What a simple concept it is, yet you’d be surprised how frequently even the world’s top entrepreneurs, professionals, educators, and civic leaders get caught up in projects, situations, and opportunities that are merely good, while the great is left out in the cold, waiting for them to make room in their lives. In fact, concentrating on merely the good often prevents the great from showing up, simply because there’s no time left in our schedules to take advantage of any additional opportunity.
Stop majoring in the minors
Instead of dedicating yourself — and your time — to mundane, nonproductive, time-stealing activity, imaging how rapidly you would reach your goals and improve your life if you said no to those time-wasting activities and instead focused on the 20% of activity that would bring you the most benefit?
How can you determine what’s truly great, so you can say no to what’s merely good?
1. Start by listing your opportunities — one side of the page for good and the other side for great. Seeing options in writing will help crystallize your thinking and determine what questions to ask, what information to gather, what your plan of attack might be, and so on. It will help you decide if an opportunity truly fits with your overall life purpose and passion or if it’s just life taking you down as a side road.
2. Talk to advisors about this potential new pursuit. People who have traveled the road before you have vast experience to share and hard-headed questions to ask about any new life opportunity you might be contemplating. They can talk to you about expected challenges and help you evaluate the hassle factor — that is, how much time, money, effort, stress, and commitment will be required.
3. Test the waters. Rather than take a leap of faith that the new opportunity will proceed as you expect, conduct a small test, spending a limited amount of time and money. If it’s a new career you’re interested in, first seek part-time work or independent consulting contracts in that field. If it’s a major move or volunteer project you’re excited about, see if you can travel for a few months to your dream locale or find ways to immerse yourself in the volunteer work for several weeks.
4. And finally, look at where you spend your time. Determine if those activities truly serve your goals or if saying no would free up your schedule for more focused pursuits.
* Source: The Success Principles by Jack Canfield