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The purpose of the newsletter is to help you develop strong systems that will help you be more productive, prolific, and ultimately profitable. You are here to create Leverage in your life. And to do that you need to start by building a strong foundation. This will help you:
• Get more done with less effort
• Create repeatable results
• Scale success without burning out
Strong systems are the tool that will create this leverage.
-- Productivity.
A full sentence is a single word.
My definition is a set of interlinked systems built on top of strong routines that help get the right things done as efficiently as possible. It starts with creating concrete goals with specific actions that can be plugged into daily routines. These actions are then tracked, assessed, and adjusted as needed. Goals get updated and the cycle towards achieving your vision continues. It’s a simple system that reinforces itself based on the feedback received. But there is something still missing. Your Why. Its not enough to become super-efficient at doing every little task. To sustain a productivity practice longterm it needs to be in service of something greater, some higher purpose. Otherwise whats the point?
Action Required
I can help you with putting the systems in place.
But you must bring your Why.
No two Why's are exactly alike. They are individual, unique. And having one is absolutely necessary.
Your Why that sustains you through hard times. It acts as a reminder when you get in the weeds and start feeling like "why am I doing this?". Its what keeps you motivated to wake up early and live a full day that is optimized for the single purpose of achieving this thing you are chasing.
And you can probably already have a good idea what it is.
You know it with your body, but maybe not with your mind. You can feel it but haven't yet expressed it in words.
This is important.
Your Why needs to be real and written. It needs to be well considered and accurately captured. Because in time it will become your mantra, your north star, your guiding principle. The more clear you can make this the clearer your purpose becomes.
Without a Why to sustain you through good times and hard times you'll just continue a cycle of self improvement that goes nowhere. Read about it, watch videos, think about it, maybe write a little, but no action.
And without action all the rest is useless.
How to capture your Why
It starts by dreaming big about what you want to get out of life. Build a vision of what you want to achieve and who you want to be. From a powerful vision comes clarity of purpose, and inside this purpose is where your Why lives.
Step 1 - Brainstorm
There are so many ideas in your head. You have to expose them to the light of day.
Start by listing EVERYTHING you could ever want to do in each of the Big 5 categories:
- Personal
- Work
- Life
- Community
- Fitness
Get it out of your head and onto paper.
(Go Here to read more about the Big 5)
Realize that you can't do everything on every list. But in that jumble of words things will be similar items that all require the same core actions, and ideas that mean the most to you.
Shine a light on these.
Step 2 - Craft Your Vision
For EACH category, write down what your life looks like exactly one year from now. Use your lists for inspiration.
Not what you hope it looks like. What it actually looks like. Don't hold anything back.
Write a few paragraphs for each category, but make sure to consider each one individually. Think about each area of your life separately first. You'll combine them in the next step.
Start with the end in mind and you start to define who you want to be.
Step 3 - Find the Golden Thread
Give it a little time after doing all that writing. A day or two. When you are ready, come back and consider what you've written with a fresh perspective.
What you are looking for is a common thread running through each vision. It may be hard to see but it's there.
Success in each of the five categories may look totally different, but they are usually driven by the same underlying motivator. Find that and you've found the key.
Step 4 - Capture your Why
That common thread you found - write it down.
(Last writing exercise I promise!).
Now expand on it. Consider it from all angles.
• Why is this important to me?
• What influenced this in my life?
• Who is my model for this behavior?
• When did I begin to care about this?
• Where do I picture myself doing this?
This gets to the core of the intrinsic motivation for why you do anything.
Step 5 - Write it Down
Distill this down into a sentence or two. A statement about Why you do what you do.
Keep it short and sweet, like an elevator pitch to yourself.
It doesn't need to be perfect from the start. It just needs to Be. You can refine it as it you go.
--
To paraphrase Nietzsche, when you know your Why you can bear any How.
Its easy to jump right in and trying to optimize your life. But without understanding WHY you are doing it your results wont be as good, and your longterm motivation wont be sufficient to keep you going.
A strong Why is the foundation upon which a strong life is built.
TL;DR
• Finding your Why is the most important step • Brainstorm all of your wants and desires • Create a vision of what your life looks like in one year • Find the golden thread that ties these together • Capture your Why -- Thanks for reading today. I'm finalizing my first book right now. Its about the productivity system I've developed over a 20 year career at sea as a ship's Captain, and in business as an executive. Today's issue briefly covered the first step in that system. If you signed up to receive this email, then Thank You! You are already on the list. I sincerely hope you enjoy it and that it helps you do all the things you want to do. The offer is open through November 30th so if you know someone who would benefit, please forward this email and get them to sign up. Yours in Productivity, Sean
Your next steps:
1. Subscribe to The Lever (if you haven't already)
This covers a science-based productivity concept each week, in about five minutes. Try a free chapter of my new book when you subscribe. And if you like it...
Peaceful Productivity outlines the time-management system I've created over the years as a ship's Captain and business executive. It will help you plan, prioritize, and get more of the right things done. Also available on Amazon
This short course will teach you the fundamentals of a powerful timeblocking system to make sure you never miss an obligation and always show up prepared. Give yourself the space you need to create the life you deserve.
Smart systems to make you productive, prolific, and profitable | Find me on Twitter @SeanPHogue | Sign up here for the weekly newsletter, The Lever, and create some leverage in your life.