Minute With Mallon: The Enemy of Achievement!

Welcome to Minute with Mallon! 

Something I Taught:

Have you ever noticed that some of your goals seem to make painfully slow progress, even though you're working hard?

You stay busy.

You put in the hours.

You have good intentions.

Yet six months later, several important things are still sitting unfinished.

I was talking with a client recently who is exactly the kind of person you'd expect to succeed. He's smart, driven, disciplined, and capable. The problem wasn't a lack of effort.

The problem was that he had too many priorities.

As we walked through his goals, it became obvious that he wasn't suffering from a shortage of ambition. He was suffering from a shortage of focus.

That's when we talked about a simple idea:

Focus is the art of Exclusion.

When I said those words, it stopped him in his tracks. "Say that again Robert."  And he wrote it down. 

The word "art" matters because exclusion isn't easy. It requires judgment. It requires discipline. It requires disappointing our inner desire to chase every exciting

opportunity that comes our way.

For leaders, this is especially important because attention is a limited resource. Most leaders don't fail because they lack talent. They fail because they spread their talent across too many priorities.

A magnifying glass can concentrate sunlight enough to start a fire. The same sunlight spread across an entire yard does almost nothing. 

People work the same way.

When our effort is spread across ten goals, progress feels slow and frustrating. When that same effort is concentrated on two or three important goals, momentum starts to build.

The enemy of achievement is not a lack of effort. It's diluted effort.

A lesson I've learned from coaching leaders over the last two decades is that the highest performers are rarely doing more than everyone else. They're usually doing fewer things with greater intensity and consistency. 

The challenge is that saying "no" feels like losing an opportunity. In reality, saying "no" to the right things is often what creates the opportunity.

If everything is important, nothing is important.

This week, instead of asking, "What should I add?"

Ask yourself, "What should I eliminate?"

Because focus isn't the art of doing more. 

It's the art of exclusion.

Something to Ponder:

The number one purpose of parenting is to turn a liability into an asset.

Dan Sullivan.

Something I Learned:

Recently, I learned about something called the "Spacing Effect."

Researchers have found that if you want to remember something for the long term, cramming isn't the answer.

Most of us learn something, hear something, or read something once and then move on. The problem is that our brains quickly begin to forget it.

The secret is to revisit the information at increasing intervals.

A good rule of thumb is:

• Review it within 24 hours.

• Review it again about 3 days later.

• Review it again about a week later.

• Then 2–3 weeks later.

• Then 1–2 months later.

The brain remembers what it revisits!

Why does this work?

Because every time you review information right before you're about to forget it, you strengthen the memory. The brain essentially gets the message: "This is important. Keep this one."

It made me think about how often we hear a great idea in a book, podcast, sermon, or conversation and then never revisit it again.

Maybe the difference between learning and mastery isn't discovering more information.

Maybe it's remembering and applying the information we've already learned.

Something I Saw:

Sedona, AZ. Was in the upper 90’s that day. Not for the faint of heart! I 🥵

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Hope you have an incredible week! 

Robert