Doing things in the right sequence
The notion of doing things in the right order is a subject that has popped up a lot lately. This is a fairly simple concept, but one people frequently get wrong. This can be for a lot of reasons. Often, it’s because people don’t know better or because they’re not willing to do what’s necessary—and instead do a lot of pseudo fluffy stuff, to keep their bad conscience away, and their minds busy.
In the book “The One Thing” authors Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan talk about doing the “one thing.” The general idea behind this notion is that not all the stuff on our agenda is equally important. Depending on where you are in life, different things matter more. So, the idea is, to be honest with yourself, and assess what are the most important tasks that you should be doing. All areas of life can be broken down into smaller tasks, and these smaller tasks can be evaluated. So, how does this apply? Well, as stated above, we have seen this play out in so many different areas of life lately, so the question is more where doesn’t this principle apply? Let’s take a couple of concrete examples.
You want to get fitter.
Fitness is a measure of how physically capable you are. So, now you can ask yourself, “Am I strong?” Or “Is my cardiovascular fitness where it should be?” If the answer is no to both, then you should be thinking about moving more throughout the day. If this is too unambitious for you, then you should consider a sport/activity where you get a bit of both—CrossFit or another group exercise class could be good options. If you only lift weights, then maybe your priority should be to go for a walk or a run.
You want to lose weight
Well, this is a balance question, so, the question is—do you spend fewer calories than you eat? In most cases, people know what they’re doing wrong. Now you need to figure out what’s the most important course of action—hence, what is the one thing you should focus on? For many people, it’s enough to stop drinking calories. Stop or reduce the consumption of sodas, beer, iced tea, etc. This should be enough to get your caloric intake down a bit and set you up, for a small caloric deficit. If you're thinking “that’s not enough” then you’re probably right, but then start contemplating on what’s holding you back.
Financial issues
Financial difficulties are strikingly similar to the weight issue. But now you often earn too little or spend too much—so it’s the same notion but inverted. So, what’s the best course of action? Well, let’s look at what a plan of action could look like.
Go through all the services that you’re paying for every month and cancel everything that hasn’t brought you value in the last weeks—Netflix, gym memberships, etc.
Assess all the stuff that you own and see if you couldn’t sell some of it. We often own a lot of great stuff that we don’t use, and which could be beneficial for others—it’s a win-win situation.
Now start looking at your profit site. This is not a quick fix and will start a newly prioritized to-do list. The world is recovering from a pandemic and is, therefore, less rigid than before. So, this can be the perfect time to start a little side gig or start a new career path. Corona gave us a lot of setbacks, like lost jobs, more challenging family circumstances, etc., but it also presented new opportunities—like new career paths and education. So, be honest and get to work.
The general idea is that you should assess your current state and choose the area of life in which you want to improve--then do that thing which will set you in the right direction, instead of doing what “feels” right.
Be honest and imagine where you could be in five years if you stopped avoiding the things you know you should be doing.
Until next time
Scott and Lennart