Category Archives: Improvement

How to identify your top 3 outcomes?

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Yes, how to identify them? Let’s have a shot.

5 key areas

First of all, let’s look at the five key areas of life:

  • financial
  • intellectual
  • physical
  • spiritual
  • relational

Picture yourself at the center of these 5.

At this very moment in your life, are you financially happy, intellectually happy, physically happy, spiritually happy, relationally happy? Do you want more out of one area?

Pick an area of importance to you.

Of enough importance to make you invest time and energy in getting to the next level.

Write it down. Come on, do it, write it down on a scrap of paper.

A basic question

Now, ask yourself this basic question:

 

How would I know when I’d reach ‘it’ in that very area?

 

Yes, how would you know? Because without an indicator, you aren’t gonna get very real on this one.

The more precise you can get on the indicator, the better. Nobody said it couldn’t be qualitative by the way.

And an outcome doesn’t need to be Earth shattering to be a top outcome. Just that it is of enough importance for you to commit to get in motion towards it. For long enough and with enough resolve so that there is a pretty good chance you’ll make it.

So, now turn your attention to the ‘it‘ bit. Now that you have an indicator, it is much easier to define this ‘it‘ more clearly.

Now write down: 

 

Top outcome in ….. : ……

I’d know I’ll be there when: … is true…

Reality check

You may well have been rationalizing all the way down. Yes, your mental mind may have done all the work. So, what is your gut telling you now? How do you feel when reading back aloud what you just wrote down? Try it. Repeat. Do you feel excitement?, fear?, butterflies in the belly? If there is nothing, you aren’t exactly looking a anything resembling a top outcome.
But if you do, there is something in there!

Rinse and repeat, until you have your three

Pick another area, or the same, it doesn’t matter. Do as the spirit moves you. And go through the process again. You just will have to do the reality check at the end until you have your three.

Formulation done!

If you are here without cheating, congratulations. If not, let’s wonder why you didn’t went through. Stop reading down and go through, will you?

Good.

Now that you have your list, the first step is set: formulating your top 3 outcomes.

Next in line, materializing these outcomes into the world.

But that will be for another time!

Until then, make sure you get the butterflies in there.

–Philippe

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Getting luck on your side

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It is a fact of life that we have a limited amount of time available.
Much less than we usually think.
That’s why it is very important to be careful about how we allocate it if we want to reach our top 3 outcomes.
To reach our top 3 outcomes, whatever they are, we would love to have luck on our side. There is indeed a component of luck involved in reaching our top 3 outcomes. A lot of factors can sway our efforts in the wrong direction. Bad things happen.

So, what’s luck in the first place? As far as I concerned I define luck as “preparation meeting opportunity.”

Yep, that’s it, preparation. You need to be prepared to jump right away on the opportunity as it presents itself to you. The unprepared will say “well, you know, I was unlucky and I was unable to seize the opportunity…”

And the more you prepare, the more you’ll be able to spot opportunities as well as you’ll hone your skills.

But beware, do not drown yourself in preparation. Make sure that you prepare on real cases, not just looking at books or discussing without purpose.

That’s the difference between knowledge and skill. Skill is what you are after. Skill is knowledge that has been applied to real world situations. You have been through the issues, you have a real solid learning. That’s not fluff. That’s not hot hair. As a side note, it is much better to have a grain of skill than 100 cubic meters of hot air on a given subject, no matter what the noise the hot air crew makes!

But then the next problem occurs: which skills are going to help us meet the opportunity we want to seize? And what opportunity are we interested in in the first place? In the previous newsletter we looked at a bunch of questions to help you do just that. Identify your outcomes. At least the areas where you want them to be.

There is no way to get away without this. You need to be clear on youroutcomes first. And with a kind of metric so that you know when you are there, or close enough to consider it reached successfully.

Which leads us to the most difficult thing to do when you want to reach your top 3 outcomes: saying no to a lot of other stuff. You see, if you choose to pursue your top 3 outcomes, or even one of them, you’ll need to stop chasing other things. And that means saying “no.” It means that you have made a choice. And making a choice is saying no to what is not that choice.

Say you want your firm to be well known in the marketplace so that it attracts customers for its very specific value proposition. All right. But if you want to get there, and get there fast, you’ll need to focus on making it true. Learn how to do it, maybe staff for getting it done. Channel your resources to make it happen. No matter what, you’ll have to say no to other things because nobody has infinite resource (not even Microsoft, Google or Apple: they all let go products that do not catch up).

So, this month, let’s reflect on what you’ll say no to:

  • letting go of old habits that make no sense in the pursuit of youroutcomes (these are just time leeches)
  • letting go of people that do not contribute to your outcomes, or people who are sabotaging your effort (what a relief!)
  • letting go of projects that have been on the backburner for too long and have nothing to contribute to your outcomes (it will make more space available in your mind)
  • stop making commitments just to “look nice” and “because you have to.” (2 minutes to say no, more satisfaction for hours by focusing on what matters instead of pleasing others)

Choosing is saying no. And if you do not choose, others will do it for you.
Wouldn’t it be better to act on your agenda rather than on theirs, by default?

Until next time, let’s say no to crap and yes to luck!
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Focus on outcomes, not tasks

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As you may have noticed on my website (http://philippeback.eu), I have changed my value proposition from “Helping you improve your way of working” to “I help you achieve your top 3 outcomes“.

Indeed, I’ve taken a good look at where one can get the greatest leverage when applying skills.

And that led to that sharper focus on outcomes. Helping you improve your way of working is definitely positive and all, and it made me tick for several years. But it is time to move on because improvement of ways of working isn’t in any way focused on outcomes. It is focused on efficiency (usage of means) instead than on efficacy (reaching outcomes). Hence the switch.

My web presence will change name issue and morph into “Reaching your top 3 outcomes”. What’s in a name would you say. Well, a lot actually. Language is everything in communication. And communication ultimately directs the relationships and business.

So, yes, the words we use and the way we see ourselves is a big deal. In fact, this is *the* deal. Something I came to realize after, well, 10+ years (So long already? Oh my!) in business. Never too late to learn, right?

So, what does this bring to the table? What’s the value for you, dear reader?

Well, three things actually. Three I can think of, right out of the top of my hat that is:

One: Focus on top 3 outcomes will make you think about *your* top 3

What are your top 3 outcomes then? Can you list them? You can’t have more than 3. 3 is already a hell of a lot of outcomes.

Start by making a list of 10+ and then prune like a berserker because finding the top 3 is hard work. Don’t think about how you’ll make it true. Think about the outcome itself. Don’t be shy. Think big.

Some questions:

  • Is it personal our professional? (holistic choices allowed as well)
  • Can you write it down in a single line of less than 10 words? (and without commas all along the way, don’t cheat!)
  • What difference will reaching that outcome bring to your life?
  • How badly do you need that to become true?
  • How painful is it for that not to become true?

Two: What makes something an outcome worthy of making it to your top 3 list?

What’s an outcome? Well, everything is an outcome. Even failure is an outcome. You may want to call it a learning experience. Or a stellar success. Who am I to tell you what an outcome is for you?

But what makes something worthy of your top 3 list, that I can help you with.

Consider this:

  • Is this outcome something you are ready to invest massive energy in?
  • Are you fed up beyond all limits by not having this outcome coming true?
  • Are you feeling energized, just because of considering that outcome?
  • Is this merely a ‘nice to have’? It has to be of the ‘must have this or else’ variety!
  • Is that outcome a required step to get to your ultimate dream?
  • Will it be a stepstone to your wildest dreams?
  • Don’t you even dare to think about what this will bring if it becomes true?

What fits with those elements is worthy of your top 3.

Three: No need to kill yourself for this. Start small, build some muscle.

“Thinking big, wildest dreams, massive energy investment… Wait a minute, you crazy.
I do have the mortage to pay, the family to attend to. I am chained to my work desk all day long.
Do you think I even have the time to think about my top 3 outcomes?”

Hell, yes you have time. Time is there for everyone. It is named “The Great Equalizer”. I do not want to light a fire under your chair but realize that a year is 365 days (don’t get me started on the .25, you don’t have time for that).
And that makes 10 years 3650 days. I am about to hit 42. In 10 years, I’ll be 52. And 10 years later, 62. And by then, I’ll have sailed through 7300 days (if you checked the calculation, you have more time on your hands than you think!). Life is short. Too short to not do something about our dreams.

So, you for sure have the time to even work on a small dream, to allow yourself to get it. A lot of people do not even dare to dream small. Start there, dream small, and make your small dream come true light up your day. And then move from there. Build that dream achiever status of yours. No need to go public about it, just let it warm your heart, warm your soul, make you feel that your life matters in a big way. It does. Yes, it does. I grant you the right to make it true, should you need it. Stop seeking for validation. You have the right to your dream.

Are you ready for a change? I am. I’d like to have you around for that journey!

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Nobody can predict the future. So: roll up your sleeves and make your own!

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Seems you fear failing.

I read somewhere: FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real). Set aside this part of your mind, and get the ball rolling. Overcoming inertia is the #1 ability. Once the ball rolls, everything gets easier. Once you have invested enough, you’ll not stop. And your brain will rewire so that this will become a new habit.

What is *the* thing that you are focusing on right here, right now? What did you manifest to the world this week?

I’d love to this thing happen and become manifest.

It’s your duty to enable others to work and buy from you! Why are you preventing them to do so for so long? I’ve someone in the family who acts in that procrastination-heavy way. She is ever preparing, switching domains, etc. Basically, it is about 10 years she does it without getting anywhere.

If she would have done one thing in practice for all the time she procrastinated, she would be a millionaire. To be frank, I have stopped listening when she starts explaining by now.

Don’t fall victim of the same trap.

I mean: damn, would she ever stop and try things out for real? Check this out:http://philippeback.be/2009/09/youtube-video-failure-the-key-to-success/

And also: http://www.whomovedmycheese.com/

Huh, no, actually, don’t do that. Tell us that you’ve booked the dates, the venue, and started getting bookings for that workshop and teleconference of yours! Or whatever you had in mind since I am no mind reader.

I would love to see you succeed!

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