3 Ways To Become World Class At Anything
- Jun 15, 2015
- 4 min read
Humans have such a huge potential that mostly goes unrealized. Many of us cruise along in life without thinking about how we can be more efficient with our resources – time and money.
We waste so much time on the internet and social media in particular that could be better utilized in other areas of our life.
According to a survey done by a marketing firm, we check our phones on average 150 times a day.
That’s over a thousand times a week!
Not only is that time wasted but it interrupts our thought process and slows down our ability to complete tasks.
Use Your Strengths, Not Weaknesses
I bet you can think of at least one thing you’ve wasted time or money on last week. Recently I tried to code one of my websites myself because I was too cheap to pay for a programmer. That was a very stupid move. I know very little HTML or coding language.
Not only did I end up wasting over 2 days but I ended up not getting anywhere either.
Eventually I had to throw out everything I had done and hire somebody.
The money I spent on the website was worth it because I could concentrate on the things I was good at and not try and do a mediocre job on the things I wasn’t.
Peter Drucker, world-famous business coach, preached not to work on your weaknesses but strengthen what you’re good at.
In modern life, we are expected to be experts in more things than ever before. Multitasking is supposed to be good, but the more we try to do, the less well we do it. Modern work and life is so complex we could, and sometimes we do, endlessly spin in circles, not getting anywhere.
In school we are taught we need to work on our weaknesses, that we need a well-rounded education. But it’s the hyper-specialized people that make the most money—that we are willing to pay.
It’s funny that in a world where we can find and hire somebody to do almost anything with a click of the button there is still a do-it-yourself mentality.
John Maxwell, the famous leader and business coach, says you should only do a maximum of one or two things. He argues that you can’t be world class at any more skills than that and people only want to pay for world class.
If you think of famous athletes, they don’t have a wide variety of skill sets—perhaps they are good at throwing a ball or shooting hoops or running – and they get paid several millions of dollars.
You need to figure out what you’re best at work on that skill. Outsource the rest.
Large organizations – or any organizations for that matter – are largely inefficient with their resources.
Light Bulbs Can Kill You
I have a mentor who specializes in data mining and eliminating waste.
He advices a coffee business and he noted the amount power they use just for the lightening alone. He did a walkthrough of the café and noticed that 80% of the lights weren’t needed.
Of course in the wintertime they would need more lights but he estimated they could save about $50,000 a year just by saving on electrify.
Now lights may not see significant in the overall business plan but they can add up. What is most important is the mentality of eliminating waste. Nickels and dimes can kill you if you’re not careful.
This can also be applied to your own personal life.
Can you think of places you could save money?
Perhaps it’s on a gym membership you aren’t using or the cable bill. I’m sure there at least one or two things you’re spending money on right now that you’re not using.
Ellimate Waste And Analysis
For planning, there is no better model than David Allen’s Getting Things Done Model. If you haven’t read the book I suggest you check it out here
By planning your day and then analysing it afterwards you’ll quickly realize where you’re spending your time and you can eliminate the tasks that are wasteful.
As a writer, I was never a big fan of outlines. I prefer to slog it out in the trenches but I have started to do outlines simply because it allows me to write faster and be more efficiently. I can write more posts, more books, more film scripts if I plan a head of time.
We don’t spend enough time analysing our results. We are too busy doing. In the 7 Habbits of Effective People there is a story about a logger who frantically cuts down trees.
With each tree he falls, his blade becomes duller but he doesn’t want to take the time to sharpen his saw because he doesn’t think he has enough time, even though each tree takes longer to cut down.
We are all that logger. We think we are successful because we are busily going from one task to the other but don’t stop to think analysis those tasks and whether we can be doing them better, whether we should be outsourcing them or not doing them at all.
Joel Mark Harris is a writer, film producer and marketer. (@joelmarkharris) He is the founder of Story Laboratory which helps artists market their work. To get a free ebook on How to Make Money Blogging and a Content Marketing Tool Kit sign up HERE
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