Have you
noticed that really successful people seem less busy than other
people--until you sit down and talk to them? Successful people are busy.
Really successful people have more of an air of quiet accomplishment.
What's this
difference, and how do I get it?
I think really
successful people have developed a system for moving projects through to
completion. Onto the plate, through to completion, and off the pate.
Successful people work really hard getting things onto the plate and
working the project. But they often don't have a system for getting
things off their plate. These might be unfinished projects, or regular
work that should be handed off to someone else.
Because we're
all humans here, there are physical limits to what we can do. We can
only have so many things "on our plate." Period. And when we get too
many things on our plate, there's no room for even one more little
thing. So we end up turning down opportunities because we literally
can't do one more thing.
There are only
three ways that things move off your plate: You finish them; someone
else finishes them; or they become old and irrelevant and will remain
unfinished forever. That third one is called failure. The second one is
called delegation.
Notice that
delegation equals success.
Really
successful people can accomplish an unlimited number of things because
they can acquire projects and have a system for moving them
through to completion. They don't have to personally do everything. They
just have to make sure the system works!
Really
successful people have more of a sense of calm and balance because they
know things will get done. They don't have lots of old, dead projects
cluttering up their plate. In fact, their personal plate has a limited
number of discreet projects.
In the article
"Don't Stop at The Point of Apparent Success," we explore one of the key elements of moving projects
along to completion. For any project, there's a point that seems like
success. It feels like you're finished. But you're not finished and you
can't stop there. If you stop at the point of apparent success, you
really just leave projects on your plate.
Check
it out.
### RFS ###
