Written by John Assaraf
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Tuesday, 16 March 2004
"Successful people do the highest paid activities first and then
the "stuff". Or better yet, they hire someone else to do all the
"stuff" that keeps them away from earning the highest income per
hour."
The Power of Focus
by John Assaraf
Many years ago, I coined the terms "Bull's-eye Thinking" and
"Bull's-eye Action" as a way to get the businesses and
individuals I was consulting with, to focus only on the most
important activities every day, instead of the stuff that shows
up on a daily basis.
Some of them were forever doing the least useful stuff in their
business and then complaining that they weren't getting the
results they wanted.
It seemed that everything other than the highest priorities
always had a way of distracting them.
Their mindset was, "I'll just get this out of the way and then
I'll focus on the big and important things".
It never happens. The "stuff" always comes up.
I used to teach a business-planning seminar to real estate
agents, and one of the requirements of the participants was they
had to bring a spreadsheet of their activities for the prior 2
weeks.
Here's what we discovered based on a 50 hour workweek:
-The agents who spent 10 hours a week with a potential customer
who would list or buy a home earned an average of $35-50k a
year.
-The agents who spent 20 hours a week with a potential client
earned an average of $75k a year.
-The agents who spent 30 hours a week with a potential client
earned over $250k a year.
And, get this...
-The agents who spent over 40 hours a week in front of prospects
averaged over $500k year!
So what's the point, you may be asking?
The point is this...
Look at your career or business, and you ask yourself these
questions...
How many hours a day/week am I actually doing what I am best at?
Or how many hours a day/week am I doing the activity that brings
in the highest return on my time? How many hours a week am I
getting caught up in "stuff"?
Most people get caught up in the "stuff" because they haven't
taken the time to really think through and plan what they should
be focused on, or to really understand where they make the most
return on investment of time.
If you have the capacity to earn $50, $100 or even $1,000 per
hour, you should NEVER be doing any activity that pays you less
unless you really want to.
Successful people do the highest paid activities first and then
the "stuff". Or better yet, they hire someone else to do all the
"stuff" that keeps them away from earning the highest income per
hour.
Stop letting the phone interrupt you. It's for your convenience,
not others.
Stop letting other people's agenda interrupt you. Stop doing
"stuff" and start doing only the real things that get real
results.
Plan your ideal day with the outcome you want and focus only on
that, and don't deviate until what you want to accomplish is
done.
Leave 20% of your day as buffer time for stuff that actually
must be, and can only be, taken care of by you.
There's a story about Frank Sinatra that is worthy of repeating.
As it goes, one day while he was rehearsing one of the crew who
sets up the stage asked him to help move the piano. Frank just
looked the guy and said "I don't get paid to move piano's!"
He clearly understood what he should do and what he shouldn't.
I have gotten myself into a habit of planning the outcome of my
day first thing and setting 3 - 4 major outcomes that I focus on
each day. Any deviation from that outcome must be caused by "my
emergency", not someone else's.
So with that said, do one thing right now without interruptions
that will earn you, your highest income this hour.
Then get in the habit of doing the things that consistently keep
you at that level. The real key is to laser focus on the big
stuff that drives revenue.
==============================================================
John Assaraf, aka "The Street Kid", shares the exact principles
and step-by-step system he used to get free from the street gangs
of his youth, to become a multi-millionaire entrepreneur before
age 30 in his new book "The Street Kid's Guide to Having it All".
FREE reports and newsletter: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=121488
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| Last Updated (
Tuesday, 16 March 2004 ) |
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