A challenge, great results, and my important lessons

So, this P3 commitment thing is a little harder to stick with than I had thought. Here’s what has happened during the past month in terms of my commitment to identifying, tracking, and accomplishing my top three priorities each day and my 3 am reflection.

I found that 80% of the time I did not identify and track my P3s during the day. When I did set my P3s for the day, I was successful 85% of the time (in case you were wondering, all statistics have been compiled by the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche and are certified accurate. Okay, they’re not.)

Results: I took on two new private clients and acquired a very large, potentially life/business changing venture. Also, I was invited to attend a strategic meeting with Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, and one of the great legends of motivation, sales, and business development, Brian Tracy – just to name the top ones. Countless other connections were made, opportunities were created, and projects were moved forward.

My intention from the beginning in spending this reflection time at 3 am was to do some journal writing and share the insights I gained with you. I did notice some of the challenge wasn’t so much getting up at 3 am as it was letting myself off the hook by not playing the game and setting my priorities for the day. If I didn’t set my P3 for the day, it wasn’t that I consciously chose not to get up at 3 am; rather, I just never really thought about it. This part is a little disappointing because the whole purpose for this game and exercise is to practice staying conscious in creating my day, intentionally determining my activities and the most effective actions to be taking every day. What I learned is the majority of time I just go unconscious. Now I’m wondering what more I could produce if, instead of being 20% effective, I was being 30% or 40% effective. With all of the great results that have happened this past month…WOW. I wonder what else could happen if I stayed more conscious.

Here’s the experience I had. In establishing my daily P3s, the momentum really started picking up, and I kept coming up with more than three priorities. My P3s became more like P10s, which was overwhelming. I found myself under a couple of deadlines, and it became less about thinking and prioritizing and more about just working to get stuff done. Although I was getting a lot done, I still didn’t feel I was entirely effective. It’s like I just went back to my default strategy. When I had some pressure put on me, I went back to a default pattern of just “going without thinking” I think if I had been more conscious and a little more diligent with this, it would have worked much better.

The other thing that was going on was that I used the excuse at times that I was too tired. I was going to bed at 11 or 12 at night, getting up at 5:30 in the morning, and I was finding myself a little tired and dragging during the day, so the last thing I really wanted to do was wake up at 3 am for any amount of time. I think there’s another way around this; I think the 3 am reflection is not a time that really takes away my rest. In fact, I actually found that the 5 or 10 minutes really didn’t make or break how much rest I received. What I got out of it, the value of sticking to my integrity and my commitments, was far better than any loss of sleep. It actually energized me because, instead of having one more thing that I didn’t do, carrying around with me all day, I didn’t have that burden. I was in alignment with myself – and that overrides any fatigue. I think I get way more tired when I’m constantly carrying around all the incomplete things in my life and having to justify them in my own head in order to feel okay. When I woke up in the morning and I knew that either I did or didn’t do my P3s the day before, and that I already handled that by taking my 3 am reflection time, I would actually find myself refreshed. I stuck to my commitment. I did what I said I was going to do. I enforced the consequence when I needed to. And now I am complete with that. I’m not dragging it around with me all day.

So, overall consensus is 20% is WAY better than 0%, just based on the results I produced and the new opportunities that came forth based on that focused action. The other conclusion is to stay conscious with it. It’s a habit. I’m trying to change a habit. I’m trying to change a default behavior, and that’s going to take some work for me. So I’m going to get back in the game, get reengaged, and begin this whole process again and continue to begin it again every day. My intention is to be 100% effective, and I’m going to be super excited to get 30-40%, but I’m going to play for 100% every day for the next 30 days. Because, hey, based on the results I’ve produced so far, this game is on, it’s not stopping, it’s going to move on, and if I’m not being as effective as I was in creating it, who knows what’s going to happen. So, the game is on; the game is always on – and I’m going to play it.