Part 2: The 6 Biggest Lies About Productivity
You and I were raised for slaughter:
…trained from a young age to be dutiful workhorses, willing cattle, sheep for the shearing.
But there's been a sea-change no one saw coming:
The barnyard rebellion.
Call it the age of the entrepreneur, the free agent, the self-starter… it's here.
The age our grandfathers lived in… the days of the "company man" getting their marching orders from the suits on high… that age is over.
Whether by necessity, or by some wild inner panging, we found the feral vein:
In staggering number, we've quit the paddock, flown the coop, jumped the fence: gone to ply our trade, as best we can, in the market wilds… unchained, untrained, unassisted.
And though we've caught the scent of freedom, the truth is, the feedlot is all we've known.
We are, all of us, but newly-liberated:
The cold air of ownership stabs our lungs, the afterbirth still glistening on our wobbling calf legs as we thrash, desperate to find our footing before the wolves sniff us out.
…
Why is CHOOSING AND EXECUTING a plan of action so hard?
Because they don't teach ownership in slave school.
It's one thing to declare yourself captain of your own ship: it's another to actually steer the thing.
And so we have the blind leading the blind…
…slaves telling other slaves how to be free.
Yes, EXECUTION is the path to freedom:
But the HOW and WHAT of it… THAT is the rub.
Here are six of the most destructive lies we've been told about execution and productivity:
LIE #1: You need a plan of execution.
TRUTH: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" - Mike Tyson. Plans bedevil execution. A plan is just a sweet-smelling form of procrastination. Success lies in taking the bold next step, not in the fruitless mapping of shifting terrain.
LIE #2: Get as much done each day as possible.
TRUTH: Execute no less OR MORE than you planned. The important thing is to execute 100% of the actions you commit to. Execution is a game played at two levels: the visible work you achieve on the surface, and the invisible work you do beneath… proving to yourself that you can be relied upon.
LIE #3: Take as much time for your project as excellence demands.
TRUTH: Excellence is relative, and is always in the eye of the beholder. As such, it is an impossible yardstick. Let the DEADLINE determine the level of excellence, not the other way around.
LIE #4: The best work comes in fits and spurts, so don't try to force it.
TRUTH: It takes tremendous effort to unseal the boulder, but almost none to keep it rolling down the mountainside. The most productive people have "boring" routines that keep the boulder in motion.
LIE #5: The greater your esteem for your work, the greater your execution.
TRUTH: You must think LESS of your work, not more. Stop treating your work like some fragile, once-in-a-lifetime jewel. It's just meat on the board: trim it, cut it, send it out the door.
LIE #6: You don't execute because you're unmotivated.
TRUTH: You're unmotivated because you don't execute. Stop wasting breath on complex justifications. The only reason you're not executing is THAT YOU'RE NOT EXECUTING.
No matter how talented you are…
No matter how hungry for success…
No matter how determined you are to "make something" of yourself…
If your gears are gunked with any of these lies…
NOT ONLY will you be unable to reliably execute…
…you'll also be hamstrung with crippling guilt and shame.
You'll limp along… called "gifted" by friends and family… with JACK to show for it.
You KNOW what burns within you… KNOW what you're capable of, if only…
But as a creative force, something's broken.
Your production is slow and tortuous… your successes brilliant, but few and far between, with no apparent way to further or recreate them.
I know, because this was MY life, too… until circumstances FORCED me down a different path.
What I found there challenged everything I thought I knew about freedom, creativity, and execution.
It was painful… and one of the best things that ever happened to me.
If you can relate to what I've written here… then you NEED to read what I have to tell you.
I'll share the whole crazy story on the next page.
