“Plan tomorrow today!”
– Steve Napolitan

Zig Ziglar has a famous speech called the Acapulco speech where he addressed people and said, “Hey, I have two extra tickets to go to Acapulco, who wants to go with me?”

(Note: This was before Acapulco was a dangerous place.)

People raised their hands. He continued, “If I had these extra tickets and I gave them to you, how many of you could go if we were leaving tomorrow at 8 in the morning? Keep your hands up.”

The people who raised their hands kept their hands up. Zig then asked, “What do you have to do between now and tomorrow morning at 8am in the morning to come with me?”

People responded with all sorts of strategies such as:

… I would delegate some work to other people who can help me

… I must let some people know I’m going to be gone for a few days.

… I must find someone to watch my kids and my dog.

… I must do “such and such” tonight.

The list goes on.

Zig then asked, “Okay, who can get it all done? Raise your hand.”

Most people kept their hands up.

“How many of you are going to get more down between now and tomorrow at 8am, than you would on a normal basis?”

Everyone left, kept their hands up.

Set a deadline.

When there is something important to be done, you’ll find a way to do it. If you just go to work every day and allow yourself all the time in the world to do what you want to do, it never gest done.

But when you set yourself a limit, whether it is an hour or even 30 minutes to get a task done, suddenly, things are going to get done a lot faster!  

When people ask me, “How do I structure my life to have more freedom?”

I tell them this: “I plan tomorrow today.”

That’s it!

Now, aside from getting stuff done faster, a few other things are going to happen. If you don’t get what you want done in the time, you start to understand how much time it truly takes to get things done.

This feedback helps you get better at setting realistic deadlines. Over time, you just get better and better at getting things done! Remember: there is no failure, just feedback.

And this is how you can capitalize on it; at the end of the day, whatever time you decide to stop working on your business, set aside 5-10 minutes to look at the following:

• What you got done.
• What you didn’t get done.
• What you need to move to the next day.

One of my good friends, Marco Robert, used to say these three things and I’ve taken it on and I’ve shared it all the time with other people:

1. Look at your to do list for the next day, and ask yourself, “What can I eliminate?” A lot of the time what we think we MUST get done, isn’t as urgent as we think.
2. Look at your to do list for the next day, and ask yourself, “What can I delegate?” You don’t need employees to do this. You can hire subcontractors using resources such as Upwork. You can reach out to your friends or your network for a favor.
3. Look at your to do list for the next day, and ask yourself, “What can I automate?” For example, there is a lot of technology that can help you do things such as scheduling software, receipt collecting software, email newsletters etc.

Whatever is left over on your list is then what you personally take on for the next day. You allocate time in the next day to get those things done.

So, remember, start tomorrow at the end of today. Scrutinize what you’re doing in terms of what is working, what’s not working, what you can eliminate, what you can delegate, and what you can automate.

Speak soon 😊

Choose Gratitude Create Freedom

Steve Napolitan

(P.S. What’s something you have been wanting to get done for a long time, but haven’t?)