How to Achieve in 3 Days What Normally Takes 3 Years
Leave the rat-race.
There are two places in which dreams go to die.
- The waiting place.
- The hustling-but-someday place.
The second is more dangerous, because you think you're doing real work. In the first you already know you're procrastinating.
If you identify with this place, perhaps it's time to consider why you haven't yet gotten what you want.
Do you actually want to get there?
Are you scared to get there?
Many people make achievement, work, and projects unnecessarily difficult.
Yes, you have to work to achieve your goals, but you don't need to be wasteful.
That car that revs their engine all day but never leaves the starting line is how most people are living their life.
Is that how you want to live?
If not, you need to invite massive amounts of clarity into your life.
You need to give yourself space to evaluate, and create a working plan, by which you will make the development of the person you want to be completely inevitable.
The rest of this article will detail the following, specifically how to:
- Obtain what you actually want, not an intermediary destination
- Carefully remove everything holding you back
- Take such courageous action you shock yourself and those around you
- Surround yourself with powerful partnerships
- Ultimately make success much easier than failure, eliminating the option to fall short
Your synthesis, understanding, and application of these core principles will dictate your ability to create a specific result instead of squandering your precious time and energy "trying" to get there. Remember, there is no try.
1. What Do You Ultimately Want?
"Begin with the end in mind." - Stephen R. Covey
Begin with the end in mind doesn't mean "think about the end, sometimes." It means to fully embody it in your day-to-day living.
You must act with the end in mind.
It means you structure the entire project, the entire goal, around the end. Around where you want to be. You start from the end, and then you finish sooner.
Richie Norton, world-class business coach and strategist, advises how important this is with the following thought:
"Two people could be in the exact same job and one has no time and one has all the time in the world."
In other words, there are multiple ways you can do whatever your profession is.
It's not about what you're doing, and it's not even about how much money you make. It's about how you make your money.
His point is so simple but rarely implemented.
Freedom of time is infinitely more valuable than simply financial freedom.
To get there, you have to create your ideal lifestyle. And in order to do that, you need get rid of all the unnecessary "side-routes" to your dreams.
So many people are enthralled with the rags-to-riches American entrepreneur, who hustles and grinds for a short period of time, and then comes out on top. He makes it. He inspires his family, his friends, and now that he's done with the hellacious period of work he works a few hours a week and plays golf all day.
There's a huge fallacy with this idea, thanks to Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries long ago:
An object in motion tends to stay in motion.
If you start something in a certain way, that's likely the way you'll finish it.
If you begin your company structured in a way that requires you to live a lifestyle you hate, when are you going to make the transition? Seriously?
Twenty years from now, you'll still be working hours you hate. You blew it. You didn't set boundaries. And you started with the mindset of a beginner, not with the mindset of the person who's already living the life you want to have.
You may have scaled, grown, become fabulously wealthy, and a whole lot of other things, but because you're operating under the same business model, you'll stay stuck in negative inertia.
Instead of going through a bunch of unnecessary red tape, why not just get very, very clear on what your dream is?
What do you actually want?
What is the success, after the money, that you want?
"You need to be getting as close to your dreams as possible as quickly as possible." - Richie Norton
What could you do now that would completely jump time for you? That would completely open up a new slipstream where you're doing what you ultimately want?
One sale. One mentor. One idea. That's all you need. One new breakthrough is all you need to shift the plane, and start living in a different axis.
You can start purposeful projects today that align with where you eventually want to be. You'll never get there if you simply stay lost, stay stuck, in the waiting.
In fact, this is what Richie himself did. Rather than waiting to realize his dream as a published author by building the necessary credibility, finding agents, writing an entire manuscript, planning an entire launch, hoping for a publisher, and then anxiously awaiting the sales to come in, he jumped straight to the front of the line.
He published Resumes Are Dead And What To Do About It, which quickly became the number one download in its space and sparked a huge conversation and got people results.
Then, he had the credibility of a published author. The audience. The trust. He pre-framed his success for the much larger project. He didn't need to wait to experience many of the useful results from being an author. He wrote a manifesto, hired someone overseas to do the design, and threw it up on Amazon. That is a project that anybody can do.
Start with what is the most similar to what you want, but that you have access to right now.
This is what Theodore Roosevelt meant when he said, "Start right now, with what you have, where you are."
You can get a lot closer to your dreams than you think. Brainstorm. Get creative.
2. Apply A "Future Self" Filter
"Will it make the boat go faster?" - Olympic British Rowing Team, 2000
In the classic book Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill tells the story of Edwin C. Barnes, a man who wanted to work with the then-and-now famous Thomas Edison.
With no background or offer, Barnes promptly takes a train and goes in to see Thomas Edison and his company.
Thomas Edison, upon meeting Barnes, is so impressed with his tenacity that he hires him as an employee. A later sales opportunity comes down the road and Barnes fully realizes his dream of working with Thomas Edison as a partner.
As Hill reports, "Just what young Barnes said to Mr. Edison on that occasion was far less important than that which he thought."
On the surface level, Hill is reporting a story of grit and determination. While those are admirable qualities, there is a far more powerful undercurrent at play.
When Barnes introduces himself, he determinedly says he has come to work with Mr. Edison.
An ordinary person would consider themselves downright silly to present themselves like that to one of the most powerful innovators and businessmen in the world and ask to be partners.
Barnes didn't think it was ridiculous though.
This is because he was already thinking from the vantage point of his future self, not his present self.
From the state of his mind, he was already business partners with Edison. This made it automatic for him to simply align the necessary actions.
He may have been shabby or normal on the outside, but on the inside, he was already playing on a much bigger field. He was already being who he wanted to be.
As Zig Ziglar said, you must first be before you can do, and do before you can have.
Identity -> Action -> Result.
Once you're viewing the world with the vantage point of that future self, you can make the necessary decisions that they would make.
Cut off everything that prevents you from achieving that objective. Cut off everything that the new person wouldn't do. All those activities are distractions.
There are now other great opportunities that you have to deny, because you're already pursuing the best possible opportunity and cannot devote your energy to two things at once.
Essentialism, Greg McKeown's breakthrough book, is usually dismissed as a productivity and time management system by most people who only read it once.
From reading multiple times, I discerned this core simple truth:
Essentialism is actually courage.
When you remove everything that is out of alignment with your vision, it leaves it bare, naked, open, exposed, and vulnerable. The whole world can see your goals, your priorities, your beliefs, and your values when you start living in accordance with them. Being essential with your priorities is the courage to play full-out in accordance with your vision.
Other people are other people. They'll have their opinions. But this is your life. Embrace letting go of the wrong priorities.
3. Take Massive Action
"You will never do anything in this world without courage." - Aristotle
How far could you go with your present resources?
You could probably go a lot further than you think.
If you had the right strategy and the right blueprints, with a laptop and internet connection you could potentially:
- Develop world-class skills and share your work
- Start multi-million dollar companies
- Develop partnerships and relationships with anyone
I'm not saying any of these things are easy or automatic.
But they're possible.
I was talking to a mentor months ago about his experiences in college and which internships he did.
His answer surprised me.
He said it was really easy to apply for jobs and opportunities, but hard to get accepted. His resume was fine, good, but not exceptional.
He decided he needed an upgrade.
As an accountant, during the summer, he looked up all the major finance offices in his city. He then went directly to Merrill Lynch and got his foot in the door. He made a clear decision and then just acted from the vantage point of someone in his desired situation.
He spent four hours a week for the next few months as a customer service rep, doing completely unrelated work to finance. But because of his experience, he was able to place Merrill Lynch on his resume, and completely opened himself up for additional opportunities in his career.
The fact is, anybody can do what he did. Very few will. Most people have a huge, prestigious dream, but they distance themselves from it because they're scared of being a little fish in a big pond. Of looking dumb. Of making mistakes.
Guess what? That's how you grow. Play bigger. Be bold. Take massive action. Don't get stuck in the waiting game. It really does not matter if it takes you a few tries to get in.
4. Immediately Find The People Who Will Help You Make Huge Shifts
"The best way to become who you want to be is by surrounding yourself with people who are already there." - Benjamin Hardy
It really is about who you know.
If you don't know them yet, get to know them.
Reach out. Be genuine. Serve them.
Who's where you want to be?
Who could you collaborate with to make massive impact?
Who complements your abilities in the places where you are weak?
This stage of growth becomes easier if you've really played full-out in the previous three steps.
As Bo Eason says, the bigger the goal, the more people are naturally attracted to it. As an example, his son wants to go pro in both the NBA and the NFL, a sports feat which has never been accomplished.
He's been able to get coaching from Matt Ryan, Kobe Bryant, and many other coaches, players, nutritionists, and doctors, who are inspired by this unique vision.
If his goal was small, like to be the captain of his middle school team, nobody would help him. Nobody would care. It wouldn't have massive impact.
So, set a bigger goal. A goal so big people can't help but notice and pay attention. And then give. Build real relationships.
You'll get there so much sooner and have a supportive team behind your back.
You can't hold a celebration party by yourself.
5. Make Failing Harder Than Succeeding
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
Courage is scary. Moving forward and making massive shifts will scare you. You'll be tempted to leave the freedom zone and retreat to where you feel comfortable and safe.
You'll be tempted to fall back on your old thought patterns, your outdated ways of thinking.
To avoid this happening, you need to design an environment that makes success easier than failure.
For example, John Burke, an American Grammy-winning pianist and composer, as related in Willpower Doesn't Work, applies the following routine to every project he undertakes. He decides when the album will be completed and released. Once the release date is determined, he works backward, mapping out all the key milestones along the way. He calls his piano studio engineer and schedules the day he will record the album. Then he organizes his personal calendar and schedules creation time throughout his workweek over the next several months. He willingly passes up great opportunities because he has creation time on his schedule. Then Burke jumps on his social media accounts and begins telling his fans about his upcoming album. This adds another layer of commitment.
When you have this many layers of commitment, you can't fall back. You're switched to a new path heading in a new direction.
You've crossed the point of no return and you're able to enjoy the exponential progress that comes with it.
Conclusion
To not act would be to slowly die inside. It would be to not let your message be shared with others, who need it.
So you'll take massive action. You'll go powerful places.
The fastest way to get where you want to be is to move there.
Quickly.
You should know the first steps and have a basic plan from the steps outlined here. Now go for it.