Time is your most valuable resource. The problem is, most people spend their time instead of investing it. The resulting waste is amplified if you apply it across an entire organization. If you can’t focus on what matters most, you end up working longer hours and sacrificing your personal life.

We help people implement a simple system to turn their big vision into action steps. Instead of just being busy, you’ll be productive and achieve extraordinary results both professionally and at home. While the principles of The ONE Thing are surprisingly simple, they can be challenging to live.

What stops most people from living The ONE Thing is the lack of a system – which we’ve called “The ProduKtive System.” In the third of our six-part series, we discuss how to build a strategy and get clarity across your organization by creating a one-page business plan. We discuss the top challenges that most business planning processes face and help you understand the problems that they can lead to.

This is the second in a six-part series of episodes exploring the steps of the ProduKtive system. ProduKtive will change how you think for the better, allowing you to cast a stronger vision with bigger, more precise goals. 

In this episode, we cover what it truly means to cast a vision for the future. There are so many traps we can fall into that justify why we can’t stop and plan our futures out properly. Maybe we’re too busy. Maybe it’s impossible to see the future with any worthwhile clarity. Maybe we work for an organization and it’s not our vision that’s being implemented. Or maybe it’s just far too easy to stay attached to the way things used to be instead of having to imagine a whole new potential. 

If any of this sounds like you, then you should know that it’s so much easier than you think. A few simple adjustments will allow you to become actually productive instead of just busy. 

Have you ever set goals that you thought would deliver you pure happiness once you achieved them – just to work hard, achieve them, and move on to the next without giving yourself a chance to feel fulfilled or celebrated? We all have and it’s something we should work out of our productivity-laden routines.

How might we create more sustainable happiness on our road to achievement? Dan Sullivan has been working with business owners for decades under the program, The Strategic Coach, and was one of the pioneers of the coaching industry. We have a conversation around what it means to shift your perspective so you get out of the gap of dissatisfaction and live in the gain – where happiness lives.

We’re always looking forward to the next goal, but we don’t give ourselves the chance to celebrate the successes we’ve had. This is common among ambitious people. The problem with this is that it undermines our happiness in the long run. Backed by his world-class expertise and experience in the field, Dan helps us lay the groundwork for this profound shift toward fulfilment. 

Can your mindset use a shift toward prioritizing the gain? If you’re like most ambitious people, the answer is yes. What’s The ONE Thing you can do, such that by doing it, would make the work to get there easier or unnecessary?

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Getting things done is a challenge everyone struggles with.

One way to tackle this is to make sure you have the right tools for you and your computer. That means having the right apps. The problem is not all apps do what they promise. It’s easy to install a bunch of them, sign up for accounts, and then never use them. Setapp is on a mission to help users get more done by curating and recommending the right apps for you so that you can focus on your work.

Go to setapp.com to try it, free, for a week. Plans start at as low as $9.99/mo.

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Do you sometimes wish your home were smarter?

Somfy is an organization that creates motorized solutions that automate and connect blinds, shades, blades, rolling shutters, and so much more. Controlling the light that enters your house should not be such a hassle. Create your ideal smart home through Somfy.

You can learn more or connect with a dealer by visiting somfysystems.com/podcast.

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LINKS & TOOLS FROM THIS EPISODE

• strategiccoach.com
• Read: The Gap and the Gain

We all know the importance of setting goals. We have to know where we’re headed and what we want to achieve in order to get there, right? 

The problem is that most people don’t know the best strategy for setting their goals. It seems obvious that our goals should be realistic, right? Wrong. It may seem counterintuitive, but, in reality, your goals should be wildly unrealistic. Reach for the stars. 

Another problem is the company we keep. Most of us surround ourselves with relationships and circumstance. But we should be striving to discover and bring specific people with specific qualities into our lives based on where we are at that point in time.

Over a trillion dollars were lost to voluntary turnover in the USA last year alone. Replacing an employee costs an average of between 1.5 and 2 times their annual salary – and that’s a conservative estimate. The salt in the wound? 52% of people who leave for a new job say that their management could have done something to keep them. So, how can you help your organization avoid becoming part of these unfortunate statistics? 

Can you give yourself permission to make your world so big that, when someone steps into it, they can have everything they want and never need to leave?

Do you know the right questions to ask during the hiring process, questions that make instant connections and enable you to make a true commitment to each other that benefits both parties?

Often, the answers are as simple as taking time to focus on human communication. For instance, do you know what your employees’ goals are? Not the goals you’ve set for them, but their own goals, both professionally and personally? On the flip side, have you communicated your aspirations to your boss? It sounds easy on paper and that’s because, more often than not, it actually is.