Transcription
Welcome back. In this session, I want to focus you on the subject of time. Because if there's any area of our lives that most of us are out of control, this is it, right? We've all been taught that, you know, technology was going to make it right. So we had lots of free time. But I don't know about you, as I've talked about in so many tapes, it doesn't give me more free time, or anybody I know. It just makes time chase you, activity chase you.
So in this brief session, I'm going to try and give you an introduction. Now, if you want to know more about this, again, we still have the "Time of Your Life" program, which is 10 days long. But I want to give you an introduction that has some value, that'll help you understand why the stress may be in your life about time, and how you can very quickly make some changes in your thought process and your psychology and take control. Because the principles I'm going to share with you have really helped me to not only manage my time, but more importantly, manage my life. So this is something that I'm passionate about.
And I know so many people in life have managed their time so perfectly, and they go around and cross off their entire to-do list, and yet their life is still stressful. Can you relate? In fact, they don't feel like they have much freedom. They feel like they've tried to do all the things they have to do, and they're still not experiencing much of their life. They're not really being anything; they're doing a lot. So I want to help you in this program to really begin to change that, maybe make a radical change if you're up for it, that can help you achieve so much more, but have a lot more joy, happiness, freedom, and fun in the process. So your life has got more balance. How's that sound?
Well, I hope I got you hooked. And let's just look at it in a global and maybe historical perspective. Because we're living in a world where there is more demand on us than any time in human history, and we also have higher expectations. That's why people are so stressed. I mean, 100 years ago, we were an agricultural society, if you realize it, if you think about it. So maybe you have two roles in life you're trying to meet. You're trying to be a great mom and maybe trying to be the homemaker, or you're trying to be a great dad and maybe the breadwinner. And it was pretty simple back then. But today, that's not how it works, is it?
Who do you want to be today? Well, your expectation is superwoman, superman. What are you going to do? You're going to be the ultimate father, the ultimate mother, a great lover, a best friend of the world, an activist in your community, someone who's extremely spiritual, somebody's a total athlete. And it becomes like that silly commercial, you know, for I think Anjali, where they say, you know, "There she is. She fries up the bacon, she stirs it up in the pan, she takes care of the kids, and never lets him forget he's a man." I mean, she's a woman, right? A superwoman, a 21st-century woman.
Well, what that creates for us is insanity. Because we're trying to manage our lives, but we have no system to do it in. In fact, the system, if we have one at all, is usually a time management system. And what that does is cause us to literally focus on all the things we have to do. How do you feel when you think about all the things you have to do? Probably somewhat stressed, right? Especially if you start thinking of all the things you're trying to create in your life, if you're not willing to settle for less than you can be, and you've got high standards. There's a large demand.
And let's say you even managed to be the super success, maybe you've already become, and you're really successful. I don't know if this is true for you, but I've seen that most people, as they start to really succeed, very often get more stressed. And I'll tell you why. Because now there are more demands, more expectations, and more responsibilities that come with that success. If you become a manager of people, or have your own company, there's all these moving parts, and people are very different. They're always doing different things. You got to figure out how to line them up.
If you have two or three or four kids, you've got your own company there, don't you? You have one child, you do. How do you make sure that you balance your needs and your child's needs, and your spouse's needs, and feel like you're this balanced person? It's not an easy task. So today, we need a system for managing our lives. And the challenge is, here's the system we've been given. A system that is totally focused on making a list of things to do, figuring out when to schedule them, and when to put them into your calendar, and maybe who to talk to. That system was designed hundreds of years ago, and that system was really useful for that time.
But could you manage today? Or imagine today, I should say, thinking about how to run your business and using one of those initial computers that first came out in the personal computer market? Was it original IBM PCs, and one of those Apple Macintoshes? They wouldn't store more than five or ten pages, and you had to start all over again, put another disk in. You'd go crazy. Well, that's the kind of system we're trying to use to manage our lives.
I'll give an example for myself. In my life, I've worked extremely hard, I'm sure like yourself. And I've been very fortunate that at a fairly young age, I achieved a certain level of success, at least on cultural standards. And what happened for me was, I had this success, and I wanted to grow, and I wanted to build. I need to build my business. Hey, I have to be able to manage things effectively. So what I do? Well, I did the obvious. I figured I'd go to all the time management courses, because I was stressed. I had to try and figure out how to keep all these things together. So I went to every course I get my hands on, I read every book. And I'm the overachiever. I got to know it all. And I got really good. I got good at buying those little binders, you know, and putting all the right stuff in it, and carrying it around with me.
But what happened after a while was, I got a little better than before, because I wasn't managing things in my head, you know what I mean? At least I was writing it down. But after a while, something interesting happened. My little binder that I carried with me everywhere religiously, like it was really managing my life, it really was my credit card holder, it had my calendar, and had my phone numbers or who to call. But I didn't really make my to-do list every day, because I knew I couldn't get them all done. Can you relate?
Or better yet, how about you get your whole to-do list done, but you're still not fulfilled? Have you ever had that experience where you find yourself maybe even achieving a major goal, and then after you achieve it, you think to yourself, "Is this all there is?" And that's usually a pretty scary moment, isn't it? Because you worked so hard, and you, and you got what you thought you're after, but it didn't fulfill you. And the reason is because it wasn't what you were really after. Nothing is going to make you happy and fulfilled, nothing, except you. And it's going to come from managing what you focus on.
See, what I realized was, I kept saying to myself, "I had more time, then I could get all these things done, and then I'd finally be happy." But the truth of the matter is, that's not true. There isn't any more time. And in fact, I began to realize, you know, what is time? Think about it for a second. So I thought, if I thought, you know, "Time is a measure of..." and I went through all these little definitions, literal definitions, I should say. And after a while, I said, "Now, you know what time is. Time's nothing but a feeling." If you want to manage your time, you got to manage your feelings.
Because if you think about it, haven't you had times in your life when, like, time flew? I mean, it's like time disappeared, and you had no stress during that time, did you? You were so involved in something, you were so fulfilled by it, that you didn't have any experience of time whatsoever. Like it was out of your life. You didn't have to worry about it, you didn't feel it. If anything, it felt like it just disappeared quickly.
But I'm sure you've also had times when, I know I have, where time feels like an eternity. A minute is an eternity when you're waiting on something you really need, or when you're standing in line, or when someone's not doing something you really have to have. All of a sudden, we feel all this stress about, "Oh my gosh, I don't have time." So it isn't time that makes us stressful; it's the feelings we generate that we call time.
So what I realize is, I've really got to make a system up for my life that will help me to manage all the things I got to do, but do it in a way that really gets me to achieve what I want, and really gives me that sense of joy, and passion, and excitement, and love, and fun that I really want for my life. So after doing all these programs for years and years, I began to say, "Why aren't these programs working?" I mean, they help a little, but they don't help completely. And I realize they're all based on a system of asking yourself, "What do I need to do?"
And what once I understood that, that they're all about asking that question, "What do I need to do?" I understood what to change. Because think about it, what you experience in your life, what you feel, is completely controlled by what you focus on. If you focus on all the things you've got to do, that's the fastest way I know to get yourself completely overwhelmed. What will immediately change the direction your life is when you focus on what you really want in the situation, and then secondly, why do you want it? So you can find the reasons that will drive you. And then, what actions do I need to take to make that happen? The to-do list is the third question.
You say, "Well, what are you talking about questions? What are you talking about focus?" So let me clarify for a moment. Focus determines what we feel. I mean, don't you have some experiences in your life that if you really thought about them, if you went back and you focused on them, they can make you feel terrible all over again? Maybe some things from your past? Don't you have some memories? If you really focused on them, or something in your life right now, if you really thought about it, could make you feel really grateful or really happy? Sure. Because how you feel is based on what you focus on.
I'll give you a simple example. I went to a health spa not long ago. And while I was there, all these great people, a real diversity of people. And there's this one woman there who had so much energy, and which seemed so happy, and so playful, and so warm. I remember one point, we're sitting in the spa, we're talking, and I asked her, you know, "Why she came?" And, you know, a lot of people are coming just because they want to get stronger, and some people have some health challenges. "Well, I have a bit of a health challenge." "I said, 'What is it?'" "She said, 'I have a brain tumor.'" I couldn't believe it. She said, "My God," I said, "You know, how you're dealing with that?" She goes, "Well, the doctor says I have about six weeks to live, maybe eight." And she said, "But, you know, my view is really simple. You know, I can sit and roll over and play dead and just accept that, or I can focus on how do I really maximize every moment that I live? How do I get myself as healthy as I can be? And how do I really focus on enjoying my life?" She said, "Because I don't think it's how long you live, it's how you live." And she said, "I don't know if they know for sure." I thought, how incredible.
By the way, in the same spa was a man who just maybe five minutes earlier was complaining about his room, and how upset he was about it, because he wasn't getting enough sunlight in the room. He was never in, because we're all outside exercising anyway. I mean, people get upset because their super taco from Jack in the Box doesn't have enough special sauce. Whatever you focus on, you're going to feel. And if you focus on what you're missing, you're going to feel like you're missing. If you focus on what you want, you're going to get what you want. Because our brain will move us towards whatever we focus on.
For example, if you go to racing school, the first thing they teach you is you got to know how to come out of a spin. Because you're going to hit some oil, you're going to hit something you can't control, and your car is going to spin out of control. So to be a great driver, you've got to know how to come out of a spin. And here's the solution: they say, "Focus on where you want to go." When things aren't working, and eventually you'll go there. Don't focus on what you fear.
Here's what people do. The minute they get fearful, they're spinning out of control, they look at the wall. And wherever you look, you tend to drive right into it. It's kind of like, maybe you've heard about or seen a situation where a person's driving their sports car, Porsche, down a desert highway at about 100 miles an hour, and they lose control. There's only one telephone pole every quarter of a mile, but somehow they manage to drive right into it. Why? As soon as they lose control, they go, "Oh, I don't want to hit that," and boom, they point right into it, and they literally strike into it.
Most of us are not getting what we want because we're focused on what we don't want, instead of what we do want. Now, how do we change our focus? The answer is by asking ourselves different questions. Questions control what we focus on. So if you keep saying, "Why does this always happen to me?" you're going to come up with all kinds of reasons why your life is so messed up. If you say, "How can I use this?" then all of a sudden, you're going to come up with different ways to apply what you know as a human being to make things better in your life.
So, as I said earlier, what is the question that all time management is based upon? I don't care whether you have one of those beautiful little Palm Pilots, which is wonderful, or some other computer device, or do you have a Franklin system or a Day-Timer? They're all great systems, but what they have in common is they all make you manage your life by saying, "What do I need to do?" Now, what's the problem with asking that question? Well, the answer to "What I need to do" is going to be powerfully shaped by the state you're in.
If someone is making a bunch of demands on you right now, things they need from you, what you're going to focus on doing is whatever will make them happy and get them off your case. If you're worried about some aspect of your life, you're going to say, "What I need to do is, I got to go handle that." If you're so stressed from all the demands other people are making, and all the things you're worried aren't going to work, you may say, "What I need to do is, I need to take a break." You may come up with things that will give you immediate pleasure, but none of these things are really a proactive life where you're designing what you want.
See, most people in life tend to focus where the demands are, or where they're good at something. So, for example, very often, let's say we feel really in control of our career, so we put a lot of time into our career, but we don't spend so much time in our intimate relationship. And then we go, "What happened? And why is it falling apart? Why am I not happy? Why am I not fulfilled?" It's because wherever you put your focus, you do well. Or maybe you put a lot of focus on your family, but you don't put any focus on yourself, and you wonder why inside you feel empty, and you feel drained, and maybe even a little stressed, maybe a little angry that you're taking care of everybody else, but not yourself. Or maybe not taking care of your body, because you're so focused on some other your life. And that comes back to bite us, doesn't it?
So what this RPM Life Management System is going to do is help you to do two things. Number one, decide in advance what it is you want to focus on. What are the results you really want in each of your life, in your body, and your relationships, and your business and career, in the mission of your life, what you want to contribute? And then number two, get you every single day to be focused on what it will take for you to really get the results you're after, not what is all the to-do list things that I have to get done. Because trying to focus on that to-do list will make you nuts. It won't work. It'll just make you stressed. Because as I've already said, you can accomplish everything on your to-do list and still not accomplish anything really meaningful. In fact, this is the classic example of mistaking movement for achievement. And you don't want to settle for something that isn't really achievement for your life, for your standards, for your values, for what you desire most.
I mean, think about it. I see this happening with moms all the time. You know, the typical soccer mom. Here's this lady who's trying to get everything done. She's got her massive to-do list. She's got to do the shopping, she's got to get the kids ready for school, get them to school, pick them up for soccer practice, make sure everything flows, cook the dinner. And very often they come to me because they're stressed out of their mind. They're as stressed as any executive is stressed. And the reason is, they're so focused on their to-do list, they've forgotten their outcome. They've forgotten what it is they really want. What they really want is to have quality time with their kids, to enjoy them and be with them as they're growing up, maybe to shape their values, to be with their spouse and have a great time. We get so caught up in getting those things done, we don't have a life anymore.
I want to tell you, the most successful business people don't have a to-do list as their primary way of managing their life. They know what they got to get done, but that's not anywhere near as important as the first question, the answer. What is it I really want? Hey, Bill Gates does not have a to-do list. I got news for you. If you want to know what made Bill Gates successful, is he focused on something different than anyone else? Lots of people in the computer business, lots of people were in the software business, but Bill Gates had a different question that he asked. So he focused on something different, and he got a totally different result. His question was not, "How do I build the most successful software company?" The question Bill Gates made his entire focus on, and got everyone around him to do the same, was this: "Here's our outcome. How do we become the intelligence that runs all computers in the world?" That's a very different question. And ask, and you shall receive. If you keep asking the same question, you expect the answer. If your focus is on what you really want, and sure enough, now 95% of all computers in the world are run by Windows. I don't know if it's the best software or operating system, I should say, but it's the one that runs it all. And Bill Gates today is extremely successful in terms of his impact, also economically. He's the richest man in the world with 60 billion dollars, I guess, a net worth at this stage. That all comes from a different focus. He didn't say, "What do I need to do?" He said, "What's the outcome? What are we after, guys?"
In fact, all people that are successful can answer the three questions of RPM. R: What's the result you're after? Because if you focus on what you want, there's lots of ways to get there. But if you don't know what the target is, and you know all the things you have to do, you can get it all done and never hit any target at all. Secondly, once you know what you really want, you got to know why do you want it? The P stands for purpose. Purpose is power. When you know the purpose for something, the reason you're doing it, it gives you drive. And I don't care what it is you want in your life. If you can figure out why you want it, man, that is absolute drive. That is absolute power. That's the fuel to get you going. If the target is out there, the only way you're going to get it is pull back that arrow and release it. The energy that's going to push that arrow right into the target is knowing why you want something, knowing your reasons, which are different than the people around you. And once you discover what really drives you as a person, you don't have mere motivation where somebody else pumps you up. You've got something that's lasting. It's internal. It's about meeting what it is you want most in your life. And we're going to help you discover what that is, not just by writing some fancy mission statement that maybe you read once a week, or once a month, or once every six months and forget about, but by making sure everything you do each day is related to the reasons you want to do it. Because if you say, "Why do I have to do this?" you're going to feel stressed. But if you say, "Here's what I'm after, and here's why I want it more than anything else on earth," you'll figure out how to make it happen. Which is the third question. The M in RPM. What's your map? What's your massive action plan? What specific actions, what massive actions do I need to take to get the result that I'm after?
The sequencing of those three questions is really important. Sequence determines results in life. If you do things in the wrong order, you're trying to bake a cake, you put the right ingredients in the wrong order, you're not going to get the cake you want. You're trying to open the vault of life success and fulfillment and passion, you've got all the right numbers, put in the wrong sequence, forget it, you won't be able to open the vault. Call somebody on the phone, know the right numbers, wrong sequence, not going to happen. In language, if I said to you, "The dog bit Johnny," or "Johnny bit the dog," same exact words, a very different experience, especially if you're Johnny, right? So you can't start out with this silly question of "What do I need to do?" Because if you ask that question, that's the kiss of death. You can't answer "What I need to do" until you first ask, "What do I want?"
And so what we're going to do is have you get clear about what you want in each of these areas of your life, and then show you how to create a plan that associates you to why you want it every single day. Because sometimes people set a goal, and then you don't follow through. You know why? Because they forget why they wanted it. See, you might say, "Oh, I want to become rich and famous." Well, that's really wonderful. That might inspire you for a day. But if you say, "I really want to become successful because with that success, I can have a larger impact on society," or "with that success, I can provide my kids the greatest college education, I can travel around the world, I can do things for myself, my family, my friends that are just magnificent." When you come up with a big enough "why" to do something, you can figure out how to do it.
But if you start out with a how-to, how do you feel? If I said, "Think right now about everything you got to do in your life right now, this week, this month, in your business and your family life, to get things to the next level." I guess as you start to make that list, you probably feel a little bit overwhelmed. But if I said, "Stop. Forget all that. Forget about how you're going to do it. What specifically do you want? Get riveted on it. Why do you want it?" So you get so excited, you can barely breathe. When you're in that state, now if I say, "How to do?" I don't know. I'll do this and this and this. And if that doesn't work, I'll do something else. That doesn't work. I know the target. My brain is going to find a way to get there.
See, RPM is not a software program. It's not some little silly binder. All those things are wonderful, but the point of the matter is, it's a system of thinking that will revolutionize the way you feel, the results you get, and the amount of fulfillment you experience from it. And all it is is asking these questions, and then using either the software that we've got, or the paper, so it becomes a habit, so you have a place to do this. It's not all being done in your head. That's the value of that particular process. But no time planner is going to change your life. A change in thinking, a change in focus, a change in questions, and a change in answers. That's what will change your life.
So my goal here is really simple. I want to break you of your to-do lists once and for all, because they are the source of your stress. And having no to-do list and one in your head is not the answer either. We want to get you now to begin to master a system for managing your whole life, not just managing your time. Just think about it. If you achieved everything and you have success, but you don't have fulfillment, you have failure. Successful fulfillment is failure. We've seen all these people that achieve huge goals, they changed all the people around them, helped everybody, made lots of money, got all kinds of respect, 22 degrees, but then they killed themselves. You know, famous names we know. People that maybe didn't die physically, but died emotionally years ago. They're not happy. And if you're not happy, we got to change it. And the answer is not just to manage your time more. The answer right now is to figure out what do you really want for your life. The answer is to create an RPM plan.
Remember, RPM is going to get you from where you are to where you want to go faster. It increases the power. So you remember what an RPM plan does? It increases the power you have to get from where you are now to where you want to be. Just like in a race car, more RPMs, more power. What does it stand for? RPM. The R is you gotta have a results-focused. P, purpose-driven. M, massive action plan. If you've got a results-focused, purpose-driven, massive action plan, an RPM plan, you're going to be focusing on what you really want. You're going to have the energy to get there, and a plan that makes sense.
Now, again, I teach these skills in detail in a 10-day program called "The Time of Your Life." But right now, I want to give you a simple skill. There are ten, but one I can give you is on the concept of chunking. If you get stressed easily, which most of us do, because there's so much coming at us, I think just understanding the skill can take you out of stress very quickly. So to share this with you, I thought I'd go to a live seminar. So take a deep breath in, maybe take a sip of water, and listen up, and I'll share with you this fundamental principle that can get rid of stress so quickly if you really understand. Let's go.
The next principle, the power of chunking, which is, if you want to make a note, it's the principle of simplicity. Most people make their life so complex that they don't know where to start. Just thinking about all the things you have to do keeps you from doing them. That's why you focused on the result and the why. Once you got this, we got to show you what this process is. What RPM is a chunking device. Now, what does that mean? A chunking device. I'll give an example. There are lots of things you don't do because the way you chunk it. Typical example I hear is somebody says, "Well, I want to go on a trip to Europe." And say, "Why haven't you?" "I'm so busy. I don't have time to plan it out." "Can't they get out?" "Well, why don't you go?" "Well, God, you know, first you gotta figure out where you're gonna go. I mean, there's so many countries, and and you gotta, you know, you talk it over, you gotta find yourself a travel agent, and and then you gotta maybe go online and compare ticket prices, and then you gotta find the right hotel, and they don't speak the language. And then, you know, you got to go back and forth between the stuff. And and then when you're done with that stuff, even if you do it, you have to get on the plane, you know, and you got to gather all your stuff, you got to pack all your stuff. Then you got to go on the plane, you got to make many different trips, you got to go through those metal detectors, you got to make sure you're on time. The plane's usually late, you know. And it's like society. You go do all those things. You want to go someplace like Venice, you got to go on four different flights together, at least three. Got to take that continental flight, and you got the other flight, and you go. Then you got to get, you know, on a boat to go across the water. And then, of course, they'll forget some of your luggage. And then you get there, and you got to convert your money. And then you got to try and find a restaurant and a place where everybody in the brother is already there, because this side season for that kind of stuff. Hey, you know, then you got to pack everything up again, and you got to go down and pay your bill. They usually are upset because you didn't understand what the exchange rate was. And now you got more luggage because you bought lots of stuff, you know. And then you got to get back on the boat, you got to drive all the way back, and get on that one small plane, of course, it's always late. And they got to go to Paris, where you get held up for a long time. They got you another plane, they got to fly the United States, and you got to take the commuter flight back there, back to your town. You got to get a limousine, and you got to drive all the way back home. I'm going to LA." Isn't that what people do? Even for things that would be fun?
But you know what? If you've been focused on a couple of things saying, "All we got to do is pick the place, get someone to handle all the details, and show up." That'd be very different, wouldn't it? Or if you just focused on the result. See, if you focus on the result, what would you say? You'd say, "We're going to be tomorrow, three days from now, next week, you and I are going to be sitting in the piazza." Or you're going to say, "We're going to be in a gondola in the middle of the night, maybe at midnight, with a singer going between these little canals. He's going to sing beautiful Italian music, and we'll just have the most magnificent dinner of our lives, and we'll be dancing together in the square, and we'll be walking along the place where history was made, where the greatest musicians and artists and painters were ever there, and we're going to be making love all night long, and I'm going to write poetry to you in the morning." You're like, "Call the travel agent." Is it a different experience? Yes or no? Totally different experience.
How about working out? You know, most people drunk working out. They go, "Oh, it's working out. I don't have time to work out. Well, I don't belong to a gym." "Well, why don't you?" "Well, you know, like, I don't have time." "You get, you gotta first gotta get Yellow Pages, you know, look them, see which gym's in the area. They gotta go, you know, call them, see what their hours are. And then you gotta drive so you can check it out, because you know if it's really the right place." So you go there, and you have to go through a little parking guide, you got to take a ticket, you got to go in there, and then you got to go to the front desk and say, "I'm looking." And then they'll take you around and show you one machine, show you another machine. They walk you through the place, they take you through here, and then you have to go there. Then you sit down for a three-hour presentation, why should buy 200 years worth of this sponsorship, and you have some salesman talking at you. And all you really wanted to check it out. And then, let's say you buy it, you got to take out your credit card, they got to process it, they got to come run the little machine over you, you got to sign the thing. Then you gotta go take a picture that makes you look worse than your driver's license does. You take that picture, you got your little card, and then they give you a key, and you take the key, and you gotta go get a towel. Now you get the towel. Now you gotta go find your locker. You find your locker, undo your locker. Now you gotta do it. You gotta hang your stuff on the hook that, you know, the minute you close the locker, all your stuff's going to fall down and be wrinkled. So you do that. You put on your other clothes, and now you go out and you go to the first machine, and it's sweaty. You got to wipe the thing off, and you do it. You have a second machine, there's somebody waiting there. I think I've got to wipe it off. Then you got to adjust the weight, and you got to go ahead and do your exercises. Then you got to go to the next one and do it. Then you go to another one, and another one, another one, after all that. You got to go back, and you got to go take off all your clothes, and pick up those things, and put these smelly, stinky clothes in your bag that will be in your car later on. Now you got to go take a shower or a steam around other people who you're going to see much more of than you ever wanted to see. Then you got to put on your hair, or your makeup, or shave, whatever, all over again, spray all stuff on. I got to put on your wrinkled clothes, take your little bags, and you gotta go to the front desk, and you gotta show them your thing so they stamp your parking thing so you don't get charged for it. Now you're gonna walk out and find your car in the parking lot, open up with the stinky bag in the trunk. Then you gotta get in, you gotta give the thing the guy, and drive off. I don't have time to work out. I don't have time to work out. Want to eat? Sure. What do you got to eat? Do it. They drunk eating is one thing. They took working out as 5 billion elements. You can't imagine how many things you don't do because of the way you chunk them.
Now, chunking is an art. RPM, I call the art and science of creating an extraordinary life. And I'll tell you why. I'm going to teach you the science. The science is the thinking process, the system that's the same every time. The art is the word you bring to it. The art is, do you chunk things? Like if you try and eat a whale in one bite, that's chunking up too much, that's overwhelming. If you chop it into eight million pieces, you're going to be overwhelmed also. There's an ideal size for chunking. So what is chunking at its essence? Chunking is the process of turning more into less. Chunking is the process of turning more into less.
What does that mean? It means instead of having all these millions of things, it's now working out. Remember when you try to drive that stick shift car in the beginning? You have 50 things you're doing. I gotta, I gotta do this and that. I can push the accelerator, and I go to the clutch, and I'm going to put in gear, and I got to watch the road too. It'll never happen. But after a while, it just became driving. Now you talk on the phone, shift gears, and everything else, because it's one thing. We're going to show you how to chunk your whole life. How to take everything in your life and turn it into maybe eight or ten things you focus on, and show how to make every single week more juicy than it's ever been by knowing all you gotta do is handle these eight things. Something comes up, it'll fit in one of these eight areas for you. It will revolutionize the way you manage your life, and it'll wipe out your stress.
A definition of chunking says, "When you group together information into ideally sized pieces so they can be used effectively to produce results without stress or overwhelm." If chunking takes you out of overwhelm, it's the number one thing that it does. And by the way, this is science or art? Both. The science is knowing you've got to group things together to ideally size pieces so you're not overwhelmed. The art is what's right for you. I'll tell you, the simplest chunking is usually threes. Most people, when they're trying to chunk things, if they go beyond three chunks, it overwhelms them. That's why most phone numbers have three parts: an area code, prefix, and the end, right? Most people's names, they have three names. You look at a symphony, you go through, what happens? You've got three different tones that you'll take that symphony through in time. I don't care what it is, you look at most of them are chunked in that way because it's the easiest. Now, you can do more than that, but it's easy for people to remember in threes. Most people chunk things: one, two, three, many. That's how the mind works for most people. One, two, three, many.
When you're first driving a stick shift car, you got to use the clutch, the brake, the accelerator, the steering wheel, and you got to be looking forward, right? The shifting gear, that's six things. They're overwhelmed. After a while, all those things become one chunk, and you can do two other things. How many follow that? Say, "I." But the beginning is too many chunks. That's why it's difficult in the game. So you get it unconscious. Same thing, by the way, is true of planning.
Okay. Now, when do most people make a change? By the way, when they get enough what? Pain. So this relates the example I gave you earlier. So it says, "One spring morning, Elvis wakes up. He takes a good look at himself in the mirror and shudders in disgust. He just can't bear carrying around those 20 extra pounds and the subsequent love handles he's gained in the last few years." That morning, he decides to solve his problems by adding going on a 10-mile run to his to-do list. By the end of the run, he's exhausted, his lungs hurt, he's sweating like a pig, his heart feels like it's gonna pop right out of his chest. The next morning, his muscles are so sore, he can barely move, and he has a big fat ugly blister on his big toe. To console himself, he goes to Denny's for a Grand Slam breakfast and decides that exercise is simply not for him." Is that a typical approach? Problem is that Elvis was focused only on the action item, going for a run, instead of establishing a clear picture of what he what really wanted. Was his outcome to run 10 miles? No. He wanted to lose 20 pounds. So often we forget that our real outcome result is, and we start thinking we have to write out a to-do list to make it happen.
There are many ways Elvis could have achieved his outcome if he knew what he really wanted. He needed to create an RPM block, starting with a question: "What specific result I committed to achieving?" The follow-up: "What's my purpose?" And finally, "What actions I need to take?" So you see an example here again. "To lose 20 pounds and enjoy the process." Does that a different result than just say, "Lose 20 pounds?" Yes or no? If you wrote, "Lose 20 pounds," versus you wrote, "Lose 20 pounds and enjoy the process of reaching my ideal weight and vitality." Are you going to come up with a different action item list for enjoying than just getting the job done? Yes or no? And if you make enjoying a part of it, you actually will follow through. If you don't, you won't. You see, his purpose was to feel great about himself, to increase his sense of control over his life, to increase his strength and vitality, to raise his self-esteem and feel sexy. One: Consult a nutritionist. Two: Clean out my kitchen, get rid of the junk food. Three: Go shopping for health foods. Four: Find a job, a cook who can share health food distinctions. Five: Join a gym. Six: Schedules time to work out. I got a question for you. If you need to lose 20 pounds, are these similar action items you would need to take? Yes or no? For various results, the activities are very similar, aren't they? What do you think happens when you start doing a few of these? What do you think happens if somebody loses 80 pounds and they have a plan and they actually did it? So you go, "How'd you do it?" Instead of saying, "Well, I want to diet," they go, "Here, read this." And you can take their exact plan and do the exact things and get the exact result. Pretty soon, when people get results around you who do this, or you do this, you can show them exactly how to do it. No fluff, no generalizations. And you can tell them exactly how long it takes, and they'll know it's true. And they can read it, and they'll know the reasons why you did it, how to do it. They can adapt it, they can put their own words in it, their own emotions in it, but the basic system is the same.
Okay, I'm back here with you one-on-one. So as we go to wrap up, do you understand how powerfully important it is to focus on one thing at a time? Not trying to figure out how to solve all 92 problems at once. Maybe there are 92 challenges in your life. Maybe you should write them on the board and then ask yourself, "Which of these relate?" All of these nine things relate to my kids. These 12 relate to my business, or maybe my finances. These relate to my body. So really, I got three challenges to deal with: my kids, my business, and my body. I'll tell you what, as simplistic as it seems, it allows you to focus on one thing at a time. And you can only solve usually one major thing at a time. If you'll make this a habit in life, then all of a sudden, things will come into balance.
So remember, instead of asking, "What do I got to do?" what's the question you want to ask? I want to break you that habit. The question you want to ask is, "What do I really want? What's my outcome? What specific result am I after here?" Because remember, clarity is power. Once you know what you're after, then before you ask what to do, ask, "Why do I really want to do this? Really, what is this going to give me? Why am I juiced to do this?" Because the worst thing to say is, "Let me tell you what I have to do." When you say "have to," that creates a biochemical effect inside you, and it's not a pretty sight. It's not going to make you want to do it. If you talk about "have to." So why do you want to do it? What are your reasons? Remember, reasons come first. Answers come.
second, and then finally get a map, get a massive action plan. Little action doesn't change anything. But if you've got a lot of choices, you don't have to do them all, but you'll have a lot of ways to go about something. You won't be anal having, "Oh, I can only do it this way." You'll be flexible.
That kind of thinking, or you're asking, "What do I really want? Why do I want it? And how can I make that happen?" Now will change your life. If you add that with chunking, starting to take all these things coming at you and say, "Whoa, whoa, what do these all relate to?" Stress will disappear, and your mind will start being so focused. And focus is power.
So you can see why I didn't try to teach you the entire RPM system and pull out a binder and give you the binder or the software to do it. I want to hook you. And if you want to do more with me, wonderful. But if not, you've got a couple of tools right now that are invaluable. So let's make sure you commit to some action. Here's the first thing I do. If you say each week, "What do I got to do?" You make a to-do list. And it usually has all the musts in your life that didn't come from you. It's all the stuff other people want you to do. It's all things you're concerned about, or maybe it's stuff that'll just make you feel good for the moment.
Here's what I suggest. Take a look at your life and say, "If I were to take my entire life and chunk it in like five, six, seven, eight areas, what are the most important seven or eight areas of my life that every week I've gotta make progress in?" Well, some obvious ones might be your body, because if you don't focus on it, it doesn't get better, does it? It gets worse. So it's an area you gotta give energy to. What's another area that if you don't focus on it, it's going to affect you? By the way, within your body, you can put diet and exercise and fun things, all kinds of stuff. It's one area of focus.
Another one would obviously be your family. You know, so many people today are talking about how stressed they are at work, and they bring it home, and there's no focus on what to do with the family. If there's no goal, if there's no outcome, and if you're not really associated, if you don't really think about all the reasons why it's important to be in a great state around your family, I guarantee you weeds grow automatically. There's going to be problems there at home. So family might be another category for you.
Your business or your career is a clearly another one. Your relationship with God or your creator, whatever your spiritual beliefs are, has to be nurtured because they're going to be times in your life where they're going to be all kinds of challenges. And unless there's a consistent focus on faith, you're not going to have any reserves left for those things that seem uncertain or things that seem so unjust or unfair.
So you could say, "Okay, I got my body, I got my family, I've got my business or career, I got my spiritual side of my life." What else? Maybe your friends? Maybe your finances? This would be six areas. And then just decide today, in those six areas, or whatever areas you want to come up with, just these six really important areas in my life, this half dozen areas of my life that matter most, what do I want to really make happen? What outcome do I want? What's a goal? What's an outcome? What's the result, a specific result I want to achieve in the next 90 days? What's one I want to achieve in the next 30 days? And what do I really want to make happen this week so that I make progress towards that? So it isn't just a thought in my head, but something I'm really focused on. We can remember three things pretty easily, or a half dozen for most of us. So think about what are going to be the half dozen areas of your life that would make the biggest difference. Because most people major in minor things. They put all their focus on things that don't matter, and they wonder why they're stressed. Figure out what the majors are for you and make a committed focus now to come up with an outcome.
Secondly, write down why it's a must for you for each of these six areas. What are you gonna do in 90 days? Why is that a must? Why is it something you want? Why is it something you're going to make happen? What are the outcomes for 30 days? And what are the outcomes for this week? And why are those a must? It'll get you juiced up because when you set a goal, then you bump into the obstacles, don't you? The inevitable challenges that show up. But if you've got enough reasons, when the challenges show up, you'll still have the fuel to push yourself through it.
And then you don't have to create a whole map if you don't want to. But maybe instead, what you do is just come up with two steps. What are just two first steps to your map, to your massive action plan? Someone you're going to call, something in a schedule, something you're going to do right away in each of these six areas. If you do this little exercise, it takes somewhere between 15, 20 minutes, or it could be an hour. It depends how much you want to invest in it. You'll have started the process of chunking, and you'll started the process of asking some quality questions. Not, "What I gotta do?" but "What do I want?" Just focusing on what you want and why you want it alone, even without a plan, will start to move you subconsciously in that direction.
So I really encourage you, at least as a minimum, write down the six areas that matter most. And under those six areas, write down at least one thing you're going to accomplish the next 90 days or 30 days. And come up with a reason, at least one action plan. Will you at least do that? You don't have to be perfect, but get it started. And remember to live with passion.
Oh, and by the way, remember we're not ending here. This is the last day of Personal Power, but not the last day of The Ultimate Edge. We're now moving over to that second pillar of ultimate success. We're going to focus on how do you get the best, the best tools, the best strategies, the best ways to change a specific area of your life. In other words, when you begin to get the edge, tomorrow we're gonna start out by figuring out what's an area of your life that you've never been able to change, a really tough area, and we're gonna handle it at just this little mini results workshop. Then each day after that, we're only gonna focus on one area of your life to change: your energy and your body, your relationships, your finances and money, financial freedom, your sense of purpose in life, your sense of joy, your emotions. Each day we're gonna have laser focus on one of these areas. It's gonna be impactful. I'll see you for day one of Get the Edge, starting tomorrow.