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that it feels like work, whereas successful people work at a pace that
gets such satisfying results that work is a reward. Truly successful
people don’t even call it work; for them, it’s a passion. Why?
Because they do enough to win!
An easy way to achieve balance is to simply work harder
while you are at the offi ce. This won’t just leave you with
more time; it will allow you to experience the rewards of your
job and make it feel less like work and more like success. Try
to take this approach: Be grateful to go to work, and see how
much you can get done in the time you have. Make it a race, a
challenge—make it fun.
The fi rst thing to do when managing time and seeking
balance is to decide what is important to you. In which areas
do you most want to achieve success and in what quantities?
Write those down in order of importance. Then determine the
total amount of time you have available and decide where you
are going to allot time to each of these endeavors. Another vital
thing to do: Log how you are spending your time daily—and
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I mean every single second. This will allow you to see all the
ways in which you waste your time—the little habits and activi-
ties that in no way contribute to your success. Any action that
is not adding wood to your fi re would be considered wasteful—
think Xbox, online poker, watching television, napping, drink-
ing, taking smoking breaks—the potential list is endless. Brutal,
isn’t it? Yes, it is—but if you don’t manage your time, I promise
that you will waste it.
Of course, things will change throughout the course of
your life and career. You get older. You achieve and then gen-
erate new goals. Different things and people enter your world.
All of these changes require that you continue to modify your
priorities. For example, I listened for years to parents who told
me that I didn’t understand how to balance work with family
life because I didn’t have children of my own. Well, I recently
had my fi rst child—most assuredly an event that demands
more of my time—and was able to experience this for myself.
What I found was not a problem with balance or work but
rather a solution based on priorities.
My daughter merely gave me another reason to create
success—not an excuse to avoid working more. She is sheer
motivation for me to do well because now I’m doing it for her
as well as for myself. You cannot blame your family for keep-
ing you from creating the success you deserve. They should
be the reason why you want to succeed!
It might seem diffi cult, but there are ways to make it
work. Get yourself and your family members on a schedule
that allows you to do those things that are a priority for you.
For example, my solution was to add one hour to each of my
days in order to spend time with my daughter. My wife and
I met and created a schedule that would allow me to have time
with my daughter and my wife—and not negatively impact
the work schedule that provides for our fi nancial success. The
fi rst thing my wife and I did was build our daughter’s sleep
schedule around our priorities. We agreed that I would get up
one hour earlier each day and take my daughter on an outing
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THE 10X RULE
each morning. This would ensure that I would have qual-
ity time when I’m home with my daughter before I go to
the offi ce and become consumed by the day’s events. It also
would allow my wife some extra time to sleep. I have been
doing this since my daughter was about 6 months old, and
it works beautifully. I take her on errands with me—such as
going to the local grocery store each morning and introduc-
ing her to the people who work there. When I get back from
our outing, the rest of the day is mine to produce in the busi-
ness world uninterrupted. Because I get my daughter up so
early, we are then in a position to put her to bed before 7
PM
.
Then my wife and I are able to spend quality time together
as a couple.
We understand that this system will continue to change
as my daughter grows up and that alterations will have to
be made. However, the point is that we are controlling our
time rather than just haphazardly trying to manage it. Our
decision to set priorities and commit to a solution lets us be
the bosses of our own time. The busier you become, the more
you have to manage, control, and prioritize. Although I cer-
tainly don’t have some scientifi c formula that will magically
make this easier, I can tell you one thing: If you start with a
commitment to success and then agree to control time, you
will create an agenda that accommodates all you want.
You have to decide how you are going to use your time.
You must command, control, and squeeze every second out of
it in order to increase your footprint and dominate the mar-
ketplace. Get everyone necessary—your family, colleagues,
associates, employees—to recognize and agree upon which
priorities are most important. If you don’t do this, you will
have people with different agendas pulling you in all sorts of
directions. My schedule works for me because everyone in
my life—from my wife to the people who work with me—
knows what is most important to me and understands how
I value time. This allows us to handle everything else that
comes our way.
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In our culture, we’re frequently encouraged to “slow
down, relax, take it easy, fi nd balance” and just “be happy” with
where we are and what we have. Although this can sound great
in theory, it can be very diffi cult for people who abandon every
decision to be in control of their lives. Most people can’t sim-
ply “relax and take it easy”—since they never do enough to free
themselves of the meager existence that comes as a result of
mediocre actions. Work should provide a purpose, a mission,
and a sense of accomplishment. These things are vital to every
single person’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
People who promote the new age, esoteric advice to “take it
slow” are encouraging a mind-set that isn’t doing anyone any
good. Consider the types of traits this thinking has created
in people: laziness, procrastination, a lack of urgency, sloth, a
tendency to blame others, irresponsibility, entitlement, and the
expectation that it’s up to someone else to solve our problems.
Wake up! No one is going to save you. No one is going
to take care of your family or your retirement. No one is going
to “make things” work out for you. The only way to do so is to
utilize every moment of every day at 10X levels. This will ensure
that you accomplish your goals and dreams. Happiness, security,
confi dence, and fulfi llment come from utilizing your gifts and
energy to achieve whatever you’ve decided is success for you.
And it requires every bit of your time, which is yours—and only
yours—to control.
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