Free Articles | Products | Coaching | Events | Success Stories | Affiliate |
Meet Kendall | Media | Contact
Winners are Quitters!
September 14th, 2009 by Kendall SummerHawk
I’m happy to say that I am going to have some new experts share their information and insights on my blog in the coming months as a way to bring even more valuable content to you on a regular basis. Here’s just a sneak peak with a guest post by Jim Everett.
That’s right; winners ARE quitters. Not only are they quitters, they’re the fastest and most efficient quitters. That’s why they succeed.
How about you? Are you a quitter?
Do you quickly recognize and immediately stop the strategies, tactics and activities that take you further from your goals? Or do you invest even more time and effort in what doesn’t work because you’re used to it, because you’re good at it, or because you like it?
This is a crucial distinction that can make the difference between a life of constant struggle, worry and frustration, and consistent progress in the direction of your dreams.
You’ve probably heard of the Pareto Principle, better known as the 80/20 rule. It simply states that 20% of your activities are responsible for 80% of your results and vice-versa. This means that the vast majority, 80%, of your time and effort is only getting 20% of your results. These are the activities that winners quit. They relentlessly pursue their goals, but they quickly discontinue efforts that don’t pay off.
If you think about it for just a minute you can probably name at least 3 activities you perform on a consistent basis that do not support your success.
Here are a few places to look:
1. Internet – between e-mail, Face Book, YouTube, and Google it’s easy to waste hours that could have been very productive. All of them have great uses, but they require extreme discipline.
2. Television – many people spend 1/3 of their lifetime in front of the tube (or plasma). If you’re going to watch TV, make sure you’re getting value.
3. Personal Relationships – notice how you feel during and after interacting with friends and family members. If you feel drained, frustrated, or depressed you may want to reconsider who you’re spending time with.
These are just some of the proverbial ‘2 steps back’ for every step forward.
What would happen to your life if you just stopped taking those backwards steps?
That’s right! You would make a lot more progress, feel better about yourself and have a lot more fun along the way.
If you want to hear from some very successful online entrepreneurs and the actions that have contributed the most to their success, including quitting in many cases, please check this out. They held nothing back and what they said could change your business in a really meaningful way.
Posted in Success • • Subscribe to this feed
Tags: entrepreneurs, Jim Everett, Success
What I love about this post is that it gives people permission to quit! So often people don’t quit because quitting is seen in a negative light and they feel that others will think less of them. Jim’s post highlights the fact that quitting can often be very advantageous.
As a professional organizer, my additional thought would be that sometimes if someone isn’t good at a task or if they don’t have enough time, but the task itself seems important, an alternative to quitting is to delegate the task to someone else. I just recently hired a staff member to help maintain my Facebook Fan page and to create some blog entries. Just a thought…
Comment by Janice Russell, CPO-CD — September 14, 2009 @ 10:28 am
For me, it’s meant saving myself from the nonprofit sector and endless boards, committees, or nonprofit clients who want everything for nothing. YEARS of this stuff, but I started deliberately quitting last year and just this morning quit my final, final “obligation.” I was asked to take minutes of a two-hour committee meeting, and also to help build and maintain the organization’s website (they have no staff). Yes, the mission is important and I support it, but it’s just not my problem!!!! Been there, done that, for far too long and I am officially, as of this morning, out of nonprofit jail and well into being the CEO of me.
I must say that the voices of Kendall, Richard, and Baeth Davis have really helped. They confirmed what I knew, and it was great to have these voices saying, “No excuses!” In Baeth’s case: “You service people need to quit the committee if it’s not giving you bliss!”
It didn’t take much to continue what I had already started, but those days are now 100% over. Thank you!!!
Comment by Bonnie Hurd Smith — June 1, 2010 @ 10:03 am