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“Each day is a day of decision, and our decisions determine our destiny”~ Russel M. Nelson
In this chapter, you will understand various theories and some life examples to demonstrate that mastering your day is the most significant thing, you can do to optimize your life to the fullest.
The Principles stated in this chapter are timeless, which all the successful people already know intuitively and implement in sacrosanct way.
Some of you might already be applying these canons to your days and therefore reading this would be validation of your personal approach that you are already on the right track. Wouldn’t you feel a sense of fulfillment, when you realize that what you are doing on your own is already an established concept with the theory behind it?
Yes, you would.
Let’s learn about some of the principals, which signifies the importance of everyday action towards our goals.
The theory of compound effect states that the small improvements on a daily basis lead to the massive results over a period of time.
And the world is filled with plenty of examples to that.
Do you know that Warren Buffet had started investing in stocks since he was 11 years old? With a daily focus on investing and sharpening his skills in the field of investing, today he is the most successful investor and stock market Guru.
Okay! Most of the people would mention Warren Buffet as an example. But you might be thinking that he is an outlier and an exception to the crowd. Also, such people are legend and are seen not in decades, but in centuries. So why don’t I share examples of some seemingly normal guys.
If you love entrepreneurship and also love listening to podcast (audio), then you may be aware that one of the best examples of mastering your day and leading an extra-ordinary life is John Lee Dumas, who was nobody till 5 years ago, when he started his business of creating online audio content with interviews of budding entrepreneurs and thought leaders.
John runs a podcast show called “Entrepreneur on Fire” (www.entrepreneuronfire.com or www.eofire.com (Caution: sit tightly on your chair, you might get shocked to see his monthly six figure US Dollar income report (his honest revelation to the world) in just below 5 years).
Since late 2012, he has been consistently producing a daily podcast show with now more than 1500 podcast shows while interviewing budding and established entrepreneurs. In these interviews, he picks the brain of these entrepreneurs, hear their failures, success journey, Aha moment, thus to inspire others to follow and learn the life lessons out of it.
What this has resulted into?
- A life crafted full of freedom and flexibility;
- An explosive income from multiple stream of incomes (see his monthly income report- a multi-six figure US Dollars income every month);
- A well established brand name in the digital world;
- No more chained to cubicle or 9 to 5 job anymore in life;
- A life full of tremendous possibilities further.
He believes in daily action following the Daily PDF Formula.
Daily PDF Formula is three key tenets:
As stated earlier, since 2012 he has produced and put out to the world a daily inspirational interview with all successful entrepreneurs. Delivering at such a consistent pace definitely requires a great amount of daily dose of discipline and be ultra productive. Also one needs to be highly focused to achieve this kind of action results (the number of podcasts) and outcome
If you are interested to explore more on the concept of the compound effect, you must read the best seller book by Darran Hardy- “The Compound Effect- Jumpstart your income, your life, Your Success”
“Every great change starts like falling dominoes”- BJ Thornton.
Another significant theory, which is worth mentioning, is the theory of “Domino’s Effect”
A domino effect or also known as chain reaction is the cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a chain of similar events.
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IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR daily lives, the Domino Effect shows its impact in a way that when you make a change to one behavior it will activate a chain reaction and cause a shift in related behavior as well.
Let’s dive a bit deeper into it.
The journey towards success is in a sequential way and not simultaneous. The initial step towards any bigger project starts in a linear growth manner, but once it progresses it takes the exponential form i.e. Y = ax.
So it works like this! You start doing one right thing, it leads to another bunch of right things, being done by you. Over a period of time, it gets added up and then the geometric or exponential potential of success is unleashed. It applies to all sorts of activities in our work or personal lives.
Be it a planning for your vacation or working on your important work related project, you have to keep focusing on pushing the initial domino consistently. Once done enough, it will start the chain reaction of other significant results coming your way on its own.
So this idea itself is a great explanation why you should focus on doing the rights things on daily basis. You never know, while consistently taking the right action in some area of your life, another opportunity knocks your door and you are totally prepared to grab it.
After all Luck is nothing but fusion of your Preparation with the Opportunity.
Luck = Preparation + Opportunity
The principal of Reverse Engineering principally focuses on the “Desired Goal” and then identifying the steps or actions required to achieve the goals, calculating it backwards and thereby assessing the required timelines in each step from your present stage till the end goal.
As per Wikipedia, Reverse engineering, also called back engineering, is the process of extracting knowledge or design information from anything man-made and re-producing it or re-producing anything based on the extracted information.
Too technical definition, no?
To put it simply, the objective of Reverse Engineering is to create a complete blueprint of steps or action required and the time schedule involved for achieving a desired outcome, but with the approach of ‘starting from the end’. So, the blueprint indicates the detailed steps and processes calculated backwards from its final desired outcome stage till the present stage.
By this approach, it is possible to identify the key elements and steps and the timelines involved in creating the final outcome.
The key advantage of this approach is that one is reasonably assured that the direction chosen will lead to that way. Another important benefit of this approach is that you don’t see the problems coming in the way as ‘failure’, rather you consider them as ‘obstacles’ to be crossed to reach your goal.
However, as you know, life generally comes in the way. So, be prepared, because despite the best research and reasonable assumptions taken while reverse engineering any specific end goal, you may come across different scenarios vis-à-vis assumptions taken.
“Life unfolds in a sweet and beautiful way, even with the trials if you keep looking up!” ~ Cynthia Lee Cartier
But despite all that, the reverse engineering approach is a very good starting point and gives you a great security and comfort that one is moving toward the desired outcome or the product.
The best part is that it enables you to start taking daily bite-sized actions towards your end goal, because you have now seen the complete blueprint to achieve the desired goal.
So once you start basis the blueprint of reverse engineering, work on pushing your dominoes on daily basis, the force of compound effect joins in and then you become unstoppable.
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CAN YOU EAT THE ELEPHANT?
Off the cuff answer seems- NO.
But the thoughtful answer is – Yes, You Can.
How?
Simple! One bite at a time.
Similarly, the goal of designing your ‘dream life’ (in whatever area) is also like eating an elephant. It is often overwhelming to see the multitude of actions required to achieve a huge goal. There are so many key areas of life, which one needs to master in order to lead a happy and joyful life. These areas generally fall into these baskets:
- Health
- Finances
- Family/Relationship.
- Adventure
- Spirituality
- Career
- Philanthropy
One can easily see that there are so many pieces of the puzzle, numerous nut and bolts to be tightened to reach your big objective in various areas.
So how do we address that?
Again, to re-emphasize, one has to plan putting daily actions, which in some way or the other take us forward towards higher level in each of the above areas.
Okay, let’s understand this by a small example (which can be very well applied to any big projects of your life)
For a moment, assume your one specific goal (any area) equivalent to any sport, which you loved to play and can closely relate to.
Let’s take an example of running (it was my favorite sport till few years ago)
If you have ever targeted to run any particular type of race i.e. full marathon or half marathon or any other variant, there are few important things to keep in mind.
There is particular date on which you have to participate in race, so you have to plan well in advance. You cannot underestimate the need of well-planned physical training schedule. You also need to take care of your diet i.e. proper portion of your proteins and carb in the diet.
If you have ever tried it, you can easily relate how much discipline, mental stamina and perseverance is needed to get out of your bed and complete your planned days of runs and physical trainings.
So assuming your life equivalent to a marathon or a combination of mini marathon (or any other sport, which you have undertaken in your past), it requires all those ingredients. To put it more precisely, you also need to plan well in advance for your next big thing, be it your next business project, next job, your promotion, getting married, becoming parent, raising kids, learning new skills, language or anything, whatever you want.
Of course planning is very important step, but you have to take steps and ensure bite-sized execution on daily basis to come closer to your goal.
And similar to any sport, it would require your body to move i.e. take certain actions on consistent basis. You have to be mentally and emotionally be willing to take any action to achieve your chosen project (no procrastination here).
“Life is nothing, but always taking next best action as per one’s level of consciousness” ~ Som Bathla
So our Life is surely, a combination of well crafted and designed moments, days, weeks, months and years. That’s it. Period
Small victories win big wars. Moreover these small victories have the snowball effect i.e. they trigger the other positive actions in life and with all combined, it leads to a tremendous rise in confidence and capability in oneself.
One has to put in daily action towards creating a life full, which is full of freedom.
“Small daily improvements over time create stunning results”- Robin Sharma
The straight forward principle is that if you wish to craft a life, which others will follow as a model, then, it is not going to happen overnight.
You have to keep moving by crushing your fear under your feet with the strong shoes of courage and taking persistent action with a leap of faith in your abilities.
There will definitely be times, when you would think of giving up. But believe me, if it is the journey where your heart is taking you to, NEVER QUIT.
The big monuments have taken time to be built and so will your life monument. If you want to leave a legacy behind you in your chosen field, you know that you have to show up every day with focus and take massive action to move forward in the direction.
There will be hard times for sure on the way, but keep reminding yourself of below
“If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard, but if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy”. – T. Harv Eker
