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Myth Busting: You Have To Work Hard To Be Successful

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Some of the most successful people get by on four hours of sleep. Working overtime leads to more pay. It’s easy to assume that being a workhorse will allow you to become successful, but nay, that’s not how it works.

In this video, I will share with you the basic concept of achieving success. It isn’t about how much work you put in. There’s so much more to success than that.

If you like this video, then I would love it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and spread the word.

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The Top 5 Distractions And How To Stop Them

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The Top 5 Distractions And How To Avoid Them
Distractions are numerous. Here’s how to avoid them.

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You have a list of goals in front of you. Accomplishing these goals is important to you. However, for some odd reason, those goals don’t get accomplished. Either some of the goals or none of them get accomplished.

What happened? Maybe you tried to bite more than you could chew. But deep down, you know that’s not what happened.

It’s very clear what happened. Most people get distracted, and enough distractions will result in a checklist without the checkmarks.

Once we get distracted for the slightest amount of time, it takes us some time to get back on track. Shifting from a distraction back to your work isn’t just a physical shift. It is also a mental shift.

You have to mentally re-prepare yourself for getting your goals done each time you get distracted.

Getting distracted too many times will result in a lot of lost time based on how long it takes for you to get back to the work from a physical standpoint (i.e. looking at the blog post you are writing) and from a mental standpoint (having the mindset necessary for writing an epic blog post).

Distractions can get bothersome. The worst part is that few people realize the impact of distractions until it’s too late. One distraction doesn’t seem to take much time out of the day.

But a string of distractions stretched over a long period of time can be disastrous for your productivity.

The next thing you know, it’s the end of the day, and you are far behind from accomplishing your goals for the day.

The moment you take steps to eliminate some of the distractions from your life is the moment you will become more productive.

Of course, it’s impossible to eliminate all distractions. We can’t work 24/7, every day of the year. However, it is possible for you to use your time as productively as possible to accomplish your goals and have a lot of extra time for the good ol’ work-life balance.

You use your time more productively by eliminating the distractions around you that can be eliminated. In this blog post, you’ll learn the five distractions that can be dramatically reduced so you can become more productive.

 

#1: Surfing The Web

The web has granted us many gifts. The web gave us social media, the ability to expand business in a way like never before, hilarious memes, and a whole lot more.

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t on the web for an entire day. It just has so much to offer. The problem with so many options is that it is easy to get distracted.

Going on Twitter to interact with your audience can suddenly end with you scrolling through the trending topics. You went on YouTube to upload a video, and you log out of your account after watching 10 Jimmy Fallon videos.

The web provides us with so many opportunities, but almost all of those opportunities are also next to a sea of distractions.

Developing willpower is one possible tip, but it doesn’t dive deep enough into this distraction. Here’s the secret to avoiding this distraction.

When you work, you must disconnect from the Wi-Fi.

When I write my blog posts, I make it a point to disconnect from the Wi-Fi, remove my iPhone from the room, and quit my Safari and Mail icons. That way, the only thing I am thinking about is writing the blog post. More specifically, it’s the only work I am doing.

With that said, there is some work that requires Wi-Fi. Content research, watching training course videos, and scheduling blog posts are just some of the tasks that require Wi-Fi.

Some of those tasks can be outsourced to freelancers. Outsourcing some of your workload will allow you to save time that can be repurposed towards bigger opportunities.

However, some of the work just can’t be outsourced. For that type of work, my recommendation is to write down your daily goals on a sticky note. I always keep a sticky note like this right next to my computer.

Any moment you find yourself getting distracted, look at that sticky note. It will remind you that there’s still work to do. Then you won’t find yourself getting distracted for as long.

 

#2: Social Media 

Social media is a special type of web surfing since it’s critical for a lot of businesses. However, social media is a double-edged sword. While it is critical for business, it can also eat up too much of your time.

Writing the sticky note will help you when you fall off track. However, why fall off track in the first place?

When I interact with my social media audiences, I rarely interact with them on the actual social networks. Instead of interacting with people through Twitter, I usually interact with my Twitter audience from HootSuite.

The HootSuite dashboard comes with all of the tweeting capabilities. The HootSuite dashboard doesn’t contain as much information as Twitter’s dashboard.

That’s actually a good thing.

On the HootSuite dashboard, I don’t see any tweets that could distract me. More importantly (for me), I don’t see any of the trending topics.

So instead of going through the trending topics after I interact with my audience, I move onto the next task.

You need to find a way to spend as little time as possible on the actual social network. Use a social media tool instead.

Remember this. All social networks are designed to keep you on their sites for as long as possible. Social media tools are simply designed for you to get the work done.

 

#3: TV

The average American watches 32 hours of television every week. Imagine all of the cool things you could do with that extra time.

I used to be on that same boat. Every day when I got home from school, I would do my homework. Then, the rest of the day was filled with a combination of TV, internet surfing, and video games.

Productivity wasn’t a natural talent of mine. Natural talents don’t exist. Every “natural talent” is simply a skill that got developed over a long period of time.

But when I started blogging, I fell in love with it. Blogging became my hobby, and when I figured out I could make money from it, blogging became my business. Then it expanded from there.

When I first started blogging, I had to find extra time for myself to write the blog posts. Little did I know it at the time, but this is when I discovered how valuable time is, from a minute by minute standpoint.

A minute you spend doing one activity is a minute that you can’t spend doing any other activity. If I watch TV for one minute, then that is one minute in which my upcoming blog post remains unwritten.

I think of spending time in the same way that I think of spending money. Spend both of them carelessly, and the results won’t be pretty. Spend them effectively and you get the results.

The moment I valued my time to this level, I stopped falling for the traps. I stopped watching the re-runs because I was bored. Now with a blog and a business, I always had something to do. And I enjoyed the work. That’s the important part—a strong source of motivation to get off the couch.

Now I only watch two hours of TV every week. Any new episode of The Big Bang Theory or Super Girl is a can’t miss. I actually schedule podcast interviews accordingly to make sure I don’t miss any of those episodes.

I don’t watch much TV which is why it’s a big deal when I actually watch some of it.

Then there’s 30 minutes of miscellaneous. Sometimes I’ll watch a sports game, but since my Red Sox aren’t on the New York channels, I mostly stay up-to-date via MLB’s website.

But maybe you still want to watch a lot of TV the moment you turn it on. If this is you, then you must enlist the help of a trustworthy family member that you won’t get mad at.

Have that member of the family member hide the TV remote, or better yet, put the TV remote in a location where you cannot access it.

Without a TV remote, there’s no point in turning on the TV. What happens then? The goals get done.

 

#4: Music

Music and I will never go out of style. While some songs can put you in the right mindset for pursuing certain types of work (i.e. Rocky music for workouts), listening to too much music will distract you when you are working.

Take, for instance, a Taylor Swift song. The moment I hear one of her songs play, I stop what I am doing to listen to it. Sometimes I sing to the song, but often I just stop what I am doing and listen.

Soon enough, I have listened to dozens of songs to find my blog post still unwritten.

I feel great when I listen to my favorite songs, but listening to too many songs results in no work getting done.

Luckily, there is an in-between route otherwise known as the Pomodoro technique. It is a famous productivity tactic that involves you working on ONE thing for 25 minutes and then taking a five minute break. This gets repeated again and again. However, on the fourth Pomodoro, some people recommend taking a 15 minute break instead of a five minute break.

During that five minute break, you can choose to listen to one of your favorite songs. However, only choose one song. We all have that one song that after listening to it, we can produce meaningful work for 25 straight, undistracted minutes.

Don’t go on a music marathon, but also don’t deny yourself of your favorite song.

 

#5: Your Thoughts

I’m starting off this part by saying we always think. You can’t fully eliminate thoughts from your life.

However, there are certain thoughts in your head that will distract you. The chances of that happening are greatly reduced if you do work that you love doing.

When you love the work that you do, then you are less likely to wander within your mind—thinking about the baseball game you are going to this week or the last concert you attended.

To be truly locked into your work is to be within the moment. Sometimes, our thoughts take us away from that. Bad thoughts sometimes enter our minds, and the negative feelings harm our productivity.

When bad thoughts emerge, you need a quick counter. I think one of the greatest things people deprive themselves of is self-worth. We often look at the target without looking back at the starting point.

We are so focused on what we have to do that we fail to notice what we have already accomplished.

Anytime a bad thought comes up, simply remind yourself of some of the things you have accomplished up to this point. Then you won’t feel as bad, and you’ll be able to continue working without those negative thoughts plaguing your work ethic.

 

In Conclusion

Distractions are among us. They hurt our ability to accomplish our goals. The way we respond to the distractions around us ultimately determine what type of impact they have on us.

What distractions eat up most of your time? Do you have any tips for conquering distractions? Sound off in the comments section below.

 

Leverage Your Time Better With A Productivity Pie

When fewer distractions enter your work flow, you have more time to put towards your goals. The next step is to identify the goals that will allow you to achieve the results you are looking for. That’s where the Productivity Pie comes in.

To get access, all you have to do is enter your email address.

Discover How I Use A Productivity Pie To Turbocharge My Productivity

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Myth Busting: All Work Is Productive Work

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There are two types of work. One of those types of work is productive work. It is the type of work associated with accomplishing goals and heading towards your dreams.

The other type of work holds you back from your true potential. The worst part is that this type of work looks like productive work on the surface.

In this video, I will discuss the two types of work and bust a common myth about productivity.

I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know what you thought of the video, and if you like it, then don’t forget to subscribe. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

The 4 Core Beliefs Of Highly Productive People

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This is my first video-based blog post. In this video, I discuss the four core beliefs of highly productive people. The video is based on the blog post The 4 Core Beliefs Of All Highly Productive People.

The methods I discuss in the video are as follows:

#1: Dreaming Big Is Better Than Dreaming Small. When you dream big, you expand the possibilities. Even if you don’t reach them all, your bigger goals will inspire you to put in more work. Dreaming small inspires mediocre work and mediocre results.

#2: Being Busy Does Not Mean You Are Productive. There is a huge difference. You can be getting distracted by non-priorities when you are busy, but you are always addressing your priorities when you are productive.

#3: The Vision Must Be Accompanied By A Series Of Micro-Visions. You need the stepping stones to get to the grand vision. The stepping stones will boost your confidence as you head towards that grand vision.

#4: There Is No Stopping. You do have to take the occasional breaks, but you must put in the work every single day. As Daymond John would say, “Keep Swimming!”

I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know what you thought of the video, and if you like it, then don’t forget to subscribe. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

How To Leverage Pareto’s Principle For Your Business

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How To Leverage Pareto's Principle For Your Business
80/20 maximized to the fullest…

Pareto’s Principle is one of the most famous principles in business. Some entrepreneurs live by it.

You’ve heard it before, but maybe you haven’t heard of it referred to as Pareto’s Principle. Here’s what Pareto’s Principle is:

80% of your results come from 20% of your work.

That sounds much familiar. The concept is true, and if you look deep enough, you will discover what that 20% is for your business.

The work that leads to most of your results.

Most people stop there. They acknowledge Pareto’s Principle and acclaim that 20% of their work brings forth 80% of the results.

The people who stop at the acknowledgement only see one side of the coin. To every coin, there are two sides.

To Pareto’s Principle, there are two statements.

The first statement is the one that we know well. 80% of our results come from 20% of our work. The second statement?

20% of our results come from 80% of our work.

That’s a lot of work that only leads to one-fifth of your results. That particular small slice of work that you do leads to everything else.

The other side of the coin doesn’t get much attention because it is the disgusting side of the coin. Most of the work you do leads to little or no results.

Can you still work with that in your mind? Most of the work leads to little or no results.

 

80/20 Done The Right Way

This blog post isn’t meant to discourage anyone. It is designed to change the way we work.

The successful entrepreneurs understand the principle and look at both sides of the coin. They focus most of their time on the 20% of the work that leads to 80% of the results.

As for the 80% of the work that leads to only 20% of the results? That gets outsourced or eliminated.

Why do something when you know it won’t produce much results? The biggest mistake I see people make is they will look at every possible opportunity without honing in on one opportunity to maximize results.

If someone doesn’t produce much results, and you don’t overwhelmingly enjoy that work, then stop.

If it’s something that you still have to do but know it doesn’t bring in the results you are looking for, then outsource that work.

Since 80% of your work produces 20% of your results, you should look to outsource 80% of your business.

Then you can focus all of your time on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results.

Even if something seems vital for your business’ survival, try to outsource it. Scheduling tweets is essential for my business since that’s how I get most of my blog traffic.

Outsourcing that one task allows me to save hours of my time each week. Outsourcing my blog post pictures allows me to save even more time.

 

Opportunity Cost

For every minute you spend doing something, you can’t spend that same minute doing anything else. That’s the basic concept behind an opportunity cost.

If you procrastinate for one minute, you cannot be productive and get stuff done during that same minute.

If you find yourself not focusing on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results, then you are missing out on opportunities.

I will provide you with an example involving money just to highlight the importance of looking at Pareto’s Principle differently.

Let’s say an entrepreneur works for five hours a day and makes an average of $100 per day.

With Pareto’s Principle in play, one hour brings in $80 while the other four hours only result in an extra $20.

Let’s say the four hours that bring in $20 get outsourced and the same entrepreneur works for five hours each day.

Now those five hours get directed towards the work that brings forth the best results.

Instead of making $100 per day, that same entrepreneur is making $400 per day ($80 x 5 = 400)

Sure, outsourcing costs comes into play, but it won’t cost $300 per day at that rate.

Overall, a profit is made because the entrepreneur was able to focus more time on the work that brought forth the most results.

If you focus more of your time on what works, then don’t be shocked if you get better results.

 

Expansion

You’ve figured out Pareto’s Principle and focus most of your time on the work that yields most of your results.

But let’s say you have multiple passions and want to start multiple businesses. Maybe you want to write books or create training courses. Maybe, like me, you want to become a singer.

You can suddenly find that extra time to pursue more adventures by outsourcing most of your work. Inevitably, you will temporarily disrupt your groove.

If you can focus all of your time on the work that leads to the most results, you will have to introduce more work that doesn’t (in the beginning) bring in much results.

Then you discover what works in the new adventure you are taking and outsource everything else that doesn’t yield as much results.

The quicker you master something and the better you master your time, the easier it will be for you to master anything else that you want to master.

Twitter was the first social network I mastered. I only mastered Twitter because I gave up on every other social network.

Now I am on several social networks and have thousands of followers on most of the platforms.

Master one thing and then expand from there.

 

In Conclusion

There is a lot to learn from Pareto’s Principle. The two key lessons are that most of your work leads to little or no results while some of your work leads to most of your results.

You need to focus more of your time on that some of your work that leads to most of your results.

Success is not just a matter of hustling. It’s a matter of hustling in the right direction. You can have a work ethic, but if you get lost and go on the wrong trail, then it will take a lot longer for you to reach the finish line (while some people never reach it).

Hustling in the right direction means focusing most of your time on the work that brings forth most of your results. The busy work that stands in your way, although it may be important, needs to get outsourced.

What are your thoughts about Pareto’s Principle? Do you have any other advice for leveraging it for our businesses? How do you save time? Sound off in the comments section below.

The 3 Steps To Goal Achievement

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The Three Steps To Goal Achievement
The first step is to read this blog post 🙂

We all have goals. Not only do we all have goals, but we all want to accomplish them. This is basic information.

And then beyond that, the enigma dwells.

“I have big goals but how do I accomplish them? I never feel like I have enough time!”

Sound familiar? I have heard many excuses and admittedly made excuses myself (I don’t anymore, but I used to). The most common excuse is a lack of time.

A few months ago, I gave myself a goal that seemed like it wouldn’t happen. The goal was to find some time in my busy schedule to play the piano every day and get really good at it.

When I first gave myself this goal, it seemed impossible. I am a high school student, daily runner (unless I am resting), and entrepreneur all wrapped into one.

I would have to open up some time in my schedule to play the piano.

I knew goal achievement from a business perspective, but this was something completely different. I had to take a big leap out of my comfort zone.

This goal found its way into my head last July. I started playing in August. Now I play every day. I was attentive to my journey through the whole process.

How did I accomplish this goal? How could I use this knowledge to make it easier for me to accomplish my other goals?

How could I communicate this with my readers? This blog post is the answer to that final question. It turns out that goal achievement is EASY, but only if you know what you are doing.

Goal achievement can be broken down into three steps.

 

#1: Identify The Goal

The first way to solve a problem is by identifying that problem in the first place. The first way to accomplish a goal is by identifying that goal in the first place.

Chances are you have already identified a particular goal that you are heading after. One step down. Two to go.

 

#2: Put In The Work Every Day

In life, this tip alone is the closest thing you will find to the silver bullet. Want to become a successful blogger? Want to become a singer? Want to do something new?

Put in the work every day. You won’t get any closer to a silver bullet.

The more work you put towards something, the more committed you become to that work or idea.

If you put in the work every day, the work eventually becomes a habit. Habits eventually become a part of your life.

Working on my business and playing the piano are two daily habits that I hold dearly. If I don’t do both of them, I roll around in my sleep.

Okay, I don’t know if I roll in my sleep. I don’t have a security camera in my room, and I wouldn’t want to see video of myself sleeping. That would be in between awkward and creepy.

The point is that if I don’t perform BOTH of those tasks, then my day is incomplete. There are few things worse than going to bed at the end of the day knowing that your day is incomplete.

It’s the reason why I sometimes write blog posts past 11 pm. No matter how challenging the workload becomes, I always find the time to do something for my blog every day.

 

#3: Let Nothing Stand In Your Way

When new goals get added to our lives, we must create the time to make those goals happen. Creating the time for our goals means giving up other things that may be holding us back.

When I decided I wanted to play the piano every day, I knew I had to give something up. If I gave up blogging, I would have had a meltdown. I love writing these blog posts.

I also enjoyed playing video games. But much to everyone’s surprise, it turns out I didn’t enjoy them enough. Video games got the axe and I was able to play the piano every day.

If you are a teenager reading this blog post, then you know how fun video games can be. I played Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart are often as I could.

Suddenly, I would never be playing those two video games (or any others) again. Just like that.

When I first unplugged all of the devices and put them in the basement, there were some moments of fear. However, once the job was done, I knew I made the right decision.

When you make a significant decision to take away something standing in your way (especially something that has stood in your way for a long time), you get more commitment.

I gave up video games. I was not going to let the piano collect any more dust than it already had.

What stands in your way? Maybe you watch too much TV. Maybe you find yourself surfing on YouTube too often.

Something stands in your way. You have to get to the root of it and eliminate it. Once you eliminate something that has been standing in your way, you will gain more commitment towards the goal, but more importantly, towards yourself and everything that you stand for.

 

In Conclusion

I play the piano every day. The same songs that I thought I could never play are the ones that I can now easily play.

The reason I accomplish goals is because I follow this three step process. In the end, goal achievement is all about putting in the work each day.

Once you willingly put in the work every day, you automatically want to learn more. Nothing I ever do will be forced upon me.

The reason I have fun writing these blog posts, running, and playing the piano is partly because I chose those paths for myself. If you choose your own path, then you are bound to have more fun with it.

It’s not forced on you. At that point, you develop the natural drive that we all have as you go after your goals.

What are your thoughts about goal achievement? Which of these tips resonated with you the most? Do you have any other tips for goal achievement? Sound off in the comments section below.