Key Takeaways - The Power of One More

"The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time." -Dante Alighieri

How do you create more urgency?

I do well fitting an outcome into a timeslot. I learned this the extreme way in Ranger school when I became the patrol leader and was given 15 minutes to plan a mission when most people were awarded hours.

The short of the tactic shared was to break your day up into different sections (you choose the time amount) and assign one major goal for each section. The key is to use the time you have to accomplish the goal. No matter what, that task is complete at the end of the time block.

Think of how productive you'd become when you put multiple goals with time blocks and hold yourself accountable to accomplishing the task. I give myself too much leniency in my time and completeness so this tactic will be a powerful for me.

Emotions drive behavior so we must be intentional about the emotions we allow to make home in our minds. Mylett gives us five ways to be intentional in changing our home emotions:

1) Meditate

2) Find Balance in work and life

3) Identify your triggers and manage them

4) Resolve to change the way you think

5) Better align your heart with your mind by controlling your emotions.

"Your peer group is your most potent force and influencing agent in your world. You must place the utmost care as to who you let into this group. To succeed in life, your peer group's standards must align with your own."

The above quote from Ed Mylett and John Wooden's quote, "You will never outperform your inner circle," are so important for you to keep in mind. It's very hard to consistently think about the level of standards of those around you, but you should evaluate your relationships on a regular basis. The data says your personal level of achievement depends on it.

The one other point with associations that I thought was interesting was Mylett said, "unhappy people are not emotionally mature." Essentially, these people are not able to exercise perspective in their life and/or control their expectations. His suggestion is to limit your exposure to them as much as possible or "pay a significant price." I feel the same way about negativity. If controlled well, negative thinking can expose potential future problems, but no problem can be solved with negative thinking - it just makes things worse.

Watch who you allow in your inner circle. Your life depends on it.

Use the skill of dreaming to grow a bigger life. The biggest takeaway that I had was that letting go of your past is the biggest part of successful dreams for the future. Deepak Chopra says, “I use memories, but I will not allow memories to use me.” When you are not afraid of the future (because of your past), then your mind will be unlocked to all possibilities. That’s how you turn failures into lessons. Your dreams will energize you for big action. You know you have it right when you feel uncomfortable because the dreams you are chasing are big.

Let go of the fears you have from your past and dream big!

"The unexamined life isn't worth living." -Socrates

Questions drive the quality of our life. It has been said by many people that if you want to change your life, then change your questions. Higher quality questions produce higher quality answers. Better answers will produce a better life.

What questions are you asking yourself? Are you being intentional with the quality of those questions? Asking yourself questions is a skill that you should refine and use constantly. Humble yourself, put effort into designing great questions for yourself, and ask yourself questions constantly. Your life will change because of it.

"May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed." -Psalm 20:4

Successful goal-setting is very important for your team's production. You know you got it right when you see energy come from it. Mylett says that successful goal-settling transfers energy into action and that makes a lot of sense to me. He goes further to say that Standards are the actions taken to accomplish goals. I'll take the liberty here to bridge the gap and say that the energy from goal-setting is focused by the standards and focused energy is more powerful. Without standards in place, goals are much less productive. We can create more energy around our goals by linking emotions to them. When people tie emotions to their goals, they'll move mountains to make them happen. They won't quit when things get hard.

With the above known, your success as a leader comes down to designing great goals. Mylett pushes us to be in our "peak state" when creating our goals. He wants optimized creativity, high positivity, and no barriers for thought. Get all desires out on the table and structure your goals and standards to meet those goals. He later challenges us all to design and review our goals constantly. Top performers are designing, affirming, and reviewing their goals multiple times a day - out loud. Mylett does his during his prayer time to provide an example.

Bring massive energy into your life and your team's life by bringing great goals to the forefront!

"If you're willing to tolerate something, that's probably what you're going to get."

Goals are byproducts of how you set your standards. Standards are the actions that propel you to your goals. They are the performance benchmarks you're willing to tolerate. If you change your goals to reach higher levels your standards stay the same, then the goals are irrelevant and a time waste. Your standards must reflect the level of achievement that you are after.

Your standards will reflect the environment where you spend most of your time. Your parents, the people you work with, your family members, your friends, your church, and the books you read will all influence your standards. Your brain will take all of the input from the sources above, blend them together, and produce what's acceptable for you. Be aware of the input.

Here are Mylett's 9 ways to set a higher standard:

1. Understand your "why."

2. Break down a higher standard into detailed and achievable steps.

3. Be honest with yourself.

4. Get help in areas that you're weak.

5. Use technology to set and maintain your new standards.

6. Give dedicated thought to the relationship between your goal and your standard.

7. Forget perfection.

8. Don't overthink it.

9. Set standards to please yourself.

People don't think their way to success. Our actions are what lead us to results.

I've written a lot about dreams, values, planning, and several other concepts that set us up for success. All of those thinking skills mean nothing if you don't take action. Thoughts lead to action, but you can't measure your thoughts. Thoughts can create momentum, but they don't produce results. Inaction kills progress and any personal growth momentum that you've built up. Our action must match the size of what we are trying to accomplish. Our actions must also be focused directly at our dreams. When size and focus of our actions is accurate, achievement will follow.

Martin Luther King Jr was a great example of someone who took action. He also wrote beautifully about what it looks like with and without action. Let's follow his example and acknowledge his wisdom. Action is the only way to make our dreams come true.

"Motivation and inspiration come and go. But rituals and habits are constant."

Getting motivated each day to live well is important, but not near as important as paying attention to your habits. Your brain is constantly trying to conserve energy. Several studies have shown that most of our actions are a result of habits. Now that you know that is true, when's the last time you looked at your habits? Have you analyzed them both personally and professionally?

You change habits with three simple steps according to Mylett:

1. Create a new trigger. This step paves the way for you to have intentional thought, stop the old habit, and start the new action.

2. Execute a new action. This is the actual change you are making. The new action that you want to make a habit.

3. Enjoy the prize. This step reinforces in your brain through a chemical reaction that the new habit is good.

Habits have consequences - good and bad. Let's manage them well!

"And if one prevails against him, two shall withstand him; and a three-strand cord is not quickly broken." -Ecclesiastes 4:12

The multiplier refers to another great teammate or a team that improves its team chemistry. I love the parable from the bible quoted above. A single strand rope can be more than doubled in strength with a second strand. A three-strand rope becomes exponentially stronger. Your team will inherit the same multiplier in effectiveness when it has great team chemistry.

"Great team chemistry requires trust, respect, and loyalty to each other and your team while also pursuing your individual goals. It's all about dividing and conquering tasks and multiplying your victories. Cooperation and sacrificing the self for the good of the whole means setting aside your ego for a bigger purpose."

The point is talent alone is not going to carry a company. "There is strength in numbers and a common purpose."

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The point of the chapter this morning is that convenience and greatness cannot co-exist. The whole chapter supported well a resent speaker I watched, Tim Grover - author of Relentless. Grover said repeatedly that being a winner is not normal. Normal behavior brings average results and winners aren't average.

Mylett encourages us all to tackle the least convenient things first because that is where most of the value is to be had. It's also where most of the satisfaction and self-esteem comes from. Inconvenience is not problem-solving. Embracing inconvenience means doing more than what's necessary. This commitment to operating in inconvenience also should spread into your relationships. The more you'll go out of your way for someone else, the more they'll see you as a great friend. Those who stand with us in inconvenient times are our greatest of allies.

Lastly, inconvenience is directly correlated with commitment. Ken Blanchard explains it, "There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you only do it when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results."

"The more you understand what somebody wants, needs, and fears, the more you can figure out how to add value." -Tony Robbins

Help people do things they would not otherwise accomplish without your presence is the definition of leadership for Mylett. As leaders, we are responsible for selling a big dream, helping identify someone's unique gifts, and satisfying someone's basic needs. Selling the dream isn't dependent on their belief in what you are saying. Selling the dream means that your team believes the YOU believe what you are saying. Once you have the dream, you'll need to connect other people's unique gifts to that dream. This will be your best opportunity to help them live up to their full potential in your organization. Lastly, we need to understand that all humans need six things: Certainty, Uncertainty and Variety, Significance, Love and Connection, Growth, and Contribution. People want all six, but will really only think of 2-3 at any one given time. Understand what it is for each person and make sure they get that from your organization.

All of the above matter for effective leadership, but be sure to lead by example too. When you are holding the standard by your own example, it validates your role as the leader. If you don't, then your team will notice it and you will undermine all of your efforts.

What are your leadership principles that guide you?

Leaders must have principles to be there best. Principles guide behavior and are the rules that are nonnegotiable for you to be who you want to be for your team. Principles should be a "living" list, and you should add or subtract from them as you learn.

Mylett shares in the book his 11 leadership principles that are guiding him today. The list includes:

1. Become an evangelist

2. Listen and observe

3. Wise leaders build other leaders

4. Love, believe in, care, and show people how to live a better life

5. Repetition, repetition, repetition

6. Be generous with recognition

7. Have a cause, crusade, and a mission

8. Be authentic and humble

9. Create a culture

10. Give people the resources they need to be successful

11. Build a movement

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled nor let it be fearful." -John 14:27

Equanimity: achieving serenity and mental calmness in a world full of stressors. Leaders must be at peace to be their best. We must seek to control the things we can control and release the things we cannot control. We don't control the outcome in every situation. If we did, then nothing would be special. We only have success because of the presence of failure.

Do you experience high highs and low lows? Peace is disrupted when you go too far in either direction. I used to think that combat dulled my emotions to the point where it destroyed my ability to be fully happy. Looking back, God sharpened me through all of that adversity. He made me into a leader that doesn't hit emotional extremes because they are unhealthy when trying to be a balanced leader. I'm not saying to remove the joy of a victory from your life. What I'm suggesting is find emotional control, find peace, at all times in your life. Understand that bad times and good times both pass through life. Be mindful of how you think and react to all situations. I heard it said really well recently: Respond, don't React.

Operate in a state of peace. Your world will be much more enjoyable.

"Linking huge emotional reasons to what you want to accomplish is the key to why you must be willing to go through the difficult struggles associated with change." -Ed Mylett

Mylett's father tried multiple times to stop, but it was when his wife said it was his last chance that he had enough emotional power to stay away from the drug.

We have to live our life like every year, month, week, hour, and second are a blessing and not guaranteed. Mylett said it really well so I'll just share his perspective here: "You are blessed every second you're alive, and you need to approach those moments with extreme gratitude. Learn to appreciate things, big and small, and the people God has brought into your life. Release the thoughts and people that weigh you down. When you let these things go, you'll replace them with opportunities and relationships that were meant for you. Your priorities will change as you cast off the past."

Place less care in the worldly treasures that surround you and give every second of life your best to make the world a better place. Your joy will soar when you focus on helping others be their best.

Every day I spend time in the early morning reading books to grow my knowledge in business, wealth, religion and more. I share the key takeaways from my week of reading with in?Exclusive Weekly Leader Note?to a group of motivated business professionals – if you would like to join the group, you can sign up?here .

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