If you’ve ever read productivity books, you’ve probably noticed that a key tenet is that you have to plan for your own success. If you don’t have a plan for getting from point A to point B, you’ll probably get nowhere. So with that in mind, I’d like to give you a few strategies, which if followed, have been definitively shown to lead to success.
The most common reason that poker players don’t achieve the goals they set for themselves is lack of genuine commitment. That is, we often say we want a certain outcome, but at the end of the day we don’t make progress because we aren’t really willing to do what it takes to achieve it. Therefore, the first step to planning your success is to decide what you are genuinely committed to achieving. It is best to decide on 1 or 2 major goals that you are going to commit to for the upcoming year. Trying to work towards more than that is not advisable. The fastest way to get on the path to success is by having laser-like focus, and there’s only so much focus to go around.
Once you’ve decided on the 1 or 2 things you are going to focus on for the year, it’s time to get down to business. Take out a sheet of paper or open up a blank document on your computer and break down your major focus into a set of monthly sub-goals. What should you do each month in order to move yourself towards your overarching major goal? When you read over your list of what you’re going to do each month, it should start to make the achievement of your overall goal more tangible, but you can’t stop there.
Look at your objective for the first month. It’s time to write out a set of weekly goals that will allow you to reach your monthly sub-goal. Before you get too far into that, take the time to consider how you’re spending your time. It is human nature to waste tons of time doing things that are fun, but not really in the direction of our goals. Have you ever meant to watch a poker video, only to find yourself sucked into social media, forums, or email? The Pareto principle states that 20% of what we do drives 80% of our results. If we put our focus on our most important (i.e. 20%) tasks on a consistent basis, how can we not succeed? Once you have your weekly objectives listed for the month, your most important tasks and steps should be readily apparent.
Take a few minutes at the start of each week to review your list of tasks and write out what you plan to do each day in order to make each week a success. We all have many things that we have to get done in life, but if you make your weekly tasks a priority you can accomplish almost anything.
A major life hack is to work on your major goal tasks first thing. Before you get on social media or check email, watch that video or review hands for example. Each day you should look to achieve 2-3 things that will make a big difference to your eventual success.
As you can see, it takes a good deal of planning to make a roadmap to success. It’s not difficult to do but it takes commitment and the will to follow through. Want to learn more about personal productivity? Check out the works of people like Steven Covey and Brian Tracy – they’ve written extensively on this topic. Now get to it and start planning for your best year ever!
