Are you living life to the fullest? Do you want to do more with your life?
If you feel like you’re just letting life pass, you need to start taking action. You can do this by setting goals for yourself that you want to achieve, in addition to prioritizing activities that yield rewards.
Let’s look at how to get the most out of life, according to Brian Tracy.
Get the Most Out of Everything You Do
Tracy argues that you should get organized to learn how to get the most out of life, so you can maximize returns on your energy investments across all areas. Directing your efforts efficiently allows you to reap the greatest material benefits and personal satisfaction, so prioritize activities that yield high returns, and minimize the effort you spend on low-impact tasks.
| Tip: Apply the 80/20 Rule To maximize the results you get from your efforts, as Tracy says, it’s only logical to spend your energy on tasks that produce the biggest positive impacts on your life. Furthermore, there may be fewer of those high-impact tasks than you think. The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, suggests that roughly 80% of the outcomes you get come from just 20% of what you do. This principle applies across various fields, from economics to personal productivity. For instance, in business, it might mean that 80% of sales come from 20% of customers, or that 20% of your products account for 80% of your profits. To use this principle to your advantage, identify one to three tasks that have an unusually large impact on your life, and focus your efforts on those tasks as much as possible. For example, exercise might have an unusually large impact because physical fitness gives you more energy—if so, then you could redouble your efforts at the gym in order to maximize that impact. |
Set Long-Term Goals to Focus Your Efforts
Having clear long-term goals enables your present actions to be focused and productive in moving you toward what you ultimately want to achieve. Spend time clarifying your biggest goals for what you want your life to look like, and revisit them regularly to stay connected to your vision.
Tracy suggests writing your goals down every day. The act of writing helps to clarify your thinking by activating multiple kinds of processing in your brain: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. This helps to embed the ideas you’re writing deeper into your subconscious. When your goals are deep in your subconscious, you begin to think and act in ways that attract opportunities and experiences that will bring you closer to your goals.
| Tip: Carefully Plan Three Levels of Goals Regularly writing down your goals helps keep you focused, but you may find that some of your goals work against each other. For example, suppose one of your goals is to get enough sleep every night and another is to build your network by regularly attending business conventions and social events. In that case, you’re likely to find that it’s impossible to do both—you’ll have to either stay out late sometimes, or skip events to make sure you can get enough sleep. In Grit, psychologist Angela Duckworth proposes a goal-setting model that helps you avoid this problem. Duckworth’s model starts with a single top-level goal, then cascades down to more specific objectives that get you closer to that goal. Here’s how you can apply this approach: When writing out your goals, start with a long-term goal like Tracy advises. This should be something significant that aligns with your values and aspirations, such as landing your dream job or setting aside enough money for your kids to go to college. Next, establish mid-level goals that serve as stepping stones toward your long-term objective; these should be substantial milestones that keep you on track toward your main goal. For example, if your top-level goal is to set aside college money for your children, an appropriate mid-level goal might be to put $5,000 into a savings account each year for them. Finally, create short-term, low-level goals for each of those mid-level objectives. These are specific tasks that you can work on daily, weekly, or monthly. For instance, to support a mid-level goal of setting aside $5,000 a year, a logical low-level goal would be to put $450 into that account each month—if you meet that short-term goal every month, you’ll end up surpassing your mid-level goal and be well on your way toward your ultimate long-term goal of paying for your children’s college education. As you write down your goals each day like Tracy suggests, evaluate whether each goal supports a higher-level goal. If not, to reconsider whether that’s actually a worthwhile goal to set for yourself. For example, maybe you always wanted to write a book, but you realize that won’t get you any closer to your dream job. You can then recognize that writing a book takes an enormous amount of time and effort, which would be better spent on different mid-level goals that do support your top-level goal of getting that job. |
