WEEK 103: CLARITY IN INNOVATION

True happiness...is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.     Helen Keller 

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): Purpose. It is a key ingredient on the path to achieving massive success and your dreams. 

I have demonstrated the power of having one with the example of a big room, where I would ask for two volunteers. One I would simply ask to walk around. The other I would ask to walk from one corner to another.

Not going into the full explanation (checkout W97) but it is easy to see the person who is walking from one corner to the other will achieve his goal first. But, what you don't see is the added benefit of saying NO!

This is huge power to possess along the path to achieving massive success and your dreams as it focuses your activities.

Now the LYP can do exactly this (give you a purpose)! A purpose strong enough to get you up everyday at 5:00 AM to start the day and invest in things which will move you from "one corner to another."

It will be different for each person, but for me it is the clarity in knowing my purpose in life is to be INNOVATIVE.

In the beginning of my LYP I was searching for ONE singular activity which I thought would become my passion, but I was in for a huge surprise when three things actually would become my passion; coaching others, being an entrepreneur, and consulting. 

I was a little overwhelmed taking on all three at the same time. However, I learned that each involved being INNOVATIVE.

But what is innovation? It is thrown around a lot today in business, education, and even our lives. But could you define if I were to ask you without searching on Google?

Trust me I could not six months ago, where as, now I know this is what I was put on this earth to do!

Innovation to me encompasses three parts. 

First, EMBRACE problem solving. 

I have written many posts about this, but this is ability to cultivate your Soft Zone. That means:

1. Use uncomfortable feelings to your advantage, thus when you are in challenging situations you know one, the body is ready for action, two, their is more 02 going to your brain, and three you need to make room (by stop comparing your results to others) and analyze your inputs (daily decisions and actions).

2. Apply first principles. Break things down into their fundamental truths and then ask what is true?

3. Use Pareto principle to identify actions to move forward.

4. Iterate and focus on inputs to make progress.

5. Measure and report performance to accelerate towards your ultimate outcomes. 

Second, be Creative.

This is simply the ability to "C" opportunity in all situations.

The most successful individuals are the ones which have the capacity to see things as neither good or bad alike, but rather signals for the next steps.

This requires you to REACT (same letters of CREATE, but just in different order) less and observe more so you can CREATE.

Third, Add the most value to others. 

This has been the hardest for me. We often stop ourselves before we even begin as we are too concerned about numero uno (Me). 

For example, you do not want to do a favor for a friend as it would alter your schedule, or you do not want to do x, y, z because it will make you uncomfortable.

Yet, your life will transform when you take the mindset to add the most value to others.

This is quite singular in detail and I could not have imagined having this level of CLARITY before I started the LYP.

However, the process has allowed me to do just that in literally ONE hour a week.

That is right ONE hour a week/

Now this has taken me 103 posts....103 weeks, almost TWO year...to get to this point, but let me ask you what you have done in the past two years? 

Have you clarified a purpose?

Have you found something to drive all of your actions?

Have you found something to make you get up at 5:00 AM everyday (even weekends) to devote time to see it through?

Oh yeah, this all in the face of being a husband, father of two children, work, cooking, buying groceries...

You can do this!

What Went Well?

WT completed and finding more and more pockets of time to devote to LYP and my businesses!

What is something we can improve? What actions can we take next week?

Stop procrastinating. It is common for you to put things off, especially in the midst of heavy changes. I find myself putting things off for the LYP because there is so much change in my life. Where in reality I can devote that extra 30 minutes!

Need to incorporate the Got 2 minute strategy to devote to LYP throughout the week.

What is something to avoid next week?

Procrastinating and puttiong off things I feel need more time to complete. 

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PLANNING (Implementation Intention):  You will follow through 2X to 3X more likely to complete your weekly task than you normally would just by filling in the following statement.

I plan to complete the weekly task [day] at [time] in [location]. 

A reminder you might have to use multiple Implementation Intentions in order to follow through.

EXECUTION (strategies used):  From week to week, I use a combination of many strategies. There are always some which are used more than others depending on what comes up, but I wanted to offer a link to all them at once. 

My advice is to identify the I CAN'T statement you tell yourself during the most. Then find a strategy below the statement which resonates with you, and then start using it. 

Enjoy!

STRATEGY LIST