What would 20% more mean to you? Or, 20% less? Let me slow this down, because it’s really important. What would you like to have 20% more of? When you have a chance, grab your pen and pad and think through that one. 20% more time to think. 20% higher revenues. 20% more peace. 20% greater success, speed, and efficiency in some business leadership or transition matter. Conversely, what would you like less of? Things like stress, doing the things you shouldn’t be doing and don’t want to be doing, confusion, conflict. Make your list, and think big.

20% is really not a very high bar. I work with a client, for example, who increased his business by 40% in 2019. He says that was largely by doing the things I will be talking about in this series. Let’s go for half of that 40% increase. If you created a robust list of things you like to have more of, or less of, what would it mean in your life for you to hit that 20% mark? What would it mean to you to have 20% more cash flow or make your company worth 20% more? I imagine that would be a really big deal. Let all that soak in.

Not a High Bar?

Creators can create. Imagine playing basketball with ankle weights on. You’re a pretty good player even then. But what happens when you take those weights off? You soar. Playing with those ankle weights – that’s exactly what most people are doing in their businesses, careers, and lives. Just consider the weight you carry around. Consider the complexity of business, your job, employees, relationships, children, and all the rest. Consider the noise.
Most people do not operate much of the time from the uncluttered mind. They don’t even know what that truly is or what it might feel like. They are too busy achieving. Much of what they are doing, they are doing the hard way. So, let me expand slightly and clarify on the point of +20% being realistic.
20% better doing the same things you've always done, in the same way. Yeah, that’s probably a high bar. 20% more, on the other hand, after shifting to the uncluttered mind becomes a real possibility.

How Would 20% Just Show Up? 

It won’t. The questions become: Can you make 20% better decisions? Can you discover 20% better solutions? Can you find 20% of your time that has been going to things that don’t fully serve you? That is, if you get radical with it. Could you somehow, some way, re-allocate that to your very highest value-generating activities?
And too, these are compounding. Moving 20% of one’s time and energy around is a good example. I see that all the time. Last week, I had a conversation with someone who has been a high-end professional for 40 years. We estimated that 30% of his total time is going to the “wrong” places. So, what value can you generate when you move that to the right places? In his case, health is a big concern. What is the value of a new life focus that creates health, fitness, and better sleep? If that is not exactly you, nonetheless, what would it mean to be less stressed and more rested and energetic? What positive things could you create with that energy?

I Keep Making the Case

I told you above I wanted to slow it down. That means not getting in the weeds yet as to what the uncluttered mind is, beyond what the words imply. And not to become tangled up in how to create it. So far, I can best serve by encouraging you to just consider the possibilities. To begin to buy into the idea that maybe, just maybe, you could shift in a radical way. And that, from that new place, 20% more becomes pretty doable. And too, having 20% less of those things that stand in your way and are not what you want. That specific 20% is arbitrary. However, I am not making this up. I am speaking from experience.

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