“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

And that’s such a simple way to think about whether you are being useful, or just keeping busy.

Think of the person you’d like to be in 5 years’ time, and ask:

• Am I reacting like they would to this event?
• If I do it this way, will I ever become like them?
• If not this, what would they be doing right now?
• Does doing this make me feel like I am that person already?
• What needs to happen for me to become that person by that time?

It’s your duty to support a viable candidate.

Don’t waste your vote.

Jonny

PS – Thanks for your submissions for future DBTs. We’ve had over 40 great pieces, and we’ll be selecting the best in the next couple of days. Watch this space! 

• It makes it harder for you to stand out
• It gives your clients alternative choices to you
• It forces you to lower your prices

What if none of that were true?

Maybe this is what competition really means:

• It creates a market so people understand what you’re offering
• It helps clients to shop around and appreciate how great YOUR offer truly is
• It enables you to charge based on the exceptional results you offer compared to others

If you’re worried about your competition, imagine how THEY feel about you. 

Jonny

PS – My CAB programme really has no competition. It’s the ONLY way to access all of my teachings in one 12-week package. Check it out here, for January intake.

You become a target when you raise your head above the parapet, and it’s a target that gets bigger and easier to hit, the further you rise.

So what to do?

The next time you get flamed online consider these before you respond:

1: Do they have an emotional stake in what you do, or are they just outsiders looking in?
If the former, they may be genuinely concerned about you and may be worth listening to. If the latter, ignore them and move on.

2: Remember that all criticism is about the critic, not about you.
You know nothing about their journey, and that’s mostly what’s caused their reaction

There’s a vanishingly small chance you’ll change anyone’s position in an online argument these days, so best just remember the golden rule of “Social” Media:

Don’t feed the trolls. 

Jonny

PS – It’s the final day of #ConversationWeek in JHM, and I’ve finally lost my marbles. I think you’d like to see this. 

Doing something well does not make it important. I think this is one of the most common problems with a lot of time-management or productivity advice; they focus on how to do things quickly. The vast majority of things that people do quickly should not be done at all.

Men have understood the simple truth about priorities for millennia. This is what Marcus Aurelius had to say about it, back in the days before Russell Crowe made him famous:

The attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth… Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquillity. We shouldn’t forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things?

So that’s agreed then: Do the important things well, and be way more selective chasing after urgent.

Author: Jonny | The Important Group

It’s where you start with a large empty glass, a half-dozen big rocks, a bunch of smaller pebbles, and a pile of sand. The task is to fit as much into the glass as possible, and of course you get more in if you start with the large rocks, let the pebbles fill the space between them and finally top-up with the sand.

If we map the analogy to a day in the life of an entrepreneur, it probably goes something like this:

Big Rocks:

• Sleep
• Family time
• Exercise
• Food
• Business strategy
• Client meetings and service delivery
• Important proposals

Pebbles:

• Marketing
• Reading
• Answering important emails and other communications

Sand:

• Social media
• TV
• Web browsing

Of course, when you’re filling the glass with your Big Rocks, your beloved phone is on silent, your email engine is switched off, and the metaphorical “no room service” sign is hung on your doorknob.

Try and “rock” your week, and see if you Get More Done.

Author: Jonny | Let me know if this works!