Accomplish More Thanks to These Three Easy Questions
There’s a simple trick to getting more done in a day. It involves some rather quirky human psychology.
You may recall that when Netflix made its debut, it was a bit different from what it is today. The online movie portal allowed folks to search for movies and then save them to their queues.
The things folks dog-eared to watch later made for quite an interesting list.
They were feel-good movies, with deep plots and aspirational stories. They were the kinds of movies that cause folks to stick their noses in the air as they describe them. They were movies folks would be proud to watch.
But there was a problem.
Nobody watched them.
When folks at the company looked at how these queues changed over time, they realized subscribers never actually viewed these intense, deep-thinking films.
Instead, they put off the “thinkers” and watched mindless smut… hours and hours and hours of it.
So Netflix got smart. It got rid of the queue system and used its oh-so-smart algorithm to determine exactly what smut its viewers wanted next.
Folks were hooked. And the quality films remain unwatched.
The idea teaches us a vital lesson.
It’s about living a purposeful life – and how to set goal to get there.
[mw-adbox]
The Netflix Effect
Think about it. That Netflix queue that went unwatched reminds us a lot of what we hear every day. Folks have big plans and big visions. They want to accomplish great things.
But in the end, they never get to any of it.
They watch one mindless show after the other. They waste their time on the easy… not the important.
The solution to this crime is to live more purposefully.
Don’t just create your Netflix queue… design your life to tackle it.
To get there, ask yourself these three questions.
- What do I want?
- Why do I want it?
- When do I want it?
If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll find that the questions are far more complex than they first appear.
They’re actually quite difficult to answer.
After this exercise, we’ve found that we live a much more “vivid” life. We can see where we’re going… and it’s gorgeous.
Suddenly, we have much more clarity, much more productivity and, the big payday, much more happiness.
Instead of wasting time on the mundane, we spend our time accomplishing one goal after the next.
Purposeful Wealth
There are many ways this mindset can pay off. Since our beat is making money, let’s dig into it.
Answering our first question is simple. Everybody wants more money.
But why do we want it?
As we say so often, wealth plays a vital role in our Triad. It has everything to do with our Know-How and Connections, but the big payoff comes with our Liberty.
Wealth equals freedom.
But we need to dig deeper still. What sort of freedom are we after? Freedom from the daily grind? Freedom from relying on the system? Freedom to retire where we want and go where we want?
Everybody’s answer is different. The only rule is that yours must be specific.
And the biggest question of all… when do you want it? This is the one most folks seem to ignore. Or they toss out something vague.
Again, it must be specific and realistic.
Something like, “I want to retire on my 62nd birthday.”
From there, the work is easy.
Everything you do must be purposefully aimed at meeting that goal. If binging on Netflix won’t get you there… don’t do it. If buying a new Corvette will hinder your goal… don’t even pull into the car lot.
In other words, don’t fall into the Netflix trap. Don’t get caught up in the here-and-now distractions and their instant gratification. Live your life with strict goals in mind and do what it takes to accomplish them.
We’ll wrap it up with a quote a good friend of ours sent us yesterday. It was penned by our old literary muse Ernest Hemingway.
“Why do old men wake so early,” he asked in The Old Man and the Sea. “Is it to have one longer day?”
Ah, yes.
We finally know the answer. A purposeful life will add hours of joy to every day.