The Four Thieves

                                                           

* The Fours Thieves *

" Focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do"

                                                                                                  :-- John Carmack

In 1973 a group  of seminary students unknowingly participated in a grand study know as " The Good Samaritan Experiment." These students were recruited and divided into two groups to see what factors influenced whether or not they would help a stranger in distress. Some were told they were going to prepare a talk about seminary Jobs: the others, that they were going to give a talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan, a Biblical story about helping people in need. Within each group, some were told they were late and had to hurry to their destination, while others were told they could take their time . What the students didn't know was that researchers had planted a man along the way--slumped on the ground , coughing , apparently in destress.

In the end . fewer than half the students stopped to help.  But the deciding factor wasn't the task - it was time. Ninety Percent of the students who were rushed failed to stop and render aid to the stranger. Some actually stepped over him in their hurry to get where they were supposed to go. It didn't seem to matter that half of them were on their way to deliver a talk on helping other!

Now , if  seminary students can so easily lose focus on their real priority , do the rest of us even have a prayer?
Clearly, Our best intentions can easily be undone. Just as there are the Six lies that will deceive and mislead you . there are Four Thieves that can hold you up and rob you of your productivity.
And since there's no one standing by to protect you, it's up to you to stop these thieves in their tracks.


                                       THE FOUR THIEVES OF PRODUCTIVITY  


1. Inability to Say "No"

2. Fear of Chaos 

3. Poor Health habits 

4. Environment Doesn't Support Your Goals.


1.  Inability to say " No"

Someone once told me that one " Yes " must be defended over time by 1,000 "nos." Early in my career I didn't understand this at all. 
Today , I think it's an understatement.

It's one thing to be distracted when you're trying to focus, it's another entirely to be hijacked before you even get to. The way to protect what you've said yes to and stay productive is to say no to anyone or anything that could derail you.
peers  will ask for your advice and help. Co-workers will want you on their team. Friends will request your assistance. Strangers will seek you out. invitations and interruptions will come at you from everywhere imaginable. How you handle all of this determines the time you've able to devote to your ONE Thing and the results you've ultimately able to produce.

Here's the thing. When you say yes to something, it's imperative that you understand what you're saying no to.    
Screenwriter Sidney Howard, of Gone with the wind fame advised, "one-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.' In the end , the best way to succeed big is to small. And when you go small, you say no -a lot. A lot more than you might have ever considered before.

No one knew how to go small better than Steve Jobs. he was famously as proud of the products he didn't pursue as he was of the transformative products Apple created. In the two years after his return in 1997, he took the company from 350 products to ten. 
That's 340 nos, not counting anything else proposed during that period. At the 1997 Mec world Developers Conference, he explained ," when you thing about focusing you think , 'well, focusing is saying Yes." No! Focusing is about saying no ," Jobs was after extraordinary results and he knew there was only one way to get there. Jobs was  a " no " man.

2. Fear of chaos

A not-so -funny thing happens along the way to extraordinary results. Untidiness. unrest . Disorder. When we tirelessly work our time block, clutter automatically takes up residence around us.
Messes are inevitable when you focus on just on thing. While you whittle away on your most important. work the world doesn't sit and wait. It stays on fast forward and things just rack up and stark up while you bear down on a singular priority. Unfortunately ,there's no pause or stop bottom.  You can't run life in slow motion. Wishing you could will just make you miserable and disappointed.
One of the greatest thieves of productivity is the unwillingness to allow for chaos or the lack of creativity in dealing with it.

Focusing on ONE Thing has a guaranteed consequence: other things don't get done. Although that's exactly the point, it doesn't automatically make us feel any better about it. There will always be people and projects that simply aren't a part of your biggest single priority but still matter .You will feel them pressing for your attention.

There will always be unfinished work and loose ends lying around to snare your focus. Your time block can feel like a submersible, where the deeper you commit to your ONE thing, the more the pressure mounts for you to come up for air and address everything you've put on hold. Eventually it can feel like even the tiniest leak might triggers an all-out implosion.  

When this happens, when you give in to the pressure of any chaos being left unattended, it can be a total relief. But not when it comes to productivity.
it's a thief!
The truth is, it's a package deal. When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up. In fact , other areas of your life may experience chaos in direct proportion to the time you put in on your ONE Thing. It's important for you to accept this instead of fighting it. Oscar winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola warns us that " anything you build on a lager scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

" In other words ,get used to it and get over it.   Now, in anybody's life or work there are some thing that just can't be ignored : family, friends, pets ,personal commitments , or  critical job project at any given time, you many have some or all of these tugging at your time block.  You can't forgo your power hours, that's a given. so , what do you do?


" If  a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what ,than, is an empty desk a sign ?"
                                                                                                                :--   Albert Einstein 


3. Poor  Health HabiTs

I was once asked, " If don't take care of your body , where will you live ? " It was a real question. I had been fighting the painful side effects of interstitial cystitis ( You don't want to know) and was dealing with continually shaking legs, a debilitating side effect of cholesterol- fighting statin. my ability to  function much less focus, was extremely compromised, and the challenge to overcome this was daunting. My doctor gave me some options and asked me what I wanted to do.  The answer was to change my health habits. It was than that I discovered one of the greatest lessons of extraordinary results:

Personal energy mismanagement is a silent thief of productivity.

           *THE HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE PERSON'S DAILY ENERGY PLAN* 

1. Meditate and pray for spiritual energy.
2. Eat right, exercise, and sleep sufficiently for physical energy.
3. Hug Kiss, and laugh with loved ones for emotional energy.
4. Set goals, plan and calendar for mental energy.

Here's the productivity secret of this plan: when you spend the early hours energizing yourself, you get pulled through the rest of the day with little additional effort.  you're not focused on having a perfect day all day, but on having an energized start to each day. If you can have a highly productive day until noon, the rest of the day falls easily into place. That's positive energy creating positive momentum. Structuring the early hours of each day is the simplest way to extraordinary results.




4. ENVIRONMENT DOESN'T SUPPORT YOUR GOALS

  
Early in my career, a married mom of two teenagers sat in front of me and cried. Her family had told her they would support her new career as long as nothing at home changed. Meals, carpooling, anything that touched their world couldn't be disrupted. she had agreed , only to discover later how bad a deal she'd cut. As I listened, I suddenly realized I was hearing about a productivity thief almost everyone overlooks.

Your environment must support your goals.    

Your environment is simply who you see and what you experience every day. The people are familiar, the places comfortable. You trust these elements of your environment and quite possibly even take them for granted. But be aware. Anyone and anything  at any time can become a thief, diverting your attention away from your most important work  and stealing your productivity right from under your nose. For you to achieve extraordinary results, the people surrounding you and your physical surrounding must support your goals.

No one lives or works in isolation. Every day, throughout your day, you come in contact with others and are influenced by them. Unquestionably, these individuals impact your attitude, your health - and ultimately, your performance.

The people around you may be more important than you think. If's a fact that you're likely to pick up some of the attitudes of others by working with them, socializing with them , or simply being around them. From co-workers to friends to family, if they're generally not positive or fulfilled on the job or away from it, they'll probably pass on some of their negativity. Attitude is contagious: it spreads easily.
As strong as you think you are, no one is strong enough to avoid the influence of negativity forever. So, surrounding yourself with the right people is the right think to do. While attitude thieves will rob you of energy, effort and resolve, supportive people will do what they can to encourage or assist you. Ultimately, being with success- minded people creates what researchers call a " positive spiral of Success"   where they lift you up and send you on your way.