To Achieve Extraordinary Results you must stop doing ordinary things
I have read countless business books and articles on getting things done over the years and once in a while I come agross a new gem, a new insight that just hits me like a rock.
As I was listening to some lessons from Bill Bartmann, one of the most successful serial entrepreneurs I have ever met, I had one of these moments. What Bill had to say might be common sense but the insights are so profound they have changed the way I work and think about work ever since.
Here is what Bill had to share:
To achieve extraordinary results, you must stop doing ordinary things.
Why do I like this quote so much?
Because I have noticed that it is very easy to just “get busy.” I can think of many occassions where I just “got busy.” However, instead of making a list of tasks to do and asking myself which tasks are “extraordinary” I would be “too busy” to ask myself these hard questions and just plow ahead. Well, it turns out that one never runs out of work. Anyone can always find more things that have to get done. So, the key truly is to focus on the stuff that matters, the extraordinary things that can help one to become extraordinarily successful.
How do you know if what you are working on the right tasks? Just ask yourself:
“Will doing this help me achieve extraordinary results?” OR
“If I keep doing this day in and day out will it help me achieve extraordinary results?”
If the answer is no, then find the items that will truly help you get to the vision that you have set out to achieve. Now, this does not mean that one no longer has to do the little grunt work. However, everday it is worth identifying 3-4 items that can really help move the business or project forward and making enough time to work on those.