Struggle Less, BE More

Commit to Less, More Seriously, This Year

What’s the chance that you will focus your life and your work this year?

I’m asking because it really is a decision. And one that matters if you want to look back with accomplishment at the end of the year.

Some professionals will spend most of their time and attention scattered this coming year-investing in too many things with too little payoff, chasing too many tasks that don’t deserve to be completed and generally dabbling and playing on too many devices, with too many programs, involving too many people, resulting in too little outcome.

Whew!

An antidote I propose to you at the beginning of this year is a simple two step process:

Big Step #1: Drop Some Weight

Make a list of all the obligations, commitments, projects and tasks that require your attention AND aren’t that important to the life you want to live or the work you need to do.

Drop as many of these as you can from your life. If they are unnecessary and unproductive…they are dragging you down. At the very least, they are distracting you.

The fewer of these you keep, then the more time you have for…

Big Step #2: Pursue Meaning

Make another (probably shorter) list–this time with of the people, projects, commitments and purposes that have the most meaning for you in your life and work now. Maybe you also are thinking about some things that are important to your future.

If this list is a long one, prioritize it. Figure out which of these things are more important than the others.

Now, do your planning for the year. Only this time, you’re thinking, strategizing and scheduling so that those things that have the most meaning will get the most attention, the most investment, the most…focus.

If you can stick to a plan formed this way, at the end of this year, you just might feel the exhilaration that comes from accomplishment and significance, instead of the weariness that comes from trying to do so many things that matter so little.

And that is a pathway to struggle less so you can BE more.

(This post was previously published in the January 2011 issue of Business Leader http://www.businessleader.bz/ )