Do you sometimes feel like you are drifting through life? That you should be realising more of your potential. You are not necessarily looking to be an Elon Musk or Richard Branson, but still, a better version of yourself.
Perhaps your specific motivation is to:
- Lose weight and be healthier – Do you need to change your habits? Healthier eating? Fitness?
- Spend more time with friends and family – Do you need to prioritise differently?
- Earn more – Do you need to up-skill? Network? Accumulate Wealth and passive income?
- Be happier and more peaceful – Do you need mindfulness in your life?
Any of these apply to you? – If yes, then read on for something simple enough to execute, but effective enough to change your life.
Looking at the best “Success” programmes out there, there is a lot of overlap and some fundamental differences, but there is one common thread across all of the personal development strategies – The need to Focus. They also generally require you to work at “Marathon” intensity.
So I asked myself, what could be done that is perhaps at a 5k or a 10k intensity? Something more manageable, less pressurised, happier? It still needed to be life changing, to allow people to focus to reach their goals and better utilise their potential.
How to create something so simple it was effective, for everyone? For you?
Knowing that even with 1/2hr a day, 5 days a week, it is 130hrs per year. Imagine what you could achieve if I gave you 130hrs of focused time now? – That is the power of the compound effect.
The result – The 15 Minute Focus Plan.
With just 15 minutes a week, you can find the focus you need to achieve what your goals and make fundamental changes to your life. You can create a document for the plan from scratch or just download the template below to complete.
Then set yourself a reminder to spend 15 minutes reviewing this document once a week. I find every Sunday evening or early Monday morning works best for most people to focus them for the week ahead. The first time will take longer, so feel free to split the exercise up over a few days, there is no need to complete it all straight away, it is a live document, that can change with you.
Page 1 – Starts with your “Why” – This is a reminder as to what your why is for doing something, this is what motivates you – Populate once, update annually and review weekly.
- Collate 15-20 pictures that represent your why; and/or
- Pick 5-10 principles or core values that resonate with you – Examples – Accountability; Achievement; Appreciation; Authenticity; Comfort; Courage; Creativity; Dependability; Empowerment; Excitement; Fame; Family; Freedom; Friendship; Fun; Generosity; Happiness; Health; Honesty; Humour; Influence; Integrity; Joy; Justice; Love; Loyalty; Passion; Patience; Peace; Power; Privacy; Recognition; Respect; Reliability; Security; Self-Reliance; Spirituality; Status; Strength; Success; Tolerance; Trust; Truth; Vulnerability; Wealth; Wisdom – Perhaps turn them into a question?
Page 2 – Your What – What you want to achieve, by using the – 3:1:1 System to focus – 3 Priorities/Goals; 1 Knowledge; 1 Challenge/Up-skill – The key is to keep in manageable and focused. If still too much, combine Knowledge and Challenge/Up-Skill – update/review weekly.
- 3 Priorities – Identify your top 3 priorities right now – these can change over time, no more than 3 though, I would suggest this exclude work priorities, these are personal ones, but perhaps have a separate work plan.
- Identify developmental areas and decide how to improve your knowledge, skill and habits
- 1 Knowledge – Plan at least 1 book to read/listen to each month from your “Private University” reading list or other method to broaden your knowledge base.
- 1 Challenge/Up-skill – Pick 1 challenge to complete or perhaps habit to break/change or skill to improve. Something that will make you a better person.
- Plan sub-focuses or steps for each month as far into the future as makes sense according to your priority, perhaps one of your priorities or development goals only takes a month, perhaps it requires sub-focus steps in several different months or the whole year.
Page 3 – Your How – This is how you will achieve your 3:1:1 – Rocks and Review Questions – Review/update weekly.
- Put the “rocks” into your schedule, the things you want to do every week. These can be moved around, but make the decision not to do them, rather than to do them – For example this could be 3 visits to the gym and your focus plan review time.
- Have these (or other) weekly review questions – the questions create awareness which as or even more important than the answer. It is not regimental, it is OK to leave some blank, but taken a moment to think on them.
- Review of past week
- What 3 fist pumping moments did I have last week?
- What is 1 thing I could improve on?
- What 5 things am I grateful for? – small, big – it doesn’t matter
- What “AHA “moment have I had?
- What should I stop doing or do less of? What is not a priority, but is taking up my time?
- Planning for week ahead
- What am I doing for goal/priority 1, 2 & 3?
- Have I planned in my rocks? Does anything need to be moved?
- How am I making myself better? – reading and up-skill/challenging
- How am I going to step out of my comfort zone?
- Am I spending enough or too much time on the four core pillars? – At different times it may make sense to focus most of your efforts on one pillar at the expense of others.
- Wealth – Career & Finances
- Individual Self – Personal Development
- Social Self – Relationships
- Health – Fitness & Diet
Page 4 – Appendix – Private University – Keep track of book recommendations, courses you plan to do, challenges etc.
Between focus and the compound effect, I believe you can achieve great things, do you?
An optional, but recommended step is to get a success buddy (maybe who is also following this focus plan). Then once a month chat through your priorities and progress. This accountability will massively increase your focus and crucially help you appreciate your progress more. I see this as the 10k to half marathon effectiveness increase. Of course for a Marathon, I’d suggest you hire a coach to get the additional accountability and structure needed.
Resources which may help with a specific developmental need:
- Lose weight and be healthier – Do you need to change your habits? Healthier eating? Fitness?
- Spend more time with friends and family – Do you need to prioritise?
- Earn more – Do you need to up-skill? Network? Accumulate Wealth and passive income?
- Be happier and more peaceful – Do you need mindfulness in your life? Be you more?
- Learn about the power of the compound effect.
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