Stuck? This is Why & How to Fix It

I recently had a conversation with a friend who was feeling frustrated by the way her life is turning out. She felt stuck. Even though she works very hard, she sees very little progress.

The answer is simple:

She put value on measuring her own effort instead of maximizing for output.

Hard work focuses on the input and takes pride in the time and effort placed towards a task. The problem is that when only one person is working on it, the progress is time bound and limited to the effort they alone can give.

In Robert Kiyosaki's book Retire Young, Retire Rich, he discusses the idea of leverage. Leverage is more than using loans and mortgages to buy assets.

Leverage is the concept of doing more with less.

Working on a project as one person for 10 hours is hard work. Ten people working towards a project for 1 hour is leverage. The end result is more progress in less time. This is time leverage.

Brainstorming design ideas for a new product is hard work. Using a company like 99Designs has hundreds of designers submit ideas is leverage. This is brain leverage.

Saving up to pay for an investment in cash takes time and diligence. Fundraising or using a mortgage requires less capital to control the same asset. This is financial leverage.

The main idea is to look at areas in your life or business where progress is slow. These are key areas where leverage may be able to help.

Leverage is about efficiency and honoring the inherent limitation of the resource. There is only so much time in a day and so much money you can save. Leverage respects the resources that exist and find ways to maximize them.

The lack of leverage is limitation, the use of leverage is expansion.

Here are some simple ways to strategically use leverage:

1. Look for areas where you are the bottleneck to progress. If you are the rate limiting step, chances are you could use time leverage to make more progress.
2. Look for areas where you are not where you want to be. The opposite of the point above, look for situations where you have made progress but not enough to reach your goal. This is more difficult to identify because you are making progress, just not enough.
3. Looks for areas where you can give more. It sounds counterintuitive. We often limit our potential when we only focus on what we can consume or contribute individually. Leverage can help you do more with less. Instead of looking for ways to afford a bigger house for yourself, how can you house more families than just your own?

Leverage is a powerful accelerant but should be used with caution and diligence. It's important to remember that employing leverage is a time consuming effort in its own right. To use other people's time, money or brain energy requires an investment to make sure the resources are respected and maximized.