Achieving More With Less
| posted by Buhle Dlamini The Key To Balance and SuccessBy Buhle Dlamini
“It is not necessary to do extraordinary things in order to get extra ordinary results.”
- Warren Buffet
In the last four days I have touched down in Dakar Senegal, Dallas Texas, Chicago Illinois and now I am in New York City. In the years gone by that would have been impossible let alone being affordable. With the advent of air travel what used to be a long, tedious and costly process of getting from one place to another became a breeze, literally. Technology has shown one in so many areas of our modern lives how to achieve more with less. Sadly even with all the evidence that stares us in the face about achieving more with less being a real possibility many of us are not using this to our advantage.
We all desire some measure of success in our work and life but often we believe that the price we have to pay for it is just too much for us. This may be very well true if we continue to hold on to the belief that in order to achieve more in business, life and work you need to do more. This conventional wisdom is what keeps so many stuck from ever achieving a real measure of success in their lives.
Warren Buffet spells it out in the quote I shared at the beginning of this article, that you don’t need to do extraordinary things or be extraordinary to achieve great results. I listen to him because he has proven this very point over and over in his life. If you are not aware, Warren Buffet is now the third richest man in the world after Carlos Slim and Bill Gates. Warren Buffet is worth in the excess of 50 Billion US Dollars (not Zim Dollars) and gave away to charity about 30 Billion making history in the process. Now most of us when we hear about that kind of money we imagine someone like him having slaved hard for most of his life to get there. The reality is that he didn’t and if we are serious about success we need to take a leaf out of his book.
The 80/20 Principle
Richard Koch wrote a book called ‘Living the 80/20 Way’. In this book he explains the 80/20 principle, which basically states that 80% of our efforts give us 20% of the results and vice versa. Many of us unfortunately live 80% effort side of life ad only get 20% of the results we desire. We are often so busy being busy that we don’t realize that all our busyness is only giving us a trickle of the kind of results we’re looking for in life.
If we are going to achieve the kind of success that we desire a mind shift is important. We need to stop looking for the hardest route to our success and get into the habit of looking for ways of achieving more with less. Often we hear about people who take very few calculated steps and achieve much more than the rest of us. The difference between them and us is that they understand this principle and they make it work for them every time and yielding great results.
If you are tired of working hard but not getting the results you desire take time to creating your roadmap to achieving more with less. Let us look at what you need to look at in achieving more with less:
1. Be Clear About The Results You Seek
‘Begin with the end in mind’ is a phrase we have heard before but it is still relevant today if not more. What is the end result you seek in your business, relationships, finances, career and life? Becoming clear on the results helps you to chart your course to them. So when you get up in the morning ask yourself what do I want to achieve today? As you get to work ask yourself the same question, what do I want to achieve in my work today? As you handle your finances ask- what do I want to achieve financially? As you become clearer about the results you seek you engage in the process of being results driven as opposed to working for the sake of working. When you know the kind of results you seek you will automatically eliminate unnecessary activities. It will change the way you do things and often it will make your job much easier.
2. Discover Your 20/80 Route
Now that you know what you want achieve, why not look at what is the shortest route to achieving the end result. It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Now let us look at your current work and life. Has your current way of living and working given you the kind of results you are looking for in the important areas of your life? If not, then start drafting a different route to take you to your desired results. What can you change in your work and life that will be the shortest route to achieving your desired goals? This might mean that in your work you have to make a list of 20% of activities that give you 80% of your desired results. Once you have compiled your list start focusing on only doing these activities because they are your key to achieving more with less.
Let me give you a practical example: in your finances, the best way to get more money with the least amount of work is investing. By investing you get your money to work for you instead of you working for money. But the problem is that many of us don’t enough money to start really seeing the benefits of investing. So most of us just dream about having more money and continue trading our time for a trickle of money that barely sees us from month to month. If you want to start achieving more with the less you have there are a few steps you need to take. First, educate yourself about different ways of investing; a book or a workshop on investing will take a long way towards getting the kind of knowledge you need to start investing. Secondly, once you know about your investment options, you might need to start saving a portion of what you are currently getting to get you to the point where you can start investing seriously. Usually you need between R8 000 and R10 000 to start investing for good returns. From then on you follow simple calculated steps and are now on the road to financial freedom. This will enable you to achieve more with less in the financial area of your life.
3. Manage Your Focus
If you are like many people I know you have spent a lot of time and money on trying to improve your time management skills. I have been one of the victims of the time management craze. Because of our lack of focus on the right things and our misunderstanding of the 80/20 principle, many of us are taking courses on how we can cram more into our workdays. We pay good money to learn how we can beat the clock in our crazed running around while achieving little or nothing to be proud of. I say to you forget time management. YOU CANNOT MANAGE TIME!!! Time is continuous; nobody gets a better share of time, we all get 24 hours in a day. The Millionaire and a beggar on the street corner both get the same 24 hours in a day, what sets them apart is what they focus on in those 24 hours. So I strongly suggest that you start focus management instead of time management. If you manage what you focus on you will start to achieve more with less.
So there it is, you already have in you everything you need to succeed in life the key is getting rid of some of the myths you hold. You don’t need to be extraordinary to succeed. You don’t need to work extra hard to succeed. You don’t need to have a ton of money to succeed. Start utilizing the little you have to achieve more right now. Cheers, I am off to the Time Square, New York is AMAZING!
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Buhle Dlamini is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Writer as well as the Founder of Young & Able Youth Advisory Services cc, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Buhle is also a consulting Project Manager to Heartlines a values-based Mass Media Initiative. Get Buhle’s FREE monthly Success Newsletter by visiting his website at www.youngable.com
