​If everything is important then nothing is.  If everything is urgent then nothing is.  Guess what, if you combine the two, that still doesn’t help.
 
I saw a small team at work using an Eisenhower box on a whiteboard, but everything was in one quadrant.  Guess which one?
 
Is brushing your teeth important?  Yes, to oral health.  To get a promotion?  Well, you could say yes, but is it more or less important than getting results expected by your boss?
 
You can always make a case for the important.  Who wants to admit to themselves that all their work is not even important? But is it important within the context of your goals and dreams?
 
Instead of categorising things as important or not important you could try a small tweak.  Try categorising your to-dos “more important” and “less important” within the context of a given goal. Then make sure you are allocating time appropriately to those that are less urgent.
 
The alternative is to look up from the hamster wheel in 10 years’ time and realise you are still in the same place.

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​Seeking true wisdom seems, to me, like piecing together nuggets of advice that seem paradoxical until you truly understand them for yourself.
 
The trouble with listening to others alone is that you either get conflicting information or you pigeon hole yourself into one way of thinking.  You must internalise what you hear, read, see and make it true to yourself.
 
Want to be successful? Easy, look for others more than yourself. Or. Easy, be ruthless in going after what you want. Both have been seen to be true, but how can it be so?
 
Back when I used to run more, we used to joke that it wasn’t the fastest person to run the 10k that won. It was the person that can run the 10k the fastest and still drink the most beers afterwards as that showed that you had balance in your life.
 
We could have run faster if we did not drink, cut out desserts, trained every day instead of socialising. But the goal was not to win the race at all costs of missing going out, it was to enjoy running.
 
If the goal was to win an Olympic medal, then clearly our strategy is not enough. People training for that have a singular focus and never give up. Until they give up. Or until they get the medal. Either way, there is a price to other things they could have been doing.
 
When setting your goals and choosing who to listen to you must decide if that is the person you want to be.
 
Do you want to be alone? Do you want to be hated? Do you want only fleeting relationships?
 
Because to get the surface level success that the masses covet, there may be some payoffs your idols had to make that you are not immediately aware of.
 
Decide what your goal is before you get on the treadmill otherwise it may be tricky to get off. And when you do, you might find you are back where you started in some areas of your life.

​I read three or four books at the same time. Someone asked me, “well won't you finish them faster if you focus on one book.” Yes, but the goal is not to get to the end of the book as fast as possible. It is to link as much different knowledge as possible to find the connections that others don't. If I’m enjoying a book then I want it to last as long as possible.
 
The other day I came across the quote in the picture followed by this excerpt from the Tao Te Ching:
 
The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.
 
The point of planning is not to get a plan.  It is to do the act of planning.
 
If I'm executing a task then single tasking is the way forward. If I am thinking then I want that to be as broad as possible.
 
Split your time into thinking and doing and do not confuse the two. Plan and then ruthlessly execute.
 
And enjoy each step.  Why rush?  The goal is not to get to the end.  The goal is to work towards a goal.

​Whilst I was working at a corporate job I searched for an app to help me run meetings more effectively and could not find one. I noticed that no one, not even senior executives, can run a meeting properly. There is never and agenda, people talk for hours, and everyone underneath them on the org chart is trapped in meeting hell!
 
It was not until a year or two later that I put the idea into practice. I had always wanted to run my own company but always made excuses to not start. When I was on a beach holiday I read 4-hour workweek, Think and Grow Rich and The Icarus Deception all back to back. I thought, 'what I would do if I already had £100m in the bank,' and I decided that I would love to design and create iOS apps. My pet peeve was people saying they did not have time for things. I joined this to the earlier idea of a meeting timer app, and hey presto.
 
Because I decided that I would do this even if I already were a multimillionaire, then I did not have the goal of making any money.  That would (hopefully) be a nice benefit.
 
When I got back to work my company announced that they were making my whole team and me redundant. I thought that if I do not do it now, I never will. There will never be a perfect time.
 
And there is never a perfect time. Just start.

​Lots of advice is to hunker down, to save your nuts for the winter.  Get your head down, study, get good grades, get a good job.

Lately, there is lots of other advice to be a leader, entrepreneur, raise capital, raise debt, travel the world, make more money.

Neither track is bad advice.  But why not do both?

Make more money and save more money.  Work a full-time job and do one on the side.  Have roots somewhere and travel too.

The trouble with advice is that it comes from the worldview of the person giving it, not from the worldview of the person receiving it.

If you are introverted, have a brilliant idea and are a little timid then following advice to listen more, read more, and to be cautious is tempting as it is your natural self.  Similarly, if you are already overconfident, talk over people, and act before thinking, then getting advice to be brasher, to do more and to pester people might not be the best.

In either case, seeking out advice that is less like your current self, whilst not losing who you are is surely the secret to the game.

If you have low self-esteem then thinking that you are better than everyone around you is just an antidote to bring you back to normal.  If you are already arrogant, then the same advice is an overdose likely to tip you over the edge of social norms.

Whatever you are like, whatever you are doing.  You can do it all.

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​The conditions will never be perfect.
 
You will not have enough money
Loved ones will leave you
You will not always feel motivated.
 
Just start.
 
And keep moving forwards with what you have got.
 
You will figure it out as you go along.  Back yourself.

If you win at gambling the first time, you always think you can get your money back after you lose. If you get bitten by a dog the first time you try to stroke one, you will be frightened of dogs.  Until you have enough other experiences to convince you of the contrary.
 
Just because you keep trying doesn't mean the universe owes you a success. But it doesn't mean that because you failed at everything in life, you will fail at the next thing either.
 
So try.
 
And keep on trying.
 
What is the alternative? You weren't put on earth to stay in bed.

Instead why not make it so you cannot fail? No one cares how long it took you to get something. Enjoy getting there.
 
Eric hip Hop Preacher took 12 years to get a degree but it is not on the degree how long it took - no one cares. Gary Vaynerchuk says he enjoys the process: he will not enjoy the day he actually can buy the NY Jets. Everything I have ever owned, I have enjoyed more looking forward to it, reading about it, obsessing over it, than when I actually get it.
 
So how can you make it so you cannot fail? Redefine success.
 
Tim Ferriss, says what would it look like if it were easy.  And also, even if I fail, how can I learn something from this.  James Altucher aims to get just 1% better every week. Redefine failure for yourself so you cannot fail.
 
My business cannot fail, because the aim is only to do the process of making a business for my own learning and enjoyment. If no one buys my product, I have still succeeded. If 1 person buys it, I will be ecstatic.
 
My end goal is to get financial freedom for my family. I need £600k. But even if this takes me until retirement, I have enjoyed the journey along the way and at least I tried to get their quicker.

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If you are an accountant, this will flip your mind on assets.  For everyone else it will do the same for wealth and education. 

​Part of my top three books on finances, this is a must read.  It has been the catalyst to change people’s lives.  At the very least it may change your mind on your next purchase.

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​Yesterday I happened upon a creative live video to do with personal finance for freelancers.  The video has good advice but the thought struck me that it is amazing how many people are bad at this.  Even salaried employees on six figure incomes live pay-check to pay-check.  Robert Kiyosaki is right, it really is the mind-set that makes a person poor or rich.
 
We have some friends of friends who bought a house and over-extended themselves on the mortgage.  Once they moved in, they found out that the property had lots wrong with it so took out loans to fix the problems.  Nothing too wrong there, it wasn’t their fault, right?  They also took out loans to buy new cars.  Then had IVF and became pregnant.  Then, instead of buying a stroller that fits in their car, they are taking more debt to buy a bigger car so that they can fit the stroller that they want in the car.  Madness!
 
Surely no matter how much money they have, they will waste it.  This is why it is so important to decide what you are going to do with your money, no matter how much or little you have.  You need a rich person’s mind-set before you get rich, otherwise you will be sure to lose it.
 
The same is true for time.  If you do not know what you would do with more time, then you are sure to squander it when you get it.  If you decide what you would do with more time before you get, then guess what?  You can do most of what you want already.