Day 19

The Mindset

Mike Flint was Warren Buffett’s personal jet pilot for 10 years. Flint had flown for 4 different U.S. Presidents before, so he was pretty good at flying. He told Warren one day that he still felt as though he hadn’t achieved all of the career and life goals that he wanted to.

So Buffett jokingly says to Flint: “The fact that you’re still working for me tells me I’m not doing my job as a mentor. You should be going after more of your goals and dreams.”

So Flint asks Buffett for his help, and Buffett tells him to go through this 3-step exercise.

Warren Buffett started by asking Flint to write down his top 25 goals – the things that came to mind when he thought of success in his career and life. So, Flint took the night and wrote them down.

Then, Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top 5 goals – the things that were most important to him and that he wanted more than anything else in the world.

This was a lot harder for Flint, since everything on his list was important to him (after all, that’s why he wrote them down). But Warren insisted that he could only pick five, so after some time and thought, he made five circles.

“Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you?” Warren asked. Steve confidently replied that they were.

Warren now asked Flint when he planned to get to work on these top 5 goals and what his approach would be.

Flint explained, “Warren, these are the most important things in my life right now. I’m going to get to work on them right away. I’ll start tomorrow. Actually, no I’ll start tonight.”

Flint went on to explain his plan, who he would enlist to help him and when he expected to complete each item…

And that’s when Buffett asked him about the other 20 on his list. “What is your plan for completing those?”

Flint replied, “Well the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in at a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I’m getting through my top 5. They aren’t as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort.”

To which Buffett replied:

“No. You’ve got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn’t circle just became your ‘avoid at all cost list.’ No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”

Video

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The Fast-Action

  • Take a few minutes right now to write down a handful of bullet points about what you have on your “project list”
  • Don’t judge or qualify – just keep writing. Anything you spend your time on should go on the list.
  • Anything you spend mental bandwidth should be on the list.
  • Keep writing
  • This is the work – keep writing.
  • OK… look at the list.
  • What comes up for you when you see all that in one place?
  • That’s a record of your energy distribution – regardless of if it’s physical, emotional, mental, energetic – it’s where your brain lives.
  • Circle the 3 or 5 that matter most to you
  • Your heart and gut know instantly which matter most
  • Your brain will try to scramble the puzzle
  • This is our fast-action for today – and we did it well.
  • Who is going to be brave enough to write out that 2nd list of Avoid at All Costs?
  • Will you share it in the comments?

Photo of the Day

Full transparency – I hadn’t done this exercise in a long time and it was kind of raw and intense to do it. I didn’t quite know what I was asking you to do, but I felt it 🙂 Here are 21 that I wrote quickly and it was quite obvious the 4 that moved me vs interested me.  I’d love to see yours – a link in the comments or emal them to me with a yes/no to share.

 Chat Roll

00:00:47 Kyle Gresham: you are a warrior barry
00:00:51 Conjuror: Morning
00:00:59 Danny Orleans: good morning. Sunday warriors
00:01:54 Barry Richards: Good morning…from “the other” Barry!
00:02:24 Sora Iriye: G’morning, everyone!
00:02:31 sara kunz: morning!
00:03:50 Danny Orleans: me — well over 35
00:12:16 Conjuror: That felt SO GOOD!
00:12:51 Kyle Gresham: this is a powerful story
00:13:00 Kyle Gresham: Boom!
00:13:09 Sora Iriye: WOW
00:13:29 Sora Iriye: That’s a major perspective shift
00:17:31 sara kunz: this is very difficult! :p
00:18:35 Kyle Gresham: thx for sharing your list Barry
00:19:22 Danny Orleans: Wow a lot to ingest today….
00:20:36 Sora Iriye: OH MAN…that picture…HAHA
00:23:40 Sora Iriye: Oh my god…that’s SO helpful. Your wisdom, Barry…thank you

Resources

Here’s a short video with the pilot mention in today’s Mindset piece.

8 thoughts on “Day 19”

  2. Man this homework wasn’t easy, but here are my five:

    1. Content creation for new show
    2. Book Kilted Colin
    3. Write new jokes for KC show
    4. Create Social Skills Content
    5. Give and add as much value to other peoples’ lives as possible

  3. It was difficult for me to decide if these goals were supposed to be BUSINESS GOALS or LIFE GOALS. When seeing screen shot of Barry’s I realized that he included both. For me they are very separate…

    I will say (and warn you of) this. As probably the oldest member of this group (64 yrs), but not slowing down a bit (had my busiest year ever this year, increasing income by 30%), when you reach my age, some bucket list things begin to loom and compete with business goals. In most cases, very different goals.

    Bucket List:
    Travel with wife to Paris, London, Australia. We’ve been to the rest of England, Southern France, Italy, Amsterdam, but really want to see those other countries.

    Stay in touch better with my aging Uncle, and my 4 siblings scattered across the US.

    BUSINESS GOALS: TOP 5
    1. Build a website for my wife Jan Rose.
    2. Create and Produce a DVD set for magicians called The Art of Presenting Magic at Trade Shows. There’s a big market for this and I think I could sell 500 sets at $200 each. But DVD technology being what it is… might have to sell as a Download.
    3. Finish ebook I’m writing called “Can I get a discount.” Book for entertainers on how to answer that question posed by clients. It’s more than 1/2 done. Been sitting on it since June 2018.
    4. Learn how to do a CVI and actually do one for a prospective client. (That’s an embarrassing admission! 🙁
    5. Delegate more projects in my life.

    2. Beautiful list, Danny. I know something for sure: completing those 5 will enable you to EASILY do the bucket list items – and open you up for 5 more professional goals.

      1. Contact Sam Wood who I linked to on Day 18: http://member.showbizblueprint.com/day-18/

      2. YES – Please please please. You’re uniquely qualified to do this. Your social media presence gives you all the authority you need. $200 is too cheap – do it for $499 and you’ll sell more copies.

      3. Finish it in before Christmas. Hard deadline and you’ll do it. Parkinson’s Law. Use it to build your email list and further position you for the DVD course.

      4. Amazing… I love this. I’ll walk you through this anytime… just gather your content as per the template.

      5. Happiest one to read.

      So when it’s all done?

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