3 Principles Achievers Must Adopt

Take a moment to think of the foundational principles you use to operate your business and life. What comes to mind? Do you prioritize excellence in everything you do? Maybe eliminating distraction is the cornerstone of your achievement. Perhaps your philosophy is simply: work hard, play hard. Whatever it is I want to bring a fresh perspective to you with the 3 things every achiever must get right. 

The three principles are: Preparation, Action, and Review.

I know what you’re thinking, these are basic ideas. Simple concepts we learned when we were young. However, it’s true for these principles as with most topics of personal development: Complexity does not equal effectiveness, execution does. In other worlds just because something’s simple doesn’t mean it’s not powerful if implemented well. For most people their roadblock is not lack of knowledge, it’s lack of dedication to a strategy. So, let’s challenge ourselves to weather the cliches and dive into Preparation, Action and Review.

First, it’s important to note that each of us has a predetermined bias towards these principles. Naturally you and I favor each in different amounts. The trick is to realize each is important to our achievement and has a place in our overall strategy. Until we commit to properly balancing Preparation, Action and Review in our lives we will not perform at the level we’re capable of. For example, if you run a client-based business and you enjoy jumping into meetings with prospects and spending time with people you probably have an action bias. That is great because it means you’re in the right business! However, lack of preparation for your initial meeting coupled with poor follow up afterwards will likely lead to a shaky first impression and ultimately reduced sales. It’s been shown when building rapport with someone new the vast majority of their opinion of you is based on your preparation before you first meet, and the quality of your follow up afterwards. Those are more important than the actual face to face time in terms of building rapport. In summary know your bias and be open to learning something new. Personally, I have always struggled with review. However, since I committed to daily/weekly reviews I’ve gotten a huge increase on my time. The return on investment for my hours has multiplied many times over simply because I now track my performance and tweak my strategy accordingly.

With that said let’s talk about how to approach Preparation, Action and Review.

1. Preparation

Preparation is all about clearing the way for quality output to take place. We must prime our minds, clarify our mission, and plan our outcomes.

Priming our mind is a daily activity that is crucial for consistent, long term success. It can look like morning prayer/meditation, speaking uplifting words over yourself, or consuming content that sparks passion in your soul. Saying out loud uplifting words helps to reaffirm your aspirational self (who you’re working on becoming) each morning, locking in that new identity in your mind. Talk out loud with real passion! Be kind, encourage yourself, pump yourself up. Especially if you’re having a bad day. That’s when it’s most important. This simple practice can change the course of your whole life.

A huge part of preparation is clarifying what you’re trying to accomplish, and why. Jumping into work without clarity on your mission can lead to distraction, overwhelm, apathy, and reduced satisfaction. Remember your number one job is to keep the main thing the main thing. It’s far too easy to get swept up in fads that promise to 10x our results. Those deviations from our well thought out core strategy can distract us from our main focus. We must have a razor-sharp image of the future we want to create and spend all of our energy keeping that front and center.

Lastly to prepare well we must plan our outcomes. This means setting targets or goals to move towards, then work backwards to find the key milestones that must be achieved for that goal to be a reality. This gives you not only an inspiring future to get excited about, but a roadmap to get there. Try this exercise: choose your most important goal- the one that you desire to accomplish most in the next 1-5 years. Now ask yourself “What needs to be true for this goal to be a reality?” This will give you your milestones. Skills you need to learn, people you need to partner with, content you need to create, tools you have to acquire, etc. Then breaking those milestones down into monthly and weekly goals will define what you work on day to day. Bam! Now you have a practical plan that is connected with your long-term aspirations. 

2. Action

In this fast-paced, comparison ridden, achievement hungry culture we live in today it’s hard to know what to focus on. Throughout history however we see true long-term success emerge in people who have mastered one skill- focused, passionate, consistent action. When striving towards a goal there is no book, teacher or fancy online course that can replace high effort focused on a specific outcome. That is why when I’m balancing out Preparation, Action and Review in my life the proportional time action receives is 70-80%. Preparation and Review only get 10-15% of my time each. This was not always the case however. I have a preparation bias. I love learning and crafting a plan. I have to be careful not to spend all my time laying out my roadmap. For you it might be different, you might need to scale back the review/reflection part of your life to make room for taking action. To make it easy just remember the 10/80/10 rule. 10% Preparation, 80% Action, 10% Review. That is a good place to start if you’re feeling like things are out of balance. You might be wondering why Preparation and Review don’t need as much time as Action. This is because a well laid plan will last 1-5 years or more and only need small, consistent check ins to remain on course.

I want to share with you a big mistake I see people make in their approach to Action. It is the idealistic belief that the satisfaction one derives from their work is directly tied to their level of output. In other words, they believe, If I feel effective while working, I am getting a lot done. It is true sometimes satisfaction can be found in our work when we get into states of ‘flow’. However, if you’re in the business of solving real problems real people have it’s going to be hard work. There may be days when meetings will feel off track or you’ll feel no progress towards your goals. You have to remember those days that feel like a grind are just as important as the days with clear wins. The key is focused, passionate, consistent action. Over the long term this strategy always wins. Stay hopeful, the only way you lose is if you give up.

One final distinction to keep in mind is Preparation vs Action. Remember Preparation is priming your mind, clarifying your mission, and planning your outcomes. Those are NOT action steps. The only time you can count as Action is when you are in the mind of your clients/customers actively working on solving their problems. Everything else is Preparation, Review, or simply a distraction.

3. Review

The first step to implementing reflection into your life is scheduling regular blocks of time. These blocks are specifically for thinking, journaling, reviewing metrics, and brainstorming. One of the best habits you can get into is daily journaling. If you’ve never done this before try it out! Start the habit for 2-3 months of jotting down at least a few sentences before bed. This will solidify whatever key information or distinctions you discovered that day and give you an outlet for your authentic thoughts.

 Another practice I highly recommend you adopt is tracking and reviewing your metrics. Whether your goal is to lose weight, save up for a home, scale your business, or implement a new habit. Regularly sitting down with whatever data is relevant to your project will provide many insights including your crucial moves. Crucial moves are any systems, patterns, practices, or products that are performing well. Your job is to find your crucial moves by spending time Reviewing and adjust your strategy to expand those systems and practices when/if possible.

There you have it- Preparation, Action, Review. Three principles to adopt that will guide you to a higher level of success in any endeavor, personal or professional. Remember we have built in biases that make us favor one over the other, but all three are important to experience long lasting achievement. So, now is the time. Go out there and make it happen! I wish you the best on your journey.

Stay awesome,

Joey