am in the process of hiring several virtual and local assistants myself; next week, I will answer the above questions and give you resources of where to go and how to structure your relationship for optimal results.

Until then, “At Ease!” (Another Ike reference, get it?) -Darren Hardy

Bonus for my history buff pals: Great article on Winston Churchill whom Eisenhower worked with on planning D-Day.

Follow Darren behind the scenes of SUCCESS: www.twitter.com/DarrenHardy