The 1 Thing Powerful People Always Do

Thousands of people share that they feel overwhelmed with the demands on their time. This led me to explore what differentiates people who feel powerful despite it all. I’ve interviewed 300 powerful people and found they are skilled at managing competing priorities by focusing on a few things.

Let’s be real – we’ve all faced things that try to rip us away from what matters most, but some people are still deeply engaged and skip the distractions.

Whether the distractions are big or small, it’s critical to recognize when you’re getting pulled away from your purpose.

The key is to pause and channel your power. 

Here’s what powerful people always do: They Give.

They focus on blending their passion with the greatest service they can share with the world. In that space, they discover the joy of living and the zone of engaged peace, doing their best work delivering the best products, services, and experiences to humanity. In short, they become the change they’re looking to make in the world. 

Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world's greatest need. - Frederick Buechner

Here’s what this looks like for powerful people:

Powerful people know they can’t multitask the big things in life. 

Startling research from Stanford University now suggests multi-tasking can wreak havoc on one’s physical and mental focus. It found that multitasking is counterproductive and may even damage your brain.

While I’ve heard many effective strategies that powerful people employ when feeling overwhelmed, what follows are seven of the best. Some may seem obvious, but the real challenge lies in applying them in the face of overwhelming demands on your time.

They Put Things into Perspective

Taking time to connect with what brings you the greatest joy improves your mindset. Research shows that finding meaning in your past, present, and future powers you in ways that can improve your mood, reduce the stress hormone cortisol, and enable greater overall well-being. It’s helpful, and a driver of overall happiness, to think beyond short-term goals and focus on your deeper purpose. Feelings of frustration can also come from our own skewed perceptions of haunting deadlines, bosses, and traffic. But those are only actors on your mind’s stage where you control the script. Living your inspired script in an optimistic and forward-thinking way means everything in a world where it seems easy to otherwise be pessimistic and critical.

They Don’t Ask “Why Me?”

Powerful people aren’t as concerned about why things are happening to them as much as they are focused on why they can make different things happen. “Why Me?” statements open the floodgates to feeling more overwhelmed. There are millions of things you will experience in life, and the more time you spend being frustrated by it, the less time you’ll spend focusing on changing things for the better. Powerful people know that asking “why me?” only takes them where they don’t want—or need—to go.

They Think About Others’ Needs

Powerful people help others, knowing that it’s at the heart of relationships and the basis for everything that matters. When someone’s facing something hard, they’re right there to lift and help them through it. In a service-driven world, there’s no shortage of these opportunities. Those who are willing to forget themselves and work for the benefit of others find it unlocks their own power to focus and become more.

They Listen More Than They Talk

The easiest way to quickly feel less overwhelmed lies in something that you can do everyday with others: listening. The practice of being fully present in conversations is so impactful that it’s most often referenced as the key to success in career and life. Daniel Pink suggests that this is the differentiating factor for powerful people today, that “they listen more than they talk.”

This task may seem difficult when you’ve got piles of things to do, but you’ll be surprised by how focused you feel afterward and how much easier it is to let go of distracting thoughts that otherwise stick in your brain. And the person you listen to will appreciate it, as it’ll feel like oxygen to them.

They Trim the Priorities

It’s tempting, yet completely useless to try to get everything done at once. To be focused and productive, you need to be open about what’s most critical. This means tapping into the power of simplicity in life, staying focused on the highest impact activities. Guy Kawasaki offers this radically simple advice: “Powerful people remove tasks from the list of priorities.”

They Innovate Everything —Together

Powerful people are willing to ignore the status quo, create new trends, and take the right risks. They don’t stick with what’s worked just for the sake of protecting the past. They courageously push to achieve a new, beautiful future that is inspiring to them and to others. This approach makes them less overwhelmed because it builds a focus that is future-oriented, pulling them out of the deep valleys to the highest mountains. Walt Disney lived and shared this endlessly applicable advice, “It’s kinda fun to do the impossible,” and it is as we’re doing it all together.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams

Malala Youszef has done all of the above. When terrorist were attacking her small town of Swat, Pakistan, tearing schools apart, spreading their message of hate to all girls who sought an education, she searched for solace in the possibility that her family’s suffering could mean something, but more than that: she believed she could change the world. Malala Youszef wasn’t your average teenager. She’d been raised to challenge the status quo, to read, write, and excel in a culture where a woman’s right to knowledge was under devastating attack. Her father had even named her Malala after the legendary lady who once stood bravely against an oncoming army, and won the fight. This Malala was about to face her own modern day army. But her weapon wasn’t the AK-47s brandished by her Taliban enemies. It was her voice. It was the underlying purpose in her heart, a total focus on promoting education for women at all costs.

After amplifying her voice, first anonymously in a BBC blog, and then later in public, through media interviews and broadcasts, Malala dangerously challenged the ideals of the Taliban head on. She continued going to school despite the imminent risks, and boldly proclaimed her belief in education for all. Her very existence brought her face to face with evil. Her pursuit of her purpose of education for women everywhere led to a deadly moment when a Taliban terrorist jumped on a bus she and her friends were riding, and asked, “Are you Malala?” And then shot her in the head. 

Her story could’ve ended there. But it didn’t. Malala had focused her whole soul on living beyond death to share her message. And that’s exactly what she did. After recovering for several months in the hospital, and going through one grueling surgery after another, she stood up again and valiantly told the story—not just her story, but the story of everyone deprived of an education. She shared her purpose when she said, “Peace in every home, every street, every village, every country—this is my dream. Education for every boy and every girl in the world.” And she re-emphasized it when she said, “I don’t want to be thought of as the ‘girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but the girl who fought for education. This is the cause to which I want to devote my life.” And, “Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.” She went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and to amplify her voice in powerful ways. 

Malala confronted a culture fighting education for women. She’s seen her father standing as an example of the power of education. And she continues to live her passion and give through service, as she embodies the very thing she’s fighting for, and its power to last the test of time—even beyond the sting of death. 

Such courage can be part of our lives, for every one of us. We may not live in such strange or difficult circumstances, but we will all experience our own battlefields over what we believe. And at some moment, we’ll face our own version of those terrorizing the truth—or at least attempting to stop greatness from happening for us and others.

This kind of living allows us to learn from the past, live in the present, and lead others into a future of possibilities. It’s grounded in an idealism that doesn’t surrender, but creates a different reality. 

And it all starts with a single, simple choice: To Give. 

Will we focus our passion in the service of others? 

It will make all the difference.