The primary driving force

Most people are found working on at least two projects at any point—one professional and the other a personal project. I say “at least two projects” since I am sure all of us are working on more than two projects: probably four or five projects at work and another four or five projects at home (personal life).

This is the way of the new world. It is neither good nor bad—it is the way it is. For those of you who keep wondering whatever happened to “focus”, remember this. In other words, everyone has several “What matters” graphs for their life.

Amongst these, there is one or maybe two things that matter most to people. Take a “What Matters” graph for any person.

For this discussion, let’s assume that one of the key things that matters to this person is Money. So, the “What Matters” graph is plotted on Money. Point A refers to the current situation. It can be any amount that the person currently has (may be $100K or may be $100M or any amount.) There are two regions in the graph.

The shaded part is called the “Forbidden Zone” meaning no person will want to plot something in this region in the future. Example: If a person has $1M and if money is something that matters to the person, he or she won’t wish to have $500K five years from now. The second area is called the “Dream Zone” where the person will plot whatever matters to him. Where exactly the point is plotted depends on several things that include but not limited to attitude, self- esteem, and belief on the person’s capacity to reach that spot.

That’s point B (where you want to be). Now, we are all smart people and we know that going from Point A (where you are) to Point B (where you want to be) is not a straight line. You may reach point B or somewhere there in a jagged line with a bunch of successes and failures on the way.

Questions for Yourself

#1. How many “What Matters” graphs do you have in your life?

You can get to these by simply listing your key projects – ones in your business life and ones in your personal life. These projects have to be material projects and not the “nice to have” ones.

#2. How do these look like?

Every project will have a “want to be at” place and “where I am currently” at place and a reasonable time period to go from “where I am currently at” to “where I want to be”. If you can determine these points for each of the project, you already have already won half the game.

#3. Amongst these graphs, can you identify your primary “What Matters” graph?

Which among all the projects is of “highest” importance for you?