1. PART 1 - THE LIES
1.1. EVERYTHING MATTERS EQUALLY
1.1.1. “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1.1.2. Not everything matters equally, and success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most
1.1.3. The 80/20 Principle asserts that a minority of causes, inputs, or efforts usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards.
1.1.4. 1 idea out of 100. That is Pareto to the extreme. That’s thinking big, but going very small.
1.1.5. The inequality of effort for results is everywhere in your life if you will simply look for it.
1.2. A DISCIPLINED LIFE
1.2.1. Only enough discipline to build a handful of habits, one at a time, that will contribute to grand success
1.2.2. Build one habit at a time. Success is sequential, not simultaneous. No one actually has the discipline to acquire more than one powerful new habit at a time.
1.2.3. Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.
1.2.4. Habits require much less energy and effort to maintain than to begin
1.2.4.1. it takes an average of 66 days to acquire a new habit.
1.2.5. Halo effect around habit creation. Keystone Habit.
1.2.5.1. In their studies, students who successfully acquired one positive habit reported less stress; less impulsive spending;
1.3. • WILLPOWER IS ALWAYS ON WILL-CALL
1.3.1. We only have limited reserves of willpower every day
1.3.2. Its limited - but renewable
1.3.3. When willpower is out - we fall to default settings
1.3.4. Willpower drainers:
1.3.4.1. Implementing new habits
1.3.4.2. Making decisions (Obama/Zuckerberg/Jobs)
1.3.4.3. resisting temptation/impulses/emotions
1.3.5. Don’t fight your willpower. Build your days around how it works and let it do its part to build your life.
1.3.5.1. Willpower may not be on will-call, but when you use it first on what matters most, you can always count on it.
1.4. • A BALANCED LIFE
1.4.1. • The problem with living in the middle is that it prevents you from making extraordinary time commitments to anything. In your effort to attend to all things, everything gets shortchanged and nothing gets its due.
1.5. • BIG IS BAD
1.5.1. Thinking big is essential to extraordinary results.
1.5.2. Everyone has the same amount of time, and hard work is simply hard work. As a result, what you do in the time you work determines what you achieve.
1.5.2.1. And since what you do is determined by what you think, how big you think becomes the launching pad for how high you achieve.
1.5.3. Don’t fear big. Fear mediocrity. Fear waste. Fear the lack of living to your fullest.
2. • PART 2 THE TRUTH
2.1. • THE FOCUSING QUESTION
2.1.1. • How we phrase the questions we ask ourselves determines the answers that eventually become our life.
2.1.2. • What’s the ONE thing you can do this hour/day/week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary
2.2. • THE SUCCESS HABIT
2.2.1. • Success is a Habit. Make the Focusing question a habit.
2.3. • THE PATH TO GREAT ANSWERS
2.3.1. A big, specific questions leads to a big, specific answer, which is absolutely necessary for achieving a big goal.
2.3.2. The challenge of asking a Great Question is that, once you’ve asked it, you’re now faced with finding a Great Answer.
3. • PART 3 EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
3.1. Live with Purpose
3.1.1. • Discover your big WHY
3.2. • LIVE BY PRIORITY
3.2.1. Hyperbolic discounting – the further away a reward is in the future, the smaller the immediate motivation to achieve it.
3.2.2. To be precise, the word is priority – not priorities.
3.2.3. learning how to think big – but go small.
3.2.4. Break down goal into smaller steps
3.2.4.1. Students who visualized the process performed better across the board – they studies earlier and more frequently and earned higher grades than those who simply visualized the outcome.
3.2.4.2. Process Visualization
3.3. • LIVE FOR PRODUCTIVITY
3.3.1. Most successful people are not focussed all day long.
3.3.1.1. Focus Only on their most important things.
3.3.2. TIME BLOCK your ONE THING
3.3.2.1. 4 hours a day atleast
3.3.2.2. In order to do great things, we do need large blocks of uninterrupted time to FOCUS. Like the sun's rays focused through a lens.
3.3.3. PROTECT YOUR TIME BLOCK
3.3.3.1. This is your MOST important appointment. Do whatever it takes to keep it.
3.3.3.2. Whats the one thing I can do to protect my time block every day?
3.3.3.3. Extraordinary results don't come from more hours - but from getting the most important stuff done.
3.3.4. TIME BLOCK YOUR PLANNING TIME
3.3.4.1. 1hr/week - Review, Plan, Block time for next week. Look into 1 month and 1 year out.
3.3.5. Seinfeld Calendar crossing system
3.4. • THE THREE COMMITMENTS
3.4.1. • Follow the path of Mastery
3.4.1.1. When you can see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable.
3.4.1.2. How many hours per day do you need to get to your 10,000 hours over the next 5 years?
3.4.1.3. That's the amount of time you need to block everyday
3.4.1.4. Time blocking is essential to mastery, and mastery is essential to time blocking.
3.4.2. • Move from “E” to “P”
3.4.2.1. E = Entrepreneurial
3.4.2.2. P = Purposeful
3.4.2.3. When you’re in search of extraordinary results, accepting an OK Plateau or any other ceiling of achievement isn’t okay when it applies to your 1 Thing.
3.4.2.4. The path of mastering something is the combination of not only doing the best you can do at it, but also doing it the best it can be done
3.4.3. • Live the Accountability Cycle
3.4.3.1. Taking complete ownership of your outcomes by holding no one but yourself responsible for them is the most powerful thing you can do to drive your success.
3.4.3.2. If it’s to be, it’s up to me.
3.4.3.3. Self Accountability
3.4.3.3.1. Individuals with written goals were 39.5 percent more likely to succeed.
3.4.3.4. ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER
3.4.3.4.1. One of the fastest ways to bring accountability to your life is to find an accountability partner.
3.4.3.4.2. Individuals who wrote their goals and sent progress reports to friends were 76.7 percent more likely to achieve them.
3.4.3.4.3. Coach/Mentor/Peer
3.4.3.5. COACH
3.4.3.5.1. Find a coach. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who achieves extraordinary results without one.
3.5. • THE FOUR THIEVES
3.5.1. • Inability to Say “No”
3.5.1.1. When you say yes to something, it’s imperative that you understand what you’re saying no to.
3.5.1.2. One-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.”
3.5.1.3. So the more things you do, the less successful you are at any one of them. You can’t please everyone, so don’t try.
3.5.1.4. Focusing on ONE Thing has a guaranteed consequence: other things don’t get done.
3.5.2. • Poor Health Habits
3.5.3. • Fear of Chaos
3.5.4. • Environment Doesn’t Support Your Goals
3.5.4.1. No one succeeds alone and no one fails alone. Pay attention to the people around you. Seek out those who will support your goals, and show the door to anyone who won’t.
3.5.4.2. If one of your close friends becomes obese, you’re 57 percent more likely to do the same. Why? The people we see tend to set our standard for what’s appropriate.
3.6. The Journey
3.6.1. Write down your current income. Then multiply it by a number: 2, 4, 10, 20 – it doesn’t matter.
3.6.2. Will my current actions get me to this number in the next five years?” If they will, then keep doubling the number until they won’t. If you then make your actions match your answer, you’ll be living large.
3.6.3. Extraordinary results require you to go small.
3.6.4. Getting your focus as small as possible simplifies your thinking and crystallizes what you must do.
3.6.5. So whenever you want extraordinary results, look for the levered action that will start a domino run for you.
3.6.6. make sure every day you do what matters most. When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense. The best lives aren’t led this way.
3.7. Putting the one thing to work
3.7.1. • If you try to do everything, you could wind up with nothing. If you try to do just ONE Thing, the right ONE Thing, you could wind up with everything you ever wanted.
4. Great Achievement requires T___ B_____ and A_____
4.1. Gary Keller
4.1.1. Founder of the largest real estate company in the US - Keller Williams
4.1.2. Very successful entrepreneur
4.1.3. Net Worth of over $200 Million
4.2. Greatness -> Follow the path of Mastery
4.2.1. See mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at,
4.2.1.1. Mastery is not a matter of Chance/luck
4.2.1.2. It's a matter of doing the work
4.2.1.2.1. Day in an day out
4.2.2. How many hours per day do you need to get to your 10,000 hours over the next 5 years?
4.2.3. That's the amount of time you need to block everyday
4.2.3.1. Time blocking is essential to mastery, and mastery is essential to time blocking.
4.2.4. Think of any great athelete
4.2.4.1. They are putting in the work
4.2.4.2. They have their time blocked
4.2.4.3. Showing up to practice
4.2.4.3.1. Day in and day out
4.3. T____ B____
4.3.1. TIME BLOCK your ONE THING
4.3.1.1. 4 hours a day atleast
4.3.1.2. In order to do great things, we do need large blocks of uninterrupted time to FOCUS.
4.3.1.2.1. Like the sun's rays focused through a lens.
4.3.2. Most successful people are not focussed all day long.
4.3.2.1. Focus Only on their most important things.
4.3.3. PROTECT YOUR TIME BLOCK
4.3.3.1. This is your MOST important appointment. Do whatever it takes to keep it.
4.3.3.2. Whats the one thing I can do to protect my time block every day?
4.3.3.3. Extraordinary results don't come from more hours
4.3.3.3.1. but from getting the most important stuff done.
4.3.4. TIME BLOCK YOUR PLANNING TIME
4.3.4.1. 1hr/week - Review, Plan, Block time for next week. Look into 1 month and 1 year out.
4.4. If you are serious about achieving great goals
4.4.1. You must
4.4.1.1. Create Time Blocks
4.4.1.2. Stick to your time Blocks
4.4.2. 99% people
4.4.2.1. Create Time Blocks for a few days
4.4.2.1.1. Only to Fall off the wagon
4.4.3. You need Accountability to follow through
4.4.3.1. Self Accountability
4.4.3.1.1. Individuals with written goals
4.4.3.2. ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER
4.4.3.2.1. Individuals who wrote their goals and committed to Accountability partners -
4.4.3.3. One of the fastest ways to bring accountability to your life is to find an accountability partner
4.4.4. This is why I built Focus Blocks
4.4.4.1. It designed to get you to create Time Blocks
4.4.4.2. And Follow through on your Time Blocks
4.4.4.3. Using LIVE, Real-time accountability
4.4.5. You can check it out by going to
4.4.5.1. FocusBlocks.io
4.4.6. Let me tell you more about FocusBlocks.io
5. Ideas
5.1. EXTREME PARETO
5.1.1. 1 idea out of 100. That is Pareto to the extreme. That’s thinking big, but going very small.
5.2. Everything does not matter equally
5.2.1. Not everything matters equally, and success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most
5.3. WILLPOWER
5.3.1. Don’t fight your willpower. Build your days around how it works and let it do its part to build your life.
5.4. HABIT FORMING/ Discipline
5.4.1. Only enough discipline to build a handful of habits, one at a time, that will contribute to grand success
5.5. FOCUSSING QUESTION
5.5.1. • What’s the ONE thing you can do this hour/day/week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary
5.6. TIME BLOCK
5.6.1. TIME BLOCK your ONE THING
5.7. ACCOUNTABILITY
5.7.1. • Live the Accountability Cycle
5.7.1.1. ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER
5.7.1.2. COACH
5.7.1.3. Written goal
5.7.1.3.1. 39% higher
5.7.1.4. Announced goal
5.7.1.4.1. 79% higher
5.8. ENVIRONMENT
5.8.1. • Environment Doesn’t Support Your Goals
5.8.1.1. Fat Friend => 57% chance
5.8.2. No one succeeds alone and no one fails alone. Pay attention to the people around you.
5.9. Go narrow. Go Deep
5.9.1. Extraordinary results require you to go small.
5.9.1.1. So whenever you want extraordinary results, look for the levered action that will start a domino run for you.
5.10. Think Big
5.10.1. And since what you do is determined by what you think, how big you think becomes the launching pad for how high you achieve.
5.11. Greatest parts
5.11.1. Domino Effect
5.11.1.1. Small thing. Every day
5.11.1.1.1. Geometric Progression
5.11.1.2. Domino knocks off 50% larger domino
5.11.1.3. 2 inch domino
5.11.1.3.1. 57th Knocks a domino as high as moon
5.11.2. Great Success
5.11.2.1. FOCUS on one thing
5.11.2.2. Doing the one thing ... the most important thing
5.11.2.3. Figure out what matters most
5.11.2.3.1. And DO IT
5.11.2.4. Stop spraying yourself thin