“Nobody who ever gave
his best regretted it.”
—George Halas
Achieving extraordinary results through time blocking requires three commitments. First, you must adopt the mindset of someone seeking mastery. Mastery is a commitment to becoming your best, so to achieve extraordinary results you must embrace the extraordinary effort it represents. Second, you must continually seek the very best ways of doing things. Nothing is more futile than doing your best using an approach that can’t deliver results equal to your effort. And last, you must be willing to be held accountable to doing everything you can to achieve your ONE Thing. Live these commitments and you give yourself a fighting chance to experience extraordinary
THE THREE COMMITMENTS TO YOUR ONE THING
1. Follow the Path of Mastery
2. Move from “E” to “P”
3. Live the Accountability Cycle
1. FOLLOW THE PATH OF MASTERY
When you can see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable. Most assume mastery is an end result, but at its core, mastery is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and a journey you experience. When what you’ve chosen to master is the right thing, then pursuing mastery of it will make everything else you do either easier or no longer necessary. That’s why what you choose to master matters.
Mastery plays a key role in your domino run. I believe the healthy view of mastery means giving the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work. The path is one of an apprentice learning and relearning the basics on a never-ending journey of greater experience and expertise. Think of it this way: At some point white belts training to advance know the same basic karate moves black belts know— they simply haven’t practiced enough to be able to do them as well. The creativity you see at a black- belt level comes from mastery of the white-belt fundamentals. Since there is always another level to learn, mastery actually means you’re a master of what you know and an apprentice of what you don’t. In other words, we become masters of what is behind us and apprentices for what is ahead. This is why mastery is a journey.
The journey of mastery never ends.
More than anything else, expertise tracks with hours invested.
Michelangelo once said, “If the people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.” His point is obvious. Time on a task, over time, eventually beats talent every time. I’d say you can “book that, ” but actually you should “block it.”
When you commit to time block your ONE Thing, make sure you approach it with a mastery mentality. This will give you the best opportunity to be the most productive you can be, and ultimately the best you can become. And here’s what’s interesting: the more productive you are, the more likely you are to receive several additional payoffs you would otherwise have missed. The pursuit of mastery bears gifts.
As you progress along the path of mastery, both your selfconfidence and your success competence will grow. You’ll make a discovery: the path of mastery is not so different from one pursuit to the next. What might pleasantly surprise you is how giving yourself over to mastering ONE Thing serves as a platform for, and speeds up the process of, doing other things. Knowledge begets knowledge and skills build on skills. It’s what makes future dominoes fall more easily.
Mastery is a pursuit that keeps giving, because it’s a path that never ends.
Time blocking is essential to mastery, and mastery is essential to time blocking. They go hand in hand when you do one, you do the other.
2.MOVE FROM “E” TO “P”
The path of mastering something is the combination of not only doing the best you can do at it, but also doing it the best it can be done. Continually improving how you do something is critical to getting the most from time blocking. It’s called moving from “E” to “P.”
When we roll out of bed in the morning and start tackling the day, we do so in one of two ways: Entrepreneurial (“E”) or Purposeful (“P”). Entrepreneurial is our natural approach. It’s seeing something we want to do or that needs to be done and racing off to do it with enthusiasm, energy, and our natural abilities. No matter the task, all natural ability has a ceiling of achievement, a level of productivity and success that eventually tops out. Although this varies from person to person and task to task, everybody in life has a natural ceiling for everything. Give some people a hammer and they’re an instant carpenter. Give one to me and I’m all thumbs. In other words, some people can naturally use a hammer extremely well with minimal instruction or practice, but there are others, like me, who hit their ceiling of achievement the moment they’re holding one. If the outcome of your efforts is acceptable at whatever level of achievement you reach, then you high-five and move on. But when you’re going about your ONE Thing, any ceiling of achievement must be challenged, and this requires a different approach a Purposeful approach.
Highly productive people don’t accept the limitations of their natural approach as the final word on their success. When they hit a ceiling of achievement, they look for new models and systems, better ways to do things to push them through. They pause just long enough to examine their options, they pick the best one, and then they’re right back at it. Ask an “E” to cut some firewood and the Entrepreneurial person would likely shoulder an axe and head straight for the woods. On the other hand, the Purposeful person might ask, “Where can I get a chainsaw?” With a “P” mindset, you can achieve breakthroughs and accomplish things far beyond your natural abilities. You must simply be willing to do whatever it takes.
—George Halas
Achieving extraordinary results through time blocking requires three commitments. First, you must adopt the mindset of someone seeking mastery. Mastery is a commitment to becoming your best, so to achieve extraordinary results you must embrace the extraordinary effort it represents. Second, you must continually seek the very best ways of doing things. Nothing is more futile than doing your best using an approach that can’t deliver results equal to your effort. And last, you must be willing to be held accountable to doing everything you can to achieve your ONE Thing. Live these commitments and you give yourself a fighting chance to experience extraordinary
THE THREE COMMITMENTS TO YOUR ONE THING
1. Follow the Path of Mastery
2. Move from “E” to “P”
3. Live the Accountability Cycle
1. FOLLOW THE PATH OF MASTERY
When you can see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable. Most assume mastery is an end result, but at its core, mastery is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and a journey you experience. When what you’ve chosen to master is the right thing, then pursuing mastery of it will make everything else you do either easier or no longer necessary. That’s why what you choose to master matters.
Mastery plays a key role in your domino run. I believe the healthy view of mastery means giving the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work. The path is one of an apprentice learning and relearning the basics on a never-ending journey of greater experience and expertise. Think of it this way: At some point white belts training to advance know the same basic karate moves black belts know— they simply haven’t practiced enough to be able to do them as well. The creativity you see at a black- belt level comes from mastery of the white-belt fundamentals. Since there is always another level to learn, mastery actually means you’re a master of what you know and an apprentice of what you don’t. In other words, we become masters of what is behind us and apprentices for what is ahead. This is why mastery is a journey.
The journey of mastery never ends.
More than anything else, expertise tracks with hours invested.
Michelangelo once said, “If the people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.” His point is obvious. Time on a task, over time, eventually beats talent every time. I’d say you can “book that, ” but actually you should “block it.”
When you commit to time block your ONE Thing, make sure you approach it with a mastery mentality. This will give you the best opportunity to be the most productive you can be, and ultimately the best you can become. And here’s what’s interesting: the more productive you are, the more likely you are to receive several additional payoffs you would otherwise have missed. The pursuit of mastery bears gifts.
As you progress along the path of mastery, both your selfconfidence and your success competence will grow. You’ll make a discovery: the path of mastery is not so different from one pursuit to the next. What might pleasantly surprise you is how giving yourself over to mastering ONE Thing serves as a platform for, and speeds up the process of, doing other things. Knowledge begets knowledge and skills build on skills. It’s what makes future dominoes fall more easily.
Mastery is a pursuit that keeps giving, because it’s a path that never ends.
Time blocking is essential to mastery, and mastery is essential to time blocking. They go hand in hand when you do one, you do the other.
2.MOVE FROM “E” TO “P”
The path of mastering something is the combination of not only doing the best you can do at it, but also doing it the best it can be done. Continually improving how you do something is critical to getting the most from time blocking. It’s called moving from “E” to “P.”
When we roll out of bed in the morning and start tackling the day, we do so in one of two ways: Entrepreneurial (“E”) or Purposeful (“P”). Entrepreneurial is our natural approach. It’s seeing something we want to do or that needs to be done and racing off to do it with enthusiasm, energy, and our natural abilities. No matter the task, all natural ability has a ceiling of achievement, a level of productivity and success that eventually tops out. Although this varies from person to person and task to task, everybody in life has a natural ceiling for everything. Give some people a hammer and they’re an instant carpenter. Give one to me and I’m all thumbs. In other words, some people can naturally use a hammer extremely well with minimal instruction or practice, but there are others, like me, who hit their ceiling of achievement the moment they’re holding one. If the outcome of your efforts is acceptable at whatever level of achievement you reach, then you high-five and move on. But when you’re going about your ONE Thing, any ceiling of achievement must be challenged, and this requires a different approach a Purposeful approach.
Highly productive people don’t accept the limitations of their natural approach as the final word on their success. When they hit a ceiling of achievement, they look for new models and systems, better ways to do things to push them through. They pause just long enough to examine their options, they pick the best one, and then they’re right back at it. Ask an “E” to cut some firewood and the Entrepreneurial person would likely shoulder an axe and head straight for the woods. On the other hand, the Purposeful person might ask, “Where can I get a chainsaw?” With a “P” mindset, you can achieve breakthroughs and accomplish things far beyond your natural abilities. You must simply be willing to do whatever it takes.
In the long run, “P” beats “E” every time.
You can’t put limits on what you’ll do. You have to be open to
new ideas and new ways of doing things if you want
breakthroughs in your life. As you travel the path of mastery you’ll
find yourself continually challenged to do new things. The
Purposeful person follows the simple rule that “a different result
requires doing something different.” Make this your mantra and breakthroughs become possible.
Too many people reach a level where their performance is
“good enough” and then stop working on getting better. People on
the path to mastery avoid this by continually upping their goal,
challenging themselves to break through their current ceiling, and
staying the forever apprentice.
Approaching things with “E” is comfortable because it feels
natural. It’s who we currently are and how we currently like to do things. It’s also limiting.
When “E” is our only approach, we create artificial limits to
what we can achieve and who we can become. If we tackle
something with all “E” and then hit a ceiling of achievement, we
simply bounce up against it, over and over and over. This
continues until we just can’t take the disappointment anymore,
become resigned to this being the only outcome we can ever have,
and eventually seek out greener pastures elsewhere. When we
think we’ve maxed out our potential in a situation, starting over is
how we think we’ll get ahead. The problem is this becomes a
vicious cycle of taking on the next new thing with renewed
enthusiasm, energy, natural ability, and effort, until another ceiling
is hit and disappointment and resignation set in once again. And
then it’s on to—you guessed it—the next greener pasture.
Bring “P” to the same ceiling and things look different. The
Purposeful approach says,
“I’m still committed to growing, so
what are my options?” You then use the Focusing Question to
narrow those choices down to the next thing you should do. It
could be to follow a new model, get a new system, or both. But be
prepared. Implementing these may require new thinking, new
skills, and even new relationships. Probably none of this will feel
natural at first. That’s okay. Being Purposeful is often about doing what comes “unnaturally,
” but when you’re committed to
achieving extraordinary results, you simply do whatever it takes
anyway.
When you’ve done the best you can do but are certain the
results aren’t the best they can be, get out of “E” and into “P.” Look
for the better models and systems, the ways that can take you
farther. Then adopt new thinking, new skills, and new
relationships to help you put them into action. Become Purposeful
during your time block, and unlock your potential.
3. LIVE THE ACCOUNTABILITY CYCLE
There is an undeniable connection between what you do and what you get. Actions determine outcomes, and outcomes inform actions. Be accountable and this feedback loop is how you discover the things you must do to achieve extraordinary results. That’s why your final commitment is to live the accountability cycle of results.
Taking complete ownership of your outcomes by holding no one but yourself responsible for them is the most powerful thing you can do to drive your success. As such, accountability is most likely the most important of the three commitments. Without it, your journey down the path of mastery will be cut short the moment you encounter a challenge. Without it, you won’t figure out how to break through the ceilings of achievement you’ll hit along the way. Accountable people absorb setbacks and keep going. Accountable people persevere through problems and keep pushing forward. Accountable people are results oriented and never defend actions, skill levels, models, systems, or relationships that just aren’t getting the job done. They bring their best to whatever it takes, without reservation.
Accountable people achieve results others only dream of.
When life happens, you can be either the author of your life or the victim of it. Those are your only two choices— accountable or unaccountable. This may sound harsh, but it’s true. Every day we choose one approach or the other, and the consequences follow us forever.
BIG IDEAS
1. Commit to be your best. Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work. This is, in essence, the path to mastery—and because mastery takes time, it takes a commitment to achieve it.
2. Be purposeful about your ONE Thing. Move from “E” to “P.” Go on a quest for the models and systems that can take you the farthest. Don’t just settle for what comes naturally—be open to new thinking, new skills, and new relationships. If the path of mastery is a commitment to be your best, being purposeful is a commitment to adopt the best possible approach.
3. Take ownership of your outcomes. If extraordinary results are what you want, being a victim won’t work. Change occurs only when you’re accountable. So stay out of the passenger seat and always choose the driver’s side.
4. Find a coach. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who achieves extraordinary results without one.
Remember, we’re not talking about ordinary results— extraordinary is what we’re after. That kind of productivity eludes most, but it doesn’t have to. When you time block your most important priority, protect your time block, and then work your time block as effectively as possible, you’ll be as productive as you can be. You’ll be living the power of The ONE Thing. Now you just have to avoid getting hijacked.
3. LIVE THE ACCOUNTABILITY CYCLE
There is an undeniable connection between what you do and what you get. Actions determine outcomes, and outcomes inform actions. Be accountable and this feedback loop is how you discover the things you must do to achieve extraordinary results. That’s why your final commitment is to live the accountability cycle of results.
Taking complete ownership of your outcomes by holding no one but yourself responsible for them is the most powerful thing you can do to drive your success. As such, accountability is most likely the most important of the three commitments. Without it, your journey down the path of mastery will be cut short the moment you encounter a challenge. Without it, you won’t figure out how to break through the ceilings of achievement you’ll hit along the way. Accountable people absorb setbacks and keep going. Accountable people persevere through problems and keep pushing forward. Accountable people are results oriented and never defend actions, skill levels, models, systems, or relationships that just aren’t getting the job done. They bring their best to whatever it takes, without reservation.
Accountable people achieve results others only dream of.
When life happens, you can be either the author of your life or the victim of it. Those are your only two choices— accountable or unaccountable. This may sound harsh, but it’s true. Every day we choose one approach or the other, and the consequences follow us forever.
Don’t be a victim —live the cycle of accountability!
No one is a born
victim; it’s simply an attitude or an approach. But if allowed to
persist, the cycle becomes a habit. The opposite is also true.
Anyone can be accountable at any time and the more you choose
the cycle of accountability, the more likely it is to become your
automatic answer to any adversity.
Highly successful people are clear about their role in the
events of their life. They don’t fear reality. They seek it,
acknowledge it, and own it. They know this is the only way to
uncover new solutions, apply them, and experience a different
reality, so they take responsibility and run with it. They see
outcomes as information they can use to frame better actions to get
better outcomes. It’s a cycle they understand and use to achieve
extraordinary results.
One of the fastest ways to bring accountability to your life is
to find an accountability partner. Accountability can come from a
mentor, a peer or, in its highest form, a coach. Whatever the case, it’s critical that you acquire an accountability relationship and give
your partner license to lay out the honest truth. An accountability
partner isn’t a cheerleader, although he can lift you up. An
accountability partner provides frank, objective feedback on your
performance, creates an ongoing expectation for productive
progress, and can provide critical brainstorming or even expertise
when needed. As for me, a coach or a mentor is the best choice for
an accountability partner. Although a peer or a friend can
absolutely help you see things you may not see, ongoing
accountability is best provided by someone to whom you agree to
be truly accountable. When that’s the nature of the relationship, the
best results occur.
"The single most important difference between these amateurs and the three groups of elite performers is that the future elite
performers seek out teachers and coaches and engage in
supervised training, whereas the amateurs rarely engage in similar
types of practice.”
An accountability partner will positively impact your
productivity. They’ll keep you honest and on track. Just knowing
they are waiting for your next progress report can spur you to
better results. Ideally, a coach can “coach” you on how to
maximize your performance over time. This is how the very best
become the very best.
Coaching will help you with all three commitments to your
ONE Thing. On the path to mastery, on the journey from “E” to
“P,
” and in living the accountability cycle, a coach is invaluable. In
fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find elite achievers who don’t have
coaches helping them in key areas of their life.
It’s never too soon or too late to get a coach. Commit to
achieving extraordinary results and you’ll find a coach gives you
the best chance possible.
BIG IDEAS
1. Commit to be your best. Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work. This is, in essence, the path to mastery—and because mastery takes time, it takes a commitment to achieve it.
2. Be purposeful about your ONE Thing. Move from “E” to “P.” Go on a quest for the models and systems that can take you the farthest. Don’t just settle for what comes naturally—be open to new thinking, new skills, and new relationships. If the path of mastery is a commitment to be your best, being purposeful is a commitment to adopt the best possible approach.
3. Take ownership of your outcomes. If extraordinary results are what you want, being a victim won’t work. Change occurs only when you’re accountable. So stay out of the passenger seat and always choose the driver’s side.
4. Find a coach. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who achieves extraordinary results without one.
Remember, we’re not talking about ordinary results— extraordinary is what we’re after. That kind of productivity eludes most, but it doesn’t have to. When you time block your most important priority, protect your time block, and then work your time block as effectively as possible, you’ll be as productive as you can be. You’ll be living the power of The ONE Thing. Now you just have to avoid getting hijacked.
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