Daily 6/1 - An Explanation
Saturday, February 12th, 2011Light’s focus is varied, very much like your mind’s ability to focus. Let’s explain. A flashlight isn’t very focused. Therefore it splashes light over a wide area. On the other hand, a laser has a high range of focus and can direct light to a single point. In order to accomplish anything, you want to have laser-like focus.
A laser can cut through steel. There’s no doubt that it’s focused. If there is anything you want to accomplish and the goal is important to you, create a laser-like focus. You will be able to cut through anything.
How can you have laser focus with a million things to do?
We have a tool that was taught to us, and it’s been a very simple and effective what to organize our lives. We’ll share it with you, and if you struggle with organizing your ideas and action items, your life will never be simpler then when you apply this powerful tool.
Have you heard the story about the pail and the rocks? There are rocks, pebbles and sand and a pail. All three fit in the 1 gallon bucket, but it seems as though there is way too much to get in there.
We’ll use the big rocks to represent our dreams for our lives. Our goals, if you will. The pebbles are the tasks that get us to that goal, but in and of themselves don’t have a huge impact on our lives. The sand is the busy work that is necessary for us to get through life. It keeps us busy, but has no impact at all on our big picture dreams.
96% of the population chooses to get the “little things out of the way.” They start to fill their buckets with the sand. Then when they have time, the pebbles go in, and soon, they find that there’s no room for the rocks. They feel as though they’ve gotten a lot done. Look at all that sand and all those pebbles! But it’s the big rocks that are going to change their lives. They get left on the sidelines.
You may remember that when you start to fill your bucket with the big rocks, it “appears” filled to the brim. Lots of areas are yet to be filled with pebbles. However, the illusion of being full continues, but yet there’s room for the sand. There is always enough room. Always. It’s a seemingly impossible achievement, but when organized in the right order, everything fits, perfectly.
Very few people organize their lives in this way. You could probably guess who they are. The people whose lives you admire are probably on the list. Their focus is on the 6 things that will have the biggest impact on their lives. This is the key. Being organized like this is not impossible, it’s not even difficult.
Take the challenge of organizing in this way, and in 30 days your life won’t even look the same. All you have to do is prioritize the 6 things that would have the biggest impact on your life and set out to do them before anything else.
Here is the main point to organizing this way. If you pick six things your focus is already narrowed down. Once you identify those 6 items you turn up the energy and focus on the number one. Imagine this one goal is like a leaf, you are the magnifying glass, and the sun is your energy. How would you get through the leaf?
Place all of your focus and energy on a single purpose. The Daily 6/1 is that concept. Take 6 items, and focus on each of them one at a time. Once these items are complete, they’ll have the biggest impact on your life. The suns energy, when focused with the magnifying glass’ focus and the leaf disintegrates. Your energy, your focus, and the obstacles disintegrate. You’ve reached your goals.
For example, the six things (rocks) on my list are to get my master’s degree which I didn’t do in my 20s, start a new business, spend time with my family, write a book, lose weight, and meditate. And then there are my “pebbles” - donating to charities, volunteering, socializing, and finally “the sand;” paying bills, grocery shopping, cleaning the house. Get the idea?
Really, the bottom line is that I take a step, every day, towards my 6 items. I can work on my book. I can have lunch with my father, sister or friend. I can meditate for 5 minutes. I can even take 15 minutes to do a High Intensity workout. I can do one thing at a time, get them all done, and still be lucky enough to have time to go buy groceries, clean the house, or help out a friend. However, if I get caught up in cleaning the house and paying bills, I’ll never get to the calls I want to make to start my new business. However, making those calls will make a bigger impact on my life than cleaning the house ever will, and yet, why don’t I make it a priority? In the end, it doesn’t make sense, does it?
Get started with number 1 on your list. Do not think about number two; do not think about the sand or pebbles… just this one thing. Once you are done and it has been completed, simply move on to the next one giving no thought to any other task.
30 days later and your life won’t resemble what it does today all because of The Daily 6/1.
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