Sources of Insight » Getting-Results

30 Days of Getting Results Revisited

JD — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:53:14 +0000

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” — George Eliot

Do you really know what you are truly capable of? It’s time to get your game on and find out. 30 Days of Getting Results is revamped and ready for action. With a new and cleaner look, each lesson brings you a memorable image, a quotable quote, an outcome, a lesson, and a set of exercises to put what you learn into practice.

It’s time to get the wisdom of the ages and modern sages on your side. The purpose of 30 Days of Getting Results is to give you the proven principles, patterns, and practices for time management. It includes 30 self-paced lessons to help you find your purpose, find your passion, set goals, master motivation, and achieve work-life balance.

The thing that’s really different about Agile Results as a time management system is that it’s focused on meaningful results. Time is treated as a first-class citizen so that you hit your meaningful windows of opportunity, and get fresh starts each day, each week, each month, each year. As a metaphor, you get to be the author of your life and write your story forward.

I used a 30 Day Improvement Sprint, a practice in Agile Results, to create the lessons. For 30 days, I took 20 minutes each day to write my best lessons down on paper on how to master productivity and time management. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s hopefully some of the best insight and action you’ve ever experienced in terms of exponentially improving your results.

It’s easy to dive in. All of the time management lessons are there at your finger tips on the sidebar for easy exploration. It’s timeless too. Even if you’ve take the lessons already, they are there as a refresher.

If you test-drive just one lesson, check out Bounce Back with Skill.

Share it with a colleague, a friend, or your family … or anybody you want to give an edge, in work and life.

Key Links

30 Days of Getting Results (http://30DaysOfGettingResults.com) – Free-time management training.
Getting Results the Agile Way (http://GettingResults.com) – Site and knowledge base for the book.
Getting Results the Agile Way on Amazon (The printed book and Kindle versions)

Agile Results for Time Management

JD — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:29:14 +0000

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” — Charles Darwin

As more people ask me about Agile Results, the system inside Getting Results the Agile Way, I realize I need a simple summary page. Here it is.

What is It

In a nutshell, Agile Results is a simple system for meaningful results. It’s a personal results system for making the most of work and life. It’s a way to be the author of your life and write your story forward.

I created Agile Results as a way to help you do great things and to think, feel, and be your best in any situation. It’s a synthesis of best practices for time management, goals, focus, motivation, and more, as one simple system, to help you make the most of what you’ve got.

Why Agile Results

Getting results in today’s landscape is tough. Our world is changing faster than we can keep up. Worse, we don’t always have the best practices for focus, managing our time, managing our energy, or even basic productivity. I created Agile Results as a way to put it all together and help you write your story forward:

The Challenge	The Response
“Always on” Overloaded and overwhelmed Can’t keep up Longer work hours Not enough time. No control of your destiny. Reacting to things Shorter cycles of change Too much to do. Unpredictable future	A bias for action over heavy planning Boundaries and balance over burnout Flexible results in an ever-changing world Fresh starts over carrying baggage Meaningful results over just doing tasks Recharge and renew with skill Story-driven results over task-driven

Problems Addressed by Agile Results

Agile Results is more than just “how to manage your time.” Here are some of the key challenges that Agile Results helps you deal with:

How to be the author of your life and write your story forward
How to make the most of your your moments, days, weeks, months, and years
How to use a simple system to achieve meaningful results
How to achieve work-life balance
How to focus and direct your attention with skill
How to spend more time on the things that really matter to you
How to play to your strengths and spend less time in weaknesses
How to motivate yourself with skill and find your drive
How to change a habit and make it stick
How to improve your personal productivity and personal effectiveness

Three Keys to the Agile Results System

There are three keys to the Agile Results system. Here is a mental model of the three keys:

The three keys are:

The Rule of Three - Think in three’s. The Rule of 3 helps us deal with information overload. It’s a simple way to set limits and chunk things down. It’s easy for us to remember things in three’s.
Monday Vision, Daily Wins, Friday Reflection – is a simple pattern for your weekly workflow. It’s a weekly system for getting results that helps you get a fresh start each day, and a fresh start each week. Each week and each day is a new chance at bat.
Hot Spots – Hot Spots are simply areas of focus. They might represent a lot of pain, or they might represent a lot of opportunity. Either way, it’s a quick visual way to map out what’s important for you.

Weekly Workflow

The weekly workflow is effectively the Monday Vision, Daily Wins, Friday Reflection pattern. Here is a way to visualize the pattern:

The workflow is very simple to follow if you remember The Rule of Three. On Mondays, think of three wins for the week. This is Monday Vision. Each day, think of three wins for that day. This is Daily Wins. On Friday, think of three things going well and three things to improve. This is Friday Reflection.

A Story-Driven Week, One Day at a Time

Another way to think of your weekly results pattern is in terms of stories. Here is a way to visualize the model:

What this means is that each week, you may have a lot of things to do, but the “art” part is about choosing what to do and achieving your wins and your meaningful results. Rather than “call a customer back” you “win a raving fan.” This little shift helps you connect to your work, and thrive against your challenges, and makes your results more meaningful. Best of all, you are the author, and it’s you that writes your story forward. It’s the ultimate path of personal empowerment.

Getting Started with Agile Results

Getting Started with Agile Results is easy. Here are some key ways to get started with Agile Results:

Buy Getting Results the Agile Way on Amazon.
Check out the case studies and video on http://Getting Results.com..
Explore the Getting Results Knowledge Base.
Try out Getting Started with Getting Results.
Read How To – Adopt Agile Results.
Team up with a friend and pair up on a challenge.
Share your success story by writing to GettingResultsTeam at gmail dot com.

One of the simplest ways to get started is to simply write down three wins you want for today on a piece of paper. Just by writing down your three wins, you focused on what you want to accomplish, you identified what’s meaningful to you, and you shifted from writing down a laundry list of tasks, to a short list of wins and achievements.

My Related Posts

Photo by Tigr.

Now Available: 30 Days of Getting Results Free eBook

JD — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:33:05 +0000

The 30 Days of Getting Results Free eBook is a collection of little lessons you can use to improve your personal productivity and personal effectiveness.

It’s an off-line version of the 30 Days of Getting Results Boot Camp. If you’ve already gone through the 30 Days of Getting Results, then this is a great way to refresh what you learned at your finger tips. If you haven’t gone through it already, the 30 Days of Getting Results will help you build a strong foundation for personal excellence. You start off by building a rhythm for results for your day and for your week. You then map out the most important things in your work and life. You then learn how to prioritize with skill and spend more time in your strengths. From that foundation, you grow your ability to think, feel, and act your best. You then learn how to add more power hours to your week, as well as creative hours. This empowers you to achieve more in less time, as well as amplify your chance to flow more value to yourself and others, both in terms of getting results, and unleashing your creative ideas.

To get the system on your side, and to learn how to achieve better, faster, simpler results, download the 30 Days of Getting Results. It’s free. It’s 130 pages. Share it with friends and family and help them make the most of what they’ve got.

Download

Download 30 Days of Getting Results (PDF)

Key Challenges Addressed

How to achieve work?life balance
How to focus and direct your attention with skill
How to motivate yourself with skill and find your drive
How to use a simple system to achieve meaningful results
How to manage your time
How to spend more time on the things that really matter to you
How to play to your strengths and spend less time in weaknesses
How to change a habit and make it stick
How to make the most of your your moments, days, weeks, months, and years
How to be the author of your life and write your story forward

Contents at a Glance

Day 1 – Take a Tour of Getting Results the Agile Way
Day 2 – Monday Vision – Use Three Stories to Drive Your Week
Day 3 – Daily Outcomes – Use Three Stories to Drive Your Day
Day 4 – Let Things Slough Off
Day 5 – Hot Spots – Map Out What’s Important
Day 6 – Friday Reflection – Identify Three Things Going Well and Three Things to Improve
Day 7 – Setup Boundaries and Buffers
Day 8 – Dump Your Brain to Free Your Mind
Day 9 – Prioritize Your Day with MUST, SHOULD, and COULD
Day 10 – Feel Strong All Week Long
Day 11 – Reduce Friction and Create Glide Paths for Your Day
Day 12 – Productivity Personas – Are You are a Starter or a Finisher?
Day 13 – Triage Your Action Items with Skill
Day 14 – Carve Out Time for What’s Important
Day 15 – Achieve a Peaceful Calm State of Mind
Day 16 – Use Metaphors to Find Your Motivation
Day 17 – Add Power Hours to Your Week
Day 18 – Add Creative Hours to Your Week
Day 19 — Who are You Doing it For?
Day 20 — Ask Better Questions, Get Better Results
Day 21 – Carry the Good Forward, Let the Rest Go
Day 22 – Design Your Day with Skill
Day 23 — Design Your Week with Skill
Day 24 – Bounce Back with Skill
Day 25 – Fix Time. Flex Scope
Day 26 – Solve Problems with Skill
Day 27 – Do Something Great
Day 28 – Find Your One Thing
Day 29 – Find Your Arena for Your Best Results
Day 30 – Take Agile Results to the Next Level

Enjoy!

Monthly Planning with Agile Results

JD — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:08:14 +0000

Trying to plan for a month can be a challenge, especially if you don’t have an approach. I’m going to share with you a very simple way to plan your month. It’s simple, but powerful.

You can use Agile Results as a way to simplify your monthly planning. Agile Results is the system I talk about in my book, Getting Results the Agile Way.

3 Steps to Plan Your Month

To plan the month using Agile Results, simply do three things:

Pick a theme for the month.
Identify three wins you want by the end of the month.
Write them down.

Monthly Theme

The monthly theme will give you focus. You can use it as a mantra. For example, let’s say the focus for this month, is simplicity. (I happen to like that one because I used simplicity as a focus for one of my projects at work, with great success.) For the entire month, you will have this one theme to keep going back to. It will remind you of what’s important. It’s like a mini-mission for the month.

Three Wins for the Month

The three wins you identify will help you set a target for the month, in a way that’s goal oriented. As soon as you start to think about what you can achieve in a month, you will start to ask better questions. You’ll start asking questions about what’s important. You’ll start asking questions about what’s next. You’ll also start asking questions about, what’s possible.

Meaningful Months

Meaningful months are made up of your weekly wins and your daily dos. The Rule of Three is your friend and will help you focus, as well as zoom in and zoom out. For example, you can use The Rule of Three to identify three wins for the day, three wins for the week, and three wins for the month. This helps you avoid getting overwhelmed, and we tend to be pretty good at remembering three things. Three is also a good way to focus your time and energy.

The best part is that each month is a chance to turn the page and start fresh. You are the author of your life and you are always writing your story forward. Use each month as a way to add great chapters to your life. When things don’t go as planned, carry the lessons forward, and use each day, each week, and each month, as a fresh start on your path of meaningful results.

30 Day Boot Camp for Time Management

JD — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:49:34 +0000

My 30 Day Boot Camp for Getting Results is now available. It’s a free time management system for achievers and it’s all about making the most of what you’ve got.

It’s not achievement for achievement sake. It’s achieving your purpose and making meaning, while spending more time in your strengths and connecting to your values. This is where your best results come from, and it’s how you can enjoy the journey, no matter what life throws your way.

Free Time Management Training

As an introduction to the system, I created a free 30 Day Boot Camp for Getting Results. It’s called a boot camp because it’s hard-core. It’s a 30 day, self-paced time management training course. If you want to take your time management skills to the next level, then take the 30 Day Boot Camp for Getting Results. Keep in mind that because it’s self-paced, you could do all 30 lessons in a day, if you choose to. This may be one of the best time management training courses you ever take, and the price is tough to beat.

I originally created this on Sources of Insight, as part of a 30 Day Improvement Sprint, but I wanted to spin this off to give it more focus. By having its own little spot on the Web, it’s easier for me to make improvements, and to send folks there that just want focused and free time management training. I’ll also use it as an experiment as I find ways to simplify the information and make it more insightful and actionable.

Time Management Skills

Here are some of the time management skills you will learn, tune, and improve as part of the time management training:

How to manage your time
How to focus and direct your attention with skill
How to spend more time on the things that really matter to you
How to be the author of your life and write your story forward
How to make the most of your your moments, days, weeks, months, and years
How to use a simple system to achieve meaningful results
How to achieve work-life balance
How to play to your strengths and spend less time in weaknesses
How to motivate yourself with skill and find your drive
How to change a habit and make it stick
How to improve your personal productivity and personal effectiveness

You will learn time management tips and strategies as part of a system, each lesson can be used by itself or “better together” with other lessons. I tried to make each lesson as useful as possible, so you can keep building on your skills, as you learn new time management techniques.

Time Management Training Lessons at a Glance

Here are the 30 Lessons at a Glance that make up the time management training:

Day 1 – Take a Tour of Getting Results the Agile Way
Day 2 – Monday Vision – Use Three Stories to Drive Your Week
Day 3 – Daily Outcomes – Use Three Stories to Drive Your Day
Day 4 – Let Things Slough Off
Day 5 – Hot Spots – Map Out What’s Important
Day 6 – Friday Reflection – Identify Three Things Going Well and Three Things to Improve
Day 7 – Setup Boundaries and Buffers
Day 8 – Dump Your Brain to Free Your Mind
Day 9 – Prioritize Your Day with MUST, SHOULD, and COULD
Day 10 – Feel Strong All Week Long
Day 11 – Reduce Friction and Create Glide Paths for Your Day
Day 12 – Productivity Personas – Are You are a Starter or a Finisher?
Day 13 – Triage Your Action Items with Skill
Day 14 – Carve Out Time for What’s Important
Day 15 – Achieve a Peaceful Calm State of Mind
Day 16 – Use Metaphors to Find Your Motivation
Day 17 – Add Power Hours to Your Week
Day 18 – Add Creative Hours to Your Week
Day 19 — Who are You Doing it For?
Day 20 — Ask Better Questions, Get Better Results
Day 21 – Carry the Good Forward, Let the Rest Go
Day 22 – Design Your Day with Skill
Day 23 — Design Your Week with Skill
Day 24 – Bounce Back with Skill
Day 25 – Fix Time. Flex Scope
Day 26 – Solve Problems with Skill
Day 27 – Do Something Great
Day 28 – Find Your One Thing
Day 29 – Find Your Arena for Your Best Results
Day 30 – Take Agile Results to the Next Level

Key Links

30 Day Boot Camp for Getting Results
Getting Results the Agile Way (Amazon) (Now available on Kindle!)
Getting Results Knowledge Base (Checklists, guidelines, and how tos for focus, motivation, prioritizing, setting goals, time management, etc.)

Getting Started with Getting Results Free eBook

JD — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:54:59 +0000

Getting Results the Agile Way is a simple time management system for achievers. Whether you are an underdog trying to make the most of what you’ve got, or you are simply somebody with a passion for more from life, you are an achiever in my book. (After all, we are all an underdog at some point in our lives.) This is a system to help you be YOUR best.

As a time management system, Getting Results the Agile Ways is focused on answering two very fundamental questions about time management:

What to do?
How to do it?

By figuring out what to do, you set the stage for meaningful results. This is all about slowing down to speed up. This also reiterates the idea that less is more. Rather than spread yourself thin, the idea is to focus on what really matters to you, and create meaningful experiences.

Download the Free eBook

The Getting Started with Getting Results the Agile Way Guide is a short guide (14 pages) to help you get up and running fast.

Download Getting Started with Getting Results the Agile Way Free eBook

Take it for a test-drive and get the system on your side. Share it with friends, family, and whoever you want to help get more out of life and put the system on their side, too.

Now Available: Getting Results the Agile Way on Kindle

JD — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:00:00 +0000

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin

It’s time to rattle the cage People have been asking me for this, and now it’s finally here. The Kindle version of Getting Results the Agile Way is now available. It’s a personal results system for work and life. Whether you want to find your mojo, or take your personal effectiveness to the next level, or simply have a better day, this book is for you, or somebody you know.

People around the world have shared with me their personal stories and wins. I know a restaurant owner that renovated his business using Getting Results the Agile Way. I know a teacher inspiring her peers to get their game on using Getting Results. I know teams of consultants using Getting Results the Agile Way to achieve better, faster, simpler results and it’s contagious. Even my Mom used it to tackle a few big projects on her house. You can read the testimonials and success stories on Getting Results.com.

This books puts in your hand the same system I’ve used to create high-performing teams, help individuals flourish, and coach teams to unleash their best.

Make the Most of Work and Life

Getting Results in today’s landscape is tough. Our world changes faster than we can keep up. Worse, we don’t always have the best practices for managing focus, managing our time, managing our energy, or even basic productivity. Agile Results is a simple system for meaningful results that combines some of the best methods for thinking, feeling, and taking action. To put it another way, Agile Results is a way to help you make the most of work and life.

You are the author of your life. I created this system as a way to put it all together and help you write your story forward. By using three wins to drive your day, your week, your month, and your year, you take charge of your life and live life on your terms. By spending your time on the right things, with the right energy, with the right approach, you unleash your best. As you learn and respond, you build momentum. This momentum carries you forward, supporting everything you do.

This is the playbook I wish somebody gave me. Now, I’m sharing it with you.

Key Features of the Book

The book has several compelling features for slicing and dicing the personal effectiveness body of knowledge:

Principles, patterns, and practices. It’s a rich collection of proven practices, smart success patterns, and timeless principles. Because it’s a principle-based system, you have wisdom of the ages at your finger tips. It’s wisdom in action.
Meaningful results. It’s not about getting more things done. It’s about meaningful results. By getting clarity on you want to accomplish, you
It’s a system. It’s more than a book. It’s a system. With the system on your side, you automatically build better habits and practices that bring out your best.
It’s simple. By simple, I do mean simple. There is no other system like it. If you simply write down three wins for your day, you’re doing Getting Results the Agile Way. More importantly, if you fall off the horse, it’s easy to get back on.
It’s flexible. It’s incredibly flexible and it stretches to fit your needs. Rather than hard and fast rules, it’s a platform of principles, patterns, and practices that you can easily adapt or modify to suit your personal style. It’s YOUR personal results system.

Contents at a Glance

The full Getting Results Guide is available for free on Getting Results.com in HTML. This is the contents of the guide at a glance:

Chapters

Getting Started

I’m a fan of making it easy to get started. Like I said, if you simply write down three wins for your day, you’re doing Getting Results. But to help you get started fast, here is the one-page guide on Getting Started with Getting Results.

The Knowledge Base

The Getting Results Knowledge Base picks up where the book leaves off. It’s a serious collection of patterns and practices for improving your focus, motivation, time management, and more. The knowledge base includes:

By the way, these are no ordinary guidelines in there. For example, somebody I know is using the focus guidelines to build coping mechanisms for ADD, as an alternative to drugs. If you get a chance to explore the focus guidelines, you’ll see why.

Watch a Short Video Story of Getting Results the Agile Way

Ed Jeziersky hops around the world helping doctors and patients deal with large-scale disasters. What does he use to lead his teams? … You guessed it. Watch Ed Jezierski on Getting Results the Agile Way.

Acknowledgments

I have a lot of people to thank for helping me make this book happen. In addition to my loyal readers of Sources of Insight, I’d like to thank the following people for helping me with this book:

Adam Grocholski, Alik Levin, Andrew Kazyrevich, Andy Eunson, Andrea Fox, Anutthara Bharadwaj, Brian Maslowski, Chaitanya Bijwe, Chenelle Bremont, Daniel Rubiolo Mendoza, David K. Stewart, David Wright, David Zinger, Dennis Groves, Don Willits, Donald Latumahina, Dr. Rick Kirschner, Eduardo Jezierski, Eileen Meier, Erin M. Karp, Ethan Zaghmut, Gloria Campbell, Gordon Meier, Janine de Nysschen, Jason Taylor, Jeremy Bostron, Jill Heron, Jimmy May, John Allen, John deVadoss, Julian Gonzalez, Juliet du Preez, Kevin Lam, Larry Brader, Loren Kohnfelder, Mark Curphey, Michael Kropp, Michael Stiefel, Mike de Libero, Mike Torres, Mohammad Al-Sabt, Molly Clark, Olivier Fontana, Patrick Lanfear, Paul Enfield, Per Vonge Nielsen, Peter Larsson, Phil Huang, Prashant Bansode, Praveen Rangarajan, Richard Diver, Rob Boucher Jr., Rohit Sharma, Rudolph Araujo, Samantha Sieverling, Sameer Tarey, Scott Hanselman, Scott Stabbert, Scott Young, Sean Platt, Srinath Vasireddy, Steve Kayser, Tom Draper, Vidya Vrat Agarwal, Wade Mascia.

Key Links at a Glance

Here are the key links at a glance:

Photo by seanmcgrath.

My Three Wins

JD — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:27:43 +0000

“Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here is a simple way for a better day, for the best of your life.

While trying to figure out a fun and useful phone application for Getting Results the Agile Way, I found a way to simplify a concept and make it more actionable.

For now, I’m calling the technique, “My Three Wins.” You can use this technique, immediately.

Here’s “the making of” leading up to the idea of “My Three Wins.” I needed to find a way to simplify the idea of thinking in terms of “outcomes” or results, not just doing tasks or activities. I also needed a way to automatically bake in the idea of The Rule of Three. I also need to simplify the idea of connecting your outcomes to your values. I also wanted to make it super simple to feel a sense of progress. Lastly, I wanted to add the fun factor, and help you unleash your inner-hero.

My Three Wins
“My Three Wins” is the phrase that stuck. It’s one phrase to bind them all. It’s a simple one-liner reminder that is very easy to start your day with. Simple ask the question …

… “What are My Three Wins for the day?”

People like to win, and winning makes it a game. And games are more fun, when you set the rules, and in this game, you do. Every day, you choose your adventure and you choose what your three wins will look like.

Example of My Three Wins
You can think of three wins for the day, three wins for the week, three wins for the month, three wins for the year. For example, for today, your three wins that you set out to do might be:

Win a raving fan.
Write the code to change the world.
Have a great day (yes, this is a challenge and a win for many people.)

Those are mini-goals and mini-adventures in action. Whether it’s hit your high note, give it your best shot, write the song to make the whole world sing, lead your amazing team on a SWAT-like mission, make somebody’s day, or simply savor the parts of the day that make you feel alive, YOUR world is your oyster. The beauty of calling out your wins for your day up front, is that you set your focus and you add clarity to what’s important to you. You also make it easy to deal with and respond to the ambiguity and anything that comes your way, throughout the day..

When you think about Getting Results the Agile Way, simply think “My Three Wins.”

If You Set the Rules, You Win the Game
If you remember that, then you instantly and immediately take control of your destiny and each day is a chance to write your story forward. This is also a simple way to set the rules for your success, and if you set the rules, you can win the game.

Photo by pranav.

Focus Quotes

JD — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:00:00 +0000

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." — Bruce Lee

While I’m focusing on focus as a skill, I thought it would be helpful to do a roundup of quotes all about focus. If we stay curious, we can always learn a lot from the wisdom of the ages and our modern sages.

One of my all time favorite quotes about focus is …"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." It’s often attributed to Aristotle, but as I understand it, it’s actually Will Durant as he explains Aristotle’s words.

You’re the Director of Your Life

You’re the director of your life – you choose where to put the focus. Focus is a funny thing — it changes everything. For example, your focus shapes your life. So if you want to re-design your life, reshape your focus.

What I find the most interesting about focus, is where people put their focus. I included a wide variety of examples below so you can see the array of options: yourself, other people, the greater good, how you feel, how you look, how you think, how you act, the past, how you respond, how you react, the present, the future, what’s wrong, what’s right, what’s black, what’s white, the spirit of the law or the letter of the law, the forest or the trees, the pain or the gain, etc.

Narrow the Focus

Narrow the focus to change your frame and change the game. Your focus is really unlimited. The irony is that the real power comes when you narrow it.

Now let’s wander through our garden of gems … all about focus …

BTW – If you happen to notice a quote below that seems just right for you, it might be by design. I chose to focus on some of you while drawing the quotes, to see if I could find a special quote that just might sing to your soul.

Top 10 Focus Quotes

"A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power." — Brian Tracy
"A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths." — Peter Drucker
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” – Buddha
“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” – Aesop
“Do whatever you do intensely.” — Robert Henri
"I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants." — Zig Ziglar
"Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives." — Tony Robbins
"My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things." — Bill Gates
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee
"You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." — Mark Twain

Focus Quotes at a Glance

"90% of every art form is garbage – dance and stand-up, painting and music. Focus on the 10% that’s good, suck it up, and drive on." — Patton Oswalt
"A business leader has to keep their organization focused on the mission. That sounds easy, but it can be tremendously challenging in today’s competitive and ever-changing business environment. A leader also has to motivate potential partners to join." — Meg Whitman
"A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power." — Brian Tracy
"A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation." — Andrew Grove
"A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights." — Brian Tracy
"A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths." — Peter Drucker
“A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it." – Anonymous
“Act the part and you will become the part.” — William James
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” – Buddha
"Along with a strong belief in your own inner voice, you also need laser-like focus combined with unwavering determination." — Larry Flynt
"And I kind of said to myself if I get my voice back I’m not going to take back the old anxiety about it and just focus on the limitations. I’m really going to enjoy it." — Rosanne Cash
"And so if your competitors aren’t growing, if there isn’t a competitive reason to grow, and you want focus and discipline to add customers to existing stores, you adjust your strategy." — Jim Cantalupo
"Any artist that’s involved in their work is inevitably going to have a focus in what they do." — Jock Sturges
"Are your thoughts worthy of you? If not – NOW is the time to change them. You can begin right were you are right now. Nothing matters but this moment and what you are focusing your attention on." — Rhonda Byrne
"As you become more clear about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you – the first time around." — Oprah Winfrey
"Be dramatically willing to focus on the customer at all costs, even at the cost of obsoleting your own stuff." — Scott Cook
“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” – Aesop
"But when you’re beginning, you should try to focus on something you love and your own way of doing things." — Jerry Harrison
"Champions get what they want because they know what they want. They have a vision that keeps them motivated and efficiently on track. They see it, feel it, and experience it in their minds and hearts. What is success for you? You won’t get there without knowing what it feels and looks like." — Dr.Phil
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” — Alexander Graham Bell
“Concentrated attention is the collection of units of power on a chosen point of intention.” — James Arthur Ray
"Concentration can be cultivated. One can learn to exercise will power, discipline one’s body and train one’s mind." — Anil Ambani
"Discovering what you really want saves you endless confusion and wasted energy." — Stuart Wilde
"Do it! People who succeed don’t just sit and think about what they want to do. They take meaningful, purposeful, directional action consistently and persistently. Every step they take puts them toward the outcome they’re looking for." — Dr.Phil
“Do whatever you do intensely.” — Robert Henri
"Do you want to be an artist and a writer, or a wife and a lover? With kids, your focus changes. I don’t want to go to PTA meetings." — Stevie Nicks
"Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." — Denis Waitley
"Each of my records has a different focus, a different theme." — Mark Edwards
"Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you’re going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus." — Oprah Winfrey
"Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems." — Anthony J. D’Angelo
"Focus in on the genre you want to write, and read books in that genre. A LOT of books by a variety of authors. And read with questions in your mind." — Nicholas Sparks
"Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do." — John Carmack
"Focus on giving smiles away and you will always discover that your own smiles will always be in great supply." — Joyce Meyer
"Focus on remedies, not faults. " — Jack Nicklaus
"Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it." — Greg Anderson
"Focus on your problem zones, your strength, your energy, your flexibility and all the rest." — Jack LaLanne
"For a person to become deeply involved in any activity it is essential that he knows precisely what tasks he must accomplish, moment by moment." — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"For me, the focus are songs, which really get the audience moving." — Joe Cocker
"Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy." — Denis Waitley
"Good performance is about the capacity to focus and concentrate." — Betty Buckley
"I believe that as much as you take, you have to give back. It’s important not to focus on yourself too much." — Nicole Kidman
"I do what I do, and I do it well, and focus and take it one moment at a time." — James Caviezel
"I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants." — Zig Ziglar
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee
"I finally learned to live in the present and focus only on what I want rather than what I don’t want." — Darren L. Johnson
"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe." –Dalai Lama
"I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I’ve learned to trust my own instincts and I’ve also learned to take risks." — Sue Grafton
"I just saw the emotion in everything, so I got to feel everything that was going on and that I was viewing, but I couldn’t think in terms of structure, which is the whole point of deep focus." — Gil Kane
"I just want to focus on one thing at a time." — Josh Silver
"I lived my life one way for 35 years, for me. And then the focus came in on what I really was." — Pete Maravich
"I only want to do better work. That’s the focus of my life." — Ajay Devgan
"I think being a competitive diver for years helps you focus and dedicate yourself to what’s needed." — Jason Statham
"I think everybody’s got different methods of working which suit the particular individual. Mine is to sort of play the part, and give 100%, to concentrate and focus on it while I’m actually working, but then leave it behind until the next day." — Sean Bean
"I think fantasies are for the birds. Anything I wanted to do, I did. If there’s something I want, nothing stops me." — Calvin Klein
"I think the lack of precision and deep focus is why it took me years to build up my work." — Gil Kane
"I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. And if it can’t be fun, what’s the point?" — Donald Trump
"I wasn’t losing my focus but I was getting tired of focusing. What I was focusing on was becoming too routine, too ritual, not something that was interesting, new and exciting." — Picabo Street
"I’m aware of my audience in a way, and I do try to engage with them while I’m trying to go about my business of thinking. I believe they help me by providing a focus." — David Antin
"I’m someone who loves to enjoy life and tries to focus on real things and real friendships. That’s why I live very simply." — Cameron Diaz
“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." — Bruce Lee
"Instead of focusing on that circumstances that you cannot change – focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can." — Joy Page
"Instead of focusing on the world’s problems, give your attraction and energy to trust, love, abundance, education, and peace." — Rhonda Byrne
"It has been the way of Rotary to focus thought upon matters in which members are in agreement, rather than upon matters in which they are in disagreement." — Paul Harris
"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." — Aristotle Onassis
"It is really hard to do comedy; it takes a lot of energy and focus. It’s rather like music: It’s a lot of hitting notes precisely." — Christine Baranski
"It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world. The great man or woman is the one who never steps outside his or her specialty or foolishly dissipates his or her individuality." — Og Mandino
"It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people; to focus your energies on answers – not excuses." — William Arthur Ward
"It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them." — Steve Jobs
"Like sheep that get lost nibbling away at the grass because they never look up, we often focus so much on ourselves and our problems that we get lost." — Allen Klein
"Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive." — Matt Cameron
"Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives." — Tony Robbins
"My ego is controlled enough that I don’t have to be the focus." — Herbie Mann
"My focus is not on solving nature’s deeper mysteries. It is on using nature’s deeper mysteries to solve important societal problems." — Philip Emeagwali
"My focus is to forget the pain of life. Forget the pain, mock the pain, reduce it. And laugh." — Jim Carrey
"My sole focus as far back as I can remember was all about my dream to become a singer." — Sheena Easton
"My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things." — Bill Gates
"One of the keys to thinking big is total focus. I think of it almost as a controlled neurosis, which is a quality I’ve noticed in many highly successful entrepreneurs." — Donald Trump
"One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am." — Michelle Obama
"One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular." — Tony Robbins
"One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity." — Edward de Bono
"Organize as much as possible around teams, to achieve enhanced focus, task orientation, innovativeness, and individual commitment." — Tom Peters
"Our aim was to insure repeat business based on the system’s reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator." — Ray Kroc
"Our focus is on outputs rather than inputs." — Stephen Cambone
"Our thoughts create our reality – where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go." — Peter McWilliams
"People who consistently win have a clear and thoughtful strategy. They know what they need to do and when they need to do it. They write it down so they stay on course, and avoid any alternative that does not get them closer to the finish line." — Dr.Phil
"School, I never truly got the knack of. I could never focus on things I didn’t want to learn." — Leonardo DiCaprio
"Singing was the big focus and outlet for me." — Debra Wilson
"So I think instead of focusing on the competition, focus on the customer." — Scott Cook
"The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention." — Alan Watts
"The focus and the concentration and the attention to detail that flying takes is a kind of meditation. I find it restful and engaging, and other things slip away." — Harrison Ford
"The Great Secret of Life is the law of attraction that says like attracts like, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you." — Rhonda Byrne
"The more a person feels skilled, the more her moods will improve; while the more challenges that are present, the more her attention will become focused and concentrated." — Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
"The news anchor is exactly that – an anchor, a center, a focus." — Jessica Savitch
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee
"The three pillars on which I believe any business success is based are: Persistence, Enthusiasm and Focus." — Max Markson
"There is nothing wrong with dedication and goals, but if you focus on yourself, all the lights fade away and you become a fleeting moment in life." — Pete Maravich
"The future is finally something that we can now put into focus." — Lou Gramm
"The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear." —
Brian Tracy
"The only way to advertise is by not focusing on the product." — Calvin Klein
"The secret to success is focusing on what will work, and seeing it through." — Max Markson
"To attract money, you must focus on wealth. It is impossible to bring more money into your life when you are noticing you do not have enough, because that means you are thinking thoughts that you do not have enough." — Rhonda Byrne
"To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail." — Giorgio Armani
"To hate is to show you still care, who needs that, focus on what’s really important." — Henry Rollins
"To me, living in the present means being aware of your conscious choice to focus on the past, present or future – it is not necessarily having to focus on the present." — Bo Bennett
"Ultimately, we wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour." — Phil Knight
"We believe this combination of excellence in operations and strong execution of our strategy is critical to achieve our vision. We will continue to focus on both in future as well." — Azim Premji
"We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what’s wrong in your life, or you can focus on what’s right." — Marianne Williamson
"We don’t focus as much in schools on educational knowledge which requires thinking and application, as we do on acquiring facts." — William Glasser
"We each focus on what we’re going to buy, but that’s an incorrect focus. Focus instead on why you want to spend the money on this or that. What feeling in you does it satisfy?" — Suze Orman
"When I worked with Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies, she told me, You need a plan B, because when you have six months to a year off, you can go nuts. You need to have another focus." — Eliza Dushku
"When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous." — Wayne Dyer
"When there is a voice in a piece of music, we tend to focus on the voice. That is probably something from when we were babies and we depended on hearing our mother’s voice." — Robert Wyatt
"When exercising, be sure to focus your attention on what you are doing." — Lee Haney
“When walking, walk. When eating, eat.” — Zen Proverb
"When you do not know how to focus your thoughts effectively, they can become scattered, miscellaneous, and fixated on "stuff"-negative notions, toxic relationships, and situations from the past." — Darren L. Johnson
"When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance." — Joel Osteen
"Whenever your mind is totally absorbed in whatever activities you are performing, your mind will remain calm and content." — Chin-Ning Chu
"You cannot help the world by focusing on the negative things. As you focus on the world’s negative events, you not only add to them, but you also bring more negative things into your own life." — Rhonda Byrne
"You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." — Mark Twain
"You have got to have discipline and focus – on the customer and how you run the business." — Jim Cantalupo
"You have to figure out what that is, and you have to make a plan to get to it. And the plan has got to have a timeline. You have to choose something that you can afford to do and then lock it in and passionately do it." — Dr.Phil
"You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions." — Steve Case
"Your current conditions do not reflect your ultimate potential, but rather the size and quality of goals upon which you currently are focusing." — Tony Robbins
"You’ve just got to focus on excellence and try not to be distracted by the news and the rumors and the absurdities of the stories that were coming out." — James Daly

If you have a favorite quote on focus that I don’t have in my list, please share in the comments.

Photo by UggBoy/UggGirl.

Focus with Skill

JD — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:47:04 +0000

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power.” — Tony Robbins

Focus is your friend. You just need to know how to play well together.

Focus is the key to finishing what you start. It’s also the key to getting results from the time you already spend. It’s also one of the most precious assets that you can learn to better direct in the information age, where attention is a premium currency.

Your focus is up against a lot in today’s world. There are plenty of interesting distractions, attention thieves, and bright and shiny objects that compete for your attention. To make it worse, your internal distractions are actually more seductive than the external ones. Internal distractions include anything from internal conflict, to competing priorities, to your mental chatter, worries, and doubts.

If you can master your internal distractions, everything else is a piece of cake. That’s how you lead yourself with skill from the inside out.

Equip Yourself for the Rest and the Best of Your Life
For the sake of this exercise, let’s assume you’re ready to begin your adventure and learn how to focus with skill. Better yet, let’s assume you’ve been down that road before and you want some truly powerful methods and techniques for making things happen. Let’s also assume that you want all the rich rewards that come from your ability to focus, whether it’s simply reaching your goals, getting in great shape, making your dreams happen, or nailing things at work. To help you on your journey, I’m going to equip you with some of the best methods and techniques for improving your focus.

Proven Practices for Improving Your Focus
Explore the Focus Guidelines at GettingResults.com. What I recommend is reading the first part of the article that provides key issues and key strategies for focus. Next, scan and skim the focus guidelines to familiarize yourself with the one-liner reminders. Lastly, read through the guidelines and identify three that you can immediately put into practice. The beauty of building your focus as a skill is that it immediately starts paying you back.

The Focus Guidelines at a Glance
Here is a list of the guidelines. For an explanation of each guidelines visit Focus Guidelines at GettingResults.com.

Apply concentrated effort.
Ask yourself, “What are you rushing through for?”
Batch and focus.
Bite off what you can chew.
Carry the good forward.
Change your focus.
Choose one project or one thing to focus on.
Clear away external distractions.
Clear away internal distractions.
Create routines to help you focus.
Delay gratification.
Direct your attention with skill.
Do less, focus more.
Don’t chase every interesting idea.
Enjoy the journey and the destination.
Find a way to refocus.
Find the best time to do your routine tasks.
Finish what you started.
Focus in batches.
Focus on what you control and let the rest go.
Give it the time and attention it deserves.
Have a place to dump distractions.
Hold a clear picture in your mind of what you want to accomplish.
Have a time and place for things.
Keep it simple.
Keep your energy up.
Know the tests for success.
Know what’s on your plate.
Know your personal patterns.
Know your priorities.
Learn to say no – to yourself and others.
Limit your starts and stops.
Limit your task switching.
Link it to good feelings.
Make it easy to pick back where you left off.
Make it relentless.
Make it work, then make it right.
Master your mindset.
Multi-Task with skill.
Music everywhere.
Narrow your focus.
Pair up.
Pick up where you left off.
Put the focus on something bigger than yourself – for the greater good.
Reduce friction.
Reduce open work.
Reward yourself along the way.
See it, do it.
Set a time frame for focus.
Set hard deadline goals.
Set time limits.
Set quantity limits.
Shelve things you aren’t actively working on.
Single-Task.
Start with why.
Stop starting new projects.
Take breaks.
Take care of the basics
Use lists to avoid getting overwhelmed or overloaded.
Use mantras and one-liner reminders.
Use metaphors.
Use milestones for checkpoints and progress.
Use mini-goals.
Use reminders and visual cues.
Use the Rule of Three
Write down your goals.
Write down your steps.
Write down your tasks.
Write down your thoughts.

Note that if you already use Getting Results the Agile Way, you’re already automatically using many of the key practices. They are baked into the system. Focus is the secret sauce behind The Rule of Three, Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, Friday Reflection, and Hot Spots.