Eighty-four percent of our creative insights don’t happen while we are at work.
1: Instead, they happen while we’re at home or driving or involved with a hobby or recreational activity, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in their book Who Not How.
The message? We “need time and space, and most important, relaxation and recovery, to allow ideas and solutions to ferment and form,” Dan and Ben write.
To thrive in life, we must learn to master our time. Time is our most precious resource because it is finite. 24 hours in a day. 7 days in a week. 52 weeks in a year. That’s what we get. Period.
The best strategy to master our time, according to Dan and Ben? Stop asking “How” and start asking “Who.”
When we have an opportunity or problem, our default response is to ask: How do I do this? Or, how can I learn to solve this problem? Instead, Dan and Ben suggest we ask: Who can solve this problem?
“That’s the power of having a Who—you instantly get access to knowledge, insights, resources, and capabilities that are not currently available to you,” they write. “‘How’ is linear and slow. “‘Who’ is non-linear, instantaneous, and exponential.”
2: The authors share the story of Sharon Duncan. “Like many entrepreneurs,” they write, she “was working ‘a zillion hours per week’. She had no work/life balance, was trying to keep far too many balls in the air at once, and her stress levels were ‘through the roof’. She barely had time to spend with her aging mother.”
But Sharon loved to learn. Which is why she invested in Dan’s Strategic Coach program, where she learned the power of asking Who not How.
“The first Who is always yourself: Improve yourself, value yourself, and ensure that you are in optimal form—happy, creative, and connected to the most important people in your life,” Dan and Ben recommend.
Sharon felt like this learning was all too real. Her mom had just turned 82 years old. Who knew how long she’d still be around?
Her mom was a big baseball fan. Which gave Sharon an idea: “What if I freed myself up with Whos to such a degree that I could take three months off per year and spend that time traveling the country going to major league baseball games with mom?”
Sharon now had a goal. And a solution. She needed more Whos in her life. Competent, capable individuals who could take over aspects of Sharon’s responsibilities.
3: She started by hiring a “Practice Manager,” who was charged with taking on “much of the work that had formerly stressed Sharon out,” the authors note. “By adding that one role, her Practice Manager, Sharon immediately freed up 500 hours per year in her schedule. Those 500 hours are the equivalent to 12.5 40-hour work weeks, or three months of full-time work.”
Sharon and her mom began creating memories and attending games across the country, including all five games of the 2018 World Series. “Her mom can’t even believe what she and her daughter are able to do together,” note Dan and Ben.
And that wasn’t the only benefit. Sharon’s “stress levels immediately plummeted. Her vision broadened for what her life and business could be like, and Sharon began to value her time more.”
And because she’s not harried, hurried, and over-worked, Sharon can now provide higher-level creative insights to benefit her business.
Her new Practice Manager and the rest of her team are also thriving. “Because Sharon is far more focused, energized, and excited, the company is experiencing incredible growth,” write Dan and Ben. “Everyone feels like they are a part of something special. Everyone is feeding off their leader’s energy and spirit.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: What area of my life would benefit by identifying a Who to solve a problem and take on a new opportunity?
Action: Do it.
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