Here is today’s Game and what’s going on.
Here is what I discovered today in our Dadly Daily Declaration reading from The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne.
The title of today’s reading is “The 5th Pillar: The Big Deadline, or the Most Important Pillar of Them All.” Let’s jump in with a few highlights first:
- You must learn to harness the power of the Big Deadlines in your life. You’ve done it before. Think back to the last time you went on vacation. You sure were productive on that final day of work before it started, weren’t you? A deadline gets us to take action. It signifies the light at the end of the tunnel, the finish line at the end of the home stretch, that motivates us to accelerate our progress and push harder towards our goals. The deadline puts urgency into our actions and keeps us going through the tough times and dark days. It is what keeps my fat loss clients on track after weeks of avoiding temptation, and it holds the same power for you.
- But if you want to succeed, you must have deadlines on your schedule for what really matters in life. They are harsh, honest, and unforgiving. They work like nothing else.
- There are two ways the power of the Big Deadline can help you have a Perfect Day.
- First, you can use it in your daily routines by setting limits on your workday.
- Deadlines must also be applied to your daily tasks. It’s one thing to plan out a busy day of activities on your to-do list, but if you don’t include a cut-off time for them, such as limiting a phone call to no more than twenty minutes, then these activities will all last longer than planned and cut into the amount of work you can accomplish. A jam-packed to-do list with no deadlines can you leave you frustrated due to a lack of progress on what really matters in your life.
- The second and more important way to harness the power of the Big Deadline is by setting an end date for achieving your goals. Your dreams must have a deadline. Personal transformation programs work best when set for ninety days or less.
- If you want to aggressively pursue success, take your deadline and cut it in half. At first this new deadline might seem near impossible, but after reflection, you should think that yes, you can do it, if you put the 5 Pillars in place for your success.
- Challenge yourself. Otherwise you might suffer from Parkinson’s law, which says, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” If you don’t have a cut-off date for your projects, then you’ll continue to add to your to-do list and the work will drag on forever. If you have a project that is lingering, set a deadline—one that comes with meaningful consequences for missing it—and get it done. Every deadline should come with incentives. You might choose to inflict a punishment upon yourself or you might offer yourself a reward for success.
Those gems lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:
We all have a natural Big Deadline in our lives, and the realization that we are all running out of time should be enough to inspire us to take action on our top priority today.
Deadlines force you to focus and take the actions you need to take in order to achieve your big goals and dreams. There is nothing as powerful as the urgency of a deadline—set with meaningful consequence—to finally get you to take action.
