20 Minutes Is All It Takes
I’ve been scatter-brained long enough. My shiny object syndrome has gotten the best of me and I’m tired of ending a busy day wondering what I got done.
Can you relate?
I want to move the needle on the important things of life. I want to build a business that is thriving, making a big difference. I want to provide for my family without worrying. I don’t want to look back on life with regret. I want to do something now.
But how?
My wrestling matches with distraction have given me some insight I’d like to share with you. It won’t make sense at first, but here goes:
The less I do, the more I achieve.
The slower I go the faster I progress.
That’s right. doing less, going slower is beginning to result in greater achievement and greater progress. How does an entrepreneur go from multi-tasking fast to doing less and slower? Good question.
Silence.
That’s right, silence. Ten minutes in the morning. Ten minutes at night. 20 minutes is all it takes. But it’s not that simple. Here are a couple of the nuances to keep in mind:
- The cadence is what’s important, not the “aha” moments. Especially at first, what you must create is a routine, a habit. You’ve got to train your brain to expect that every day has bookends where silence is the rule.
- Silence at the beginning morphed into designed thinking. For the first couple of weeks, it’s best not to do anything but sit in silence. Again, creating cadence is primary at first. But after a while, you can begin thinking (shall I say meditating?) by design, which leads to the 3rd nuance.
- Use 3D meditation. Three steps: Download, Divide and Disseminate. Let’s talk about these in a little more depth.
- First, download everything that’s flying around in your mind onto paper. Not electronic, paper. Why? Because as the thought travels from your brain, through your arm, through your hand, your fingers and the pen/pencil and onto paper, you will have utilized both sides of the brain. Both logic and creativity are involved, which results in a solid download of random thoughts onto paper. Also, quite literally you are “above” the list of thoughts. You are on the balcony, so to speak. You can now look at the list and you are in control which lets you do step two.
- Second, divide all the thoughts into affinity groups. What are all the financially-related thoughts? What are all the family or relationship-related thoughts? And so on. Like overtaking an army, you are dividing to conquer. Look for trends, themes, and patterns.
- Third, disseminate the thoughts into your life or organization. Which thoughts must be acted upon, when, and by whom? Which thoughts can be parked for now lest you share it with your team and they think, “Here we go again, another flavor of the month idea.” Which thoughts can be scrapped because they are invalid? Which thoughts are enhancements of business functions already in place?
Wow, that’s a lot! How in the world do I accomplish this in just 20 minutes a day?
I know, it may take you a while longer at first. But if you’re like me, it will get easier. You will begin to see patterns of thoughts that you can streamline. You’ll see what’s in your mind starts to settle down like monkeys on Ritalin.
You’ll develop a stronger capacity to tame your shiny object syndrome, to not be so scattered, and more importantly, to
Do less to achieve more and
Go slower to progress faster
