Focus Project: Figuring Out Whats Most Important

Figuring Out What’s Most Important (Chapter 1)

Below is a list of the all-time, top-selling self-help books. You will notice crossover with the categories such as health, finance, sex, sales, productivity, and friends [Kayla Walsh, “10 Most Popular Self-Help Books Ever,” The Richest, April 4, 2014, bit.ly/2TlMie0]:

1. Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen: Short, inspiring stories about real people’s lives.
2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: Personal wealth and lasting success.
3. Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray: Men and women are so different, they seem to come from different planets. Understanding the fundamental differences in thinking between males and females is the key to healthy relationships.
4. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay: How the body and mind are linked.
5. Your Erroneous Zones by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer: Published in 1976, including tips for a guilt-free life, positive thinking, and taking control of your life.
6. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson: The necessity of adapting to change at work.
7. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki: Stresses financial independence, entrepreneurial projects, and investments.
8. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey: Habits to adopt to become more efficient and successful. 
9. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne: The law of attraction—if you think about something hard enough, it will come to you.
10. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: Insights on how to make people like you. 

Creating Your Own List

For your own list, I suggest you do the following exercise: Formulate your list of what’s important to you. Take a sheet of paper and form three columns. 

1. Item: For example, “Family.”
2. Rank: Rank the importance to you from 1-10 (10 being highest).
3. Performance: Score 1-10 how well you are performing that item.

Look at your sheet and identify the gaps. Where is there a big gap? If Family is a 10 in importance, but you feel you are performing at a 3 right now that is a big gap. Consciously attack that gap and dedicate time to it to get it to a 8, 9, or 10. It works on the inverse as well, so if you have Faith ranked as a 2 (importance) and you are performing at a 4 well you have some “give” there. Faith can slip to a 2 if it allows you to allocate time to improving the “Family” gap. 

Throughout the day you should ask yourself where you are on a scale of 1-10? If you say you’re at a 6, then why aren’t you at a 7 or an 8? As you list out the reasons, ask yourself, is the issue solvable?

For more content like this, check out The Focus Project.

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