Today’s insight comes directly from a key concept the top-level entrepreneurs in our 2X+1 Mastermind often discuss amongst each other.
It explains precisely why we often don’t get the results we want- no matter how long we work or how hard we try. And gives the exact insight necessary to change this so we can continue to improve our results smoothly and consistently.
It also shows us how to use one of the secrets of Michael Phelp’s and Usain Bolt’s record-setting performances in the Beijing Olympics to improve the results in our own businesses.
There are two keys to this Insight- The Skills:Performance Ratio and The Practice:Performance Ratio. We’ll cover both today.
First…
The Skills:Performance Ratio.
Sounds a bit complicated but the concept is super simple.
There are two parts to it.
The 1st part is:
The level of results you get in any area of business or life is directly proportional to the level of skills you bring to the playing field in that area.
Let me give you another analogy that should make this crystal clear.
Let’s say your “goal” is to win the Super Bowl.
- You can write down that goal a million times, visualize it 3 million times, and say 4 trillion affirmations about it- but I can guarantee you you STILL have don’t have a snowball’s chance in you know what of walking off the field on the winning Super Bowl team, unless…
You have Super Bowl level skills to go along with your Super Bowl level desire.
If your skills are high school level – or heck, even if they are college level – you can have all the goals, visualizations, and affirmations in the world but you are still gonna get your butt stomped when you walk on the field and compete against the world’s best football players.
Many of us are unconsciously doing the same thing in our businesses.
We are obsessed with the results we want – “Make another $500 per month”, “Earn $100K this year”, “Become an internet millionaire”, etc
But we are competing with skills that are not proportional to the level of result we want.
And wondering why we never get that result.
Remember…
The results you get are merely the natural byproduct of the level of skills you have.
And there is no way to consistently get results that are dramatically better than the level of your skills.
If you aren’t getting the results you want, the thing to do is focus on improving your SKILLS, not setting new goals or implementing new marketing campaigns or whatever.
- If you increase your SKILLS, then the NATURAL byproduct of bringing that higher level of skills to the business arena will be better – and more profitable- results for your business.
And if you don’t improve your skills, it doesn’t matter how hard or how long you work, or how much marketing stuff you do, your results will be stuck at about the same level they are now.
The quick application of this powerful concept is to identify the SKILLS that make the biggest difference in your particular business (and for your personal life- same idea applies there also)
Then focus on PRACTICING those skills daily and relax, knowing that as our skills increase, your results will naturally increase also.
Now you have an understanding of the first part of The Skills:Performance Ratio. Let’s move on to…
The Practice:Performance Ratio
- What this indicates is the amount of time you spend practicing your profession vs. the amount of time you spend performing in your profession.
A great analogy:
An Olympic sprinter may spend 3-5 hours a day for four full years practicing and preparing for the next Olympics.
When Usain Bolt dominated the Beijing Olympics, he spent a TOTAL of less than 40 SECONDS competing to win his THREE gold medals.
His Practice:Performance Ratio was literally off the charts.
He’d probably practiced at least 4000 hours and competed for 40 seconds.
Now compare that to your own Practice:Performance Ratio.
- How many hours do you spend weekly (or have you spent in your life) PRACTICING the basic skills of your profession vs. trying to compete in that profession?
For most of us, our Ratio is literally off the charts, too - in the wrong direction.
It’s very common for entrepreneurs to have spent 4000+ hours competing (ie, “working”) and less than 40 seconds practicing.
It’s very rare when anyone even has a 1:1 Practice:Performance Ratio - in other words, equal hours spent practicing vs. competing.
Now let’s do the math:
- Usain Bolt (and Michael Phelps and pretty much every other world-class performer) invests probably 1000 or more hours of practice time for each hour of time spent actually competing.
- Most entrepreneurs barely invest ANY time in practice - and if they do, it’s very little relative to the amount of time they actually spend competing - ie, working.
- Yet we continually wonder why our results are not yet world-class?
Today’s Insight should have been a huge “wake-up call” that you can immediately use to pinpoint what is REALLY important to focus on to improve your business and increase your wealth.
Remember the two keys:
- Your results are merely a byproduct of the level of skills you bring to your profession. To increase your results, you must FIRST improve your skills.
- World-class performers often practice 1000 hours for each hour they actually compete. Take a cue from them and improve your own ratio of time spent practicing your skills vs. time spent working and watch how your ability to produce income soars when you use this powerful insight to improve your skills.
And when you feel comfortable with today’s Insights and are ready to take action on them, click here to go to today’s Action Plan that I’ve prepared for you.
-Jeff
September 25th, 2008 at 6:16 am
Thanks Jeff for this eye opening training.
I am still working on my first Website. I do need help as i am a newbie in
all these matter on internet advantage.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
When I decided to go into internet marketing, I thought I could get something easy up and running, and go from there and learn. In this way I wouldn’t have to go after a masters program. Well - duh! There are so many “guru’s” that lead you to believe that you can learn from them and you will get up and going quickly without spending a few years to start seeing the cash roll in. You try and try by purchasing different products that make promises. Each program is lacking significantly in something so that you have to search out and learn other facets of the marketing arena. As you do this, you eventually gain a greater overall understanding.
After a year and a half, I have come up with a project that I feel will really work. However, I didn’t have the skill level to accomplish this a year ago. It will take me some time to get it up and running, however, I truly feel it will bring in the cash. Multiple failures means your attempting to succeed. If you continue to overcome the challenges, you find yourself on the pathway to a real success.
You are so right on the skill level needed. Overnight successes are very rare in any field of endeavor.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Excellent analogies between business prep and sports……..being a former coach for 16 years, I can attest to the fact that what you say makes total sense here (as in music, dance,
art, etc.)
September 25th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Great insight,Jeff
This is boring but true:
” Practice Makes Perfect…”
Free Quote a Day
http://www.gainuniquewisdom.com
September 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Dear Jeff,
The training is just what starters like me need to separate and identify skills and performance and work on them. Just joined and I’m still going thru my packages but this training is here at the right time.
September 25th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I definitely agree with everything you have stated and I can certainly relate having been a competitive swimmer for maaany years. However, I can see many ways of improving skills but I am not at all clear on how to obtain the necessary practice in this case that is not actually time spent working (although many of the gurus place the emphasis on taking action immediately whether you have the skills or not).
September 25th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Thanks Jeff for this training. I am also a newsome to this business, and is also still trying to work on my first website. It is an awesome thing to try to do, when you do not or have not any training in the field. I am reading and learning all that I can, and at learning, I am understanding that you do have to work at the skills level if you are going to get anywhere with it.
I work part-time and planning on giving it up within the next three months, because I need the time to concentrate on the business that I am trying to develope.
Thank you for setting us straight, the truth.
Neat
September 25th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I agree with Sharon. I am new to this program and have had so much information to injest, I really am kind of lost as to what exactly I should be practicing. I have these two websites but keep getting conflicting information from so many other “experts” I try the different things that are being suggested but being new to all of this, I get frustrated because it is like I should already know something when I try implementing the different steps. So I dont know what to do next. I am determind to get something accomplished and understand what I just did. Thanks for your insite.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Unbelievable! I can see right through this…can’t anyone else? How depressing…if we don’t have the skills we will never succeed? Sounds like a good effort to encourage continued learning and inspire sales of course materials to me. Continued learning and building of skils is important don’t get me wrong…but action out weighs waiting until you have learned enough to get out ther anytime. You may get it wrong the first time, but you learned something along the way. Practise? Unless you are a pro athelete no one is paying you to practise!!! Passion ofr sucess will trump practise any day…
September 25th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I guess I must have a pretty good practice to work ratio because I have spent a lot of time practicing with cookie cutter web sites and such, I also am continually trying to improve my skills doing things like this course. So far, I havn’t yet gone to today’s action plan, It has made me feel more confident in the things I am doing. I may actually be doing it right!
September 25th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Great to hear I’m not the only newbie out there! But this lesson confirms that in the back of my mind I knew there is much to be learned. So all the reading and trying to put things in place is all practice and this lesson reminds me to be patient with myself ( and not get too overwhelmed each morning with a full inbox! and valuable time spent sorting thru).One day at a time hey.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Hi,
Working on the net can be a real trial. Your program is a real lift. I’ve learned much and have been given much food for thought. Your lesson today has been great. I’ll need the night to digest it. I hope by the time we’re done I’ll see some real improvement in my business.
All I can say is thank you and keep up the good work.
Thanks again,,
John
September 25th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Hey Jeff!
I, like Sharon, was also a swimmer. I relate to long practices(training) to prepare for a few seconds or even a few minutes of competition.
I have done a lot of training. It makes sense-practice makes perfect. I have not allowed myself the time to practice in building an internet business!
September 25th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I also believe in OJT (on the job training)
September 25th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of hours at practice for over thirty years and your right jeff,Practice makes perfect (if you practice the right way).
September 25th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Makes total sense. Simply and straightforward. Really makes you think.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Practice practice practice… I tell my kids to practice, but I never thought about it myself in business and in life. I am going to practice being more open to people personally. I am the kind that waits for them to start a conversation. I am going to start a conversation with a new person everyday. In my business, I feel that is all I am doing so far. I can’t wait to play the game, but I am not confident enough yet. I don’t even know all the rules, so I am going to keep practicing to learn how to get my online business off the ground and then I’m going to RUN!!!!
September 26th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Thak you for this lesson ,very interesting
September 26th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Keep it coming Jeff.
September 27th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I think it’s nice to have someone rooting me on, thanks!
September 27th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Wow,wow ,wow. I am a day late getting to this due to my work schedule but when I had the time at work I reviewed thoughts from other info of the week. ( I am also new to all of this)
Just yesterday on one of my break periods I thought to myself that “I have to slow all of this down a little and review,practice and [know] the info. that I aready have befor moving to far ahead of where I am. I was a scout in the service so getting disoriented is ok but I don’t want to get lost. By the way I love the analogies also. I can relate and understand them without a collage degree.
Thank you Jeff
Jeffrey
September 30th, 2008 at 3:44 am
SALES RESULTS ARE ACHIEVED BY OVERCOMING THE OBJECTIONS, IF YOU CANT DETERMINE THE OBJECTIONS YOU WILL NEVER GET THE SALE, PRACTICE IS THE KEY TO SALES RESULTS. SOMETIMES WE GET SIDE TRACKED ON HOW SALES ARE ACHIEVED AND HAV E TO GO BACK TO IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM, OVERCOMING ‘OBJECTIONS’. GERRY R.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Hi Jeff , This is my 3rd day but i think you are already on day 9 so I am a little behind. Nonetheless I am understanding everything you are saying. It really does make sense. Just like Joshua said in his trike video, you end up going side to side to reach a goal instead of a straight line. That sideward motion is the learning aspect to obtain a goal which in this case is to hone in on the skills needed to advance to the next goal. I am almost 1 year into the internet business, having had my eduacation thru hard knocks as well as some worthy learning centers. Both of which have given me the skills I possess now. When I have mastered these skills, I shall obtain more skills to master while continuing to brush up the previos skills to prevent “rust’. Thanks again for this insight. These really got me feeling changes.
Sincerely ,
Donald
October 9th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Jeff - today is my first day reading this material. Due to the death of a partner to whom I had given our business about ten years ago, plus a serious illness in the family, I am working 20hr/day. Thus, I’m not certain how I should proceed. I so much appreciate the material but being hit or miss through the study is not good practice. Do you have a suggestion for me.
However, I read through material above and skimmed through Ted Nocholas’ book . WOW!
Years ago I had a creative writing and speech professor who began a class handing out two pieces of paper, each with an article to read and one directive: “Listen to this word!” - THAT - . For every word - THAT - remaining in the text I believe has no place, you will be charged a quarter for not removing or using a justified replacement. And throughout the academic year, both in written word and in speech you will be penalized.” We will distribute the proceeds of your indiscretion to charity, except for a year end dinner together.
From then until today, I still write with THAT in mind. A bit later in the first semester, he added other penalty words, specifically articles.
Question: Since I am behind and with a horrendous schedule, still should I take advantage of the above free enrollment?
Question: Will your process give me latitude to choose time as I can catch it to take advantage of its great value?
Years ago when I coached and today when clients feel I should teach them some of golf’s fine points, I remind them: Its the little things THAT make the difference between the champion and the also ran so you will be learning those all important little things most of your opponents have little or no clue about. THAT may be my own answer to the question, but I need to know the costs involved either way I go.
Thank you.
Jim Fenton