Identify six priorities to work through

In the column that ran in the Oct. 29 issue, I discussed our blueprinting process, a series of exercises designed to help you uncover what will make your heart sing. It is Step 1 along a fourfold path to the $10 million secret.

In the column that ran in the Oct. 29 issue, I discussed our blueprinting process, a series of exercises designed to help you uncover what will make your heart sing. It is Step 1 along a fourfold path to the $10 million secret.

If you haven’t already done so, please visit truewealthcommunity .com and download the exercises.

Today, I’ll discuss the remaining three steps to attaining $10 million a year in recurring fee revenue.

In Step 2, you have to protect your time. Think of it this way — every minute you waste is one less minute that you can spend with someone you love. That should provide a context for the enormous value of a minute. Here are some thoughts on how you can maximize your minutes.

Every evening before you go to bed, write down the six most important activities you have to accomplish the next day, in order of their priority. Your list should contain items primarily connected to accomplishing your one-year goals.

Begin the next day working on item No. 1 and work sequentially through the list. Make sure not to move on to the next item until the current item is completed.

Writing down your priorities gives you the ability to act when motivation is not present, and it provides a sense of accomplishment. It also lets you know that each item is ultimately connected to your “why.”

On Sunday evening, I want you to spend some time planning and visualizing your week. Keep in mind that an hour of planning is worth many hours of aimless activity. This will also draw your conscious into your subconscious mind, and you will come up with many solutions.

While you’re doing that, identify your “vital one” for the week. This is something that’s a little bigger than a “six most” item, yet it’s something that you must accomplish that week. The “vital one” becomes part of your “six most” every single day until that project is completed.

In addition, schedule time on your calendar to think about your mission, your vision and how you are fulfilling them. Also, review your goals, and if you are falling behind, figure out what you can do to catch up. This will allow you to unlock a “Rubik’s Cube” of tremendous opportunity, as I refer to it. And it will move you from inaction to action.

Step 3 is to realize that failure is good. If you want to double your success rate, double your failure rate. Of course, trying something and succeeding is the preferred strategy. Short of that, trying and failing is next best. And bringing up the rear is inaction. Inaction is 1,000 times worse than failure.

Step 4 to the $10 million secret is to dramatically improve your IQ. No, I’m not talking about your intelligence quotient.

I’m talking about your implementation quotient. So often advisers get caught up in the trap of when all is said and done, a lot more is said than done. We do a lot more talking than doing. Yes, thinking and strategizing is great, but there comes a time when you have to roll up your sleeves and do the work.

Whenever I speak to an audience of financial advisers, I know a certain percentage of the attendees will be completely transformed. They’ll go back to their office full of enthusiasm, and they’ll implement what they learned and have life-changing success.

Another percentage of the attendees will nod enthusiastically, then go back to their office and fall back into their same old patterns.

And then there’s a middle group who will make incremental improvements and see incremental results.

Ironically, all three groups are armed with the same knowledge, yet they get varying results.

You see, we all get stuck from time to time in the knowing-doing gap. We know what we should do, but we don’t do it. And why don’t we do it? It’s because we don’t have a strong enough “why.”

As a result, it’s absolutely critical that we begin our journey of success with the blueprinting process. It will allow us to find clarity, meaning and purpose. And when we have that, we have the motivation to move from thinking about getting things done to the conviction and the burning desire to get things done.

I hope you have the same success I’ve had in moving from a life that had so-so meaning and purpose to a life filled with a high degree of both. If you do that, the revenue follows and you may become a $10 million producer. I’d like to see you attain that goal.

Ron Carson is president of Carson Wealth Management Group and of PEAK, an organization that provides coaching, training and software for financial advisers. Both companies are located in Omaha, Neb.