No LimitsSample

The challenge we all face in the area of capacity is changing from what we have done to what we are capable of doing. What makes it challenging is that change is difficult—if it were easy, no one would ever need to buy a how-to book!

What makes change difficult is the fact that we don’t see results right away. We may see incremental change but change in small doses isn’t very inspiring. I think people are wired for production—they like seeing significant results from even the smallest actions.

So if we want to increase our transition from what we’ve done to what we’re capable of, we have to find a way to ramp up our productivity.

Now, a word of caution: I’m not talking about increasing the number of things you do. In fact, there’s a strong possibility you need to quit doing things in order to get more done! Production is the ability to get more of the right things done effectively and efficiently.

I ask myself three questions to help determine what my right things are. First, there are things that only I can do. Those are required of me. Second, there are things that yield great results. Those give me a high return. Third, there are things that satisfy me like nothing else. Those provide me my greatest reward.

When you are living at the intersection of those three things, you are at peak productivity. But, as I mentioned before, getting there is a challenge. So here are a few suggestions to help you ramp up your productivity along the way:

• Visualize What You Want…and Then Get to Work—create a mental model of what you’d like to achieve and take a first step towards that objective. Do what you know to do, and then work to make improvements.
• Fail Fast, Fail First, Fail Often—perfection is the enemy of productivity. Nothing you do will be perfect, so embrace the reality and benefits of failure by releasing yourself from the burden of not making mistakes.
• Take Inventory of Your Skills and Resources—no one can be productive for long when they’re working in areas of weakness or with limited or unhelpful resources. Figure out where you are, and how to grow to where you need to be.
• Make Decisions Every Day that Move You Forward—don’t view decisions as right or wrong, or good or bad. View them by them by whether or not they move you forward towards your goal.
• Continually Reevaluate What Could Work Better—best is the enemy of better, so never assume that your best is as good as it can be. There’s always room for improvement, if we’ll make a commitment to looking for it.

It’s easy to think of production just in terms of work, but our families and our communities deserve our best as well. You can use these same steps to become a better parent, a better spouse, even a better volunteer.

The only thing separating you from the best version of yourself is taking the steps needed for change. All you have to do is get started!