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If you are anything like me, than you are constantly searching for how new ideas, concepts, paradigms, and thought patterns can be implemented into your daily routine. All to super enhance your life's daily effort and output to new found heights. Plus, I know that success leaves a trail, and so I try to sniff out the good stuff whenever possible.
I would like to share a new concept I recently came across while reading a recent edition of Inc. magazine! It's called “The Five Hour Rule.” While I was very much aware of Tim Ferriss' book “The Four Hour Workweek,” the Five Hour Rule was completely foreign to me. And so of course I dove into the article with a fervent exuberance! And what I found was both practical and given its use by such luminaries as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, something I was eager to start incorporating into my own life PRONTO TONTO!
The most fantastic part of this process is in its complete simplicity. The writer of the article, Michael Simmons of Impact, like so many of us, desired to understand and uncover some of the key patterns used by the iconoclasts and true luminaries of their fields that have assisted in their phenomenal success. Like I said earlier, success leads a trail, and those of us smart enough to follow its scent get to reap the rewards. According to Simmons, one trait he could find amongst the greatest leaders in their selective fields was “Many of these leaders, despite being extremely busy, have set aside at least an hour a day (or five hours a week) over their entire career for activities that could be classified as deliberate practice or learning.”
And for the special and unique individuals he tracked, according to Simmons “the five-hour rule often fell into three buckets: reading, reflection, and experimentation.”
Again, while nothing earth shatteringly new or revolutionary, I've always believed in the power of KISS~ Keep It Spiritually Simple. Deep, but simple! It's always worked for me! I would like to quickly break down these three attributes, and in turn flesh them out in their practical application with a little more moxie. Deal! Awesome........
1. READING
I am completely on board with this one. In fact, I have a personal book collection that tops 400 and am constantly searching for new tomes that I can devour with a connoisseur's consciousness. Don't get me wrong, I am in NO way a book snob. But my philosophy is that if a book can introduce me to even ONE concept that I can implement into my life, it was well worth the time and investment!
And, obviously, I am not alone! LOL Here are some fascinating facts that Simmons discovered during his uncovering process:
- Mark Cuban reads more than three hours every day.
- Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, reads two hours a day.
- Billionaire entrepreneur David Rubenstein reads six books a week.
- Dan Gilbert, self-made billionaire and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, reads one to two hours a day.
2. REFLECT
I think many of us use a plethora of strategies for our own reflection. Be it through meditation, journaling, or even taking long walks. But read some of the ‘interesting’ ways Simmons found that the great minds amongst us use their personal reflection time:
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong makes his senior team spend four hours per week just thinking. Jack Dorsey is a serial wanderer. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner schedules two hours of thinking time per day. Brian Scudamore, the founder of the $250 million company O2E Brands, spends 10 hours a week just thinking.
When Reid Hoffman needs help thinking through an idea, he calls one of his pals: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, or Elon Musk. When billionaire Ray Dalio makes a mistake, he logs it into a system that is public to all employees at his company. Then, he schedules time with his team to find the root cause. Billionaire entrepreneur Sara Blakely is a long-time journaler. In one interview, she shared that she has more than 20 notebooks in which she logged the terrible things that happened to her and the gifts that have unfolded as a result.
Napoleon Hill discovered that most self made men do not hit their true stride until they are in their mid to late 40's! He summed up this phenomenon to the fact that these men never accepted the status quo. They took great risks, and chances with their lives. Always allowing their business endeavors to push the preverbal envelope to discover the impossible.
Simmons' investigations found a similar pattern amongst today's greatest luminaries. He writes, “Throughout his life, Ben Franklin set aside time for experimentation, masterminding with like-minded individuals, and tracking his virtues. Google famously allowed employees to experiment with new projects during 20 percent of their work time. Facebook encourages experimentation through Hack-a-Months.”
So what is the great TAKEAWAY from all this information?! In my opinion, it is we all could carve out more time in our daily routines for learning and personal growth. We spend SO much time taking care of our bodies through exercise, eating right, and reducing stress, yet our minds are left to their own accord for such nourishment.
Simmons finishes his article by perfectly summing up his point of the importance of taking orderly learning and growth vitamins by saying, “The long-term effects of not learning are just as insidious as the long-term effects of not having a healthy lifestyle. The CEO of AT&T makes this point loud and clear in an interview with The New York Times; he says that those who don't spend at least five to 10 hours a week learning online "will obsolete themselves with technology."
BE SUPER HEROIC!
Nerdmaste,
Jeffrey Louis Martinez
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