(I probably should have entitled this "The Key To Success?" because I am not speaking as an authority here but as an interested explorer)
I'm not sure where I first heard the expression that the key to success and wealth was "working harder on yourself than on your job", but I do remember that when I first heard it (and for many of the times thereafter), I dismissed it as not being relevant to me. I knew after all that I wasn’t going to achieve the kind of success that I was after by working in a "job". It had to be a quest or a mission for me and I had to be committed beyond the job "requirements" (or even better, to be working for myself) in order for me to be successful. So, I dismissed it and said to myself, “Definitely. Those wage slaves need to hear that so that they will free themselves from the bonds of employment and start working for themselves.”
Well, if we needed any reminder of the pitfall of the “I know that” when it comes to personal development, I submit myself as a warning to the masses. Someone once said (you’ll find that I’m not much for researching the details) that men need not so much to be taught as reminded. Well, I was “reminded” of that truth about the key to success a couple of days ago when I was listening (on my IPOD!) to Jim Rohn, “The Key To Exceptional Living”. When he said, in his distinctive voice, that the key to success was to work harder blah blah blah, I heard it in a different way.
I work very hard. I always have a lot of projects going on. I spend my time doing a lot and those efforts have gotten me to where I am right now. What I interpreted Jim to be saying is that if you want to make a “quantum leap”, always ensure that you’re working harder on self-development than on project development. What does that mean?
Well, first, it means knowing what are the Key Success Factors in your life and career? Where, if you got better, even marginally better (i.e. more skilled, more competent/confident, more effective or efficient), would there be the greatest difference in your satisfaction, your results, your performance?
I’m looking at myself now and asking that question. The answers that I’m coming up with are:
Focusing, Prioritizing, Choosing between many options
Subsection: (Not having 27 different word documents open at the bottom of my screen right now – literally)
Natural Persuasion Techniques
The Discipline of Sticking to a Schedule
Keeping my mind focused on the person that I want to become
Personal Grooming and Appearance
The Discipline of Putting/Keeping Everything in its place
Being a Loving, Empathetic husband
(I’m sure the list goes on)
I think that the message of Jim Rohn’s maxim is that it’s easy to focus on results and it’s extraordinarily important to get and measure results, but if you focus on improving yourself, making yourself better (obviously, through actions and implementation and the feedback cycle), then (a) the results will naturally follow and (b) your primary asset will have increased in value.
Stephen Covey (of 7 Habits fame) identified the 7th Habit of Highly Effective People as “Sharpening the Saw”, which meant taking time to ensure that you were continually improving as a person, employee, entrepreneur rather than simply “working at results” all the time. Covey and Rohn both recognize that the temptation (heck, even the rest of their instruction) is to improve the results and that that focus naturally can draw your attention “outside of yourself”, looking to see how other people can be changed and how stuff can be rearranged.
What I’m taking on is the following process:
(1) noticing the changes in the external world that I’d like to create and
(2) stepping back into myself and saying, “What are the internal projects that I can work on that will have the impact of creating those results but at the same time making me a better version of myself?
Maybe that’s the Protein Shake talking, but I think it sounds profound.
Frazier O'Leary is a serial entrepreneur and the Director of Training for The Entrepreneurship Center in Alexandria, VA.
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