Force Multiplication
Or- Popping power pellets
Think.
Welcome to April. This month we will begin digging into the idea of Lines of Effort. I will be making repeated reference to the concept of the Carnival Horse Race game, if you have no idea what I am talking about you can check it out here:
I’ll also come back to the graphic below to identify and discuss the Lines of Effort. You may bin your responsibilities differently, but this will still help make sense of the numerous tasks that we each are responsible for.
If you are spending time on something you don’t enjoy, or if you never seem to have the time or energy for the things you do enjoy, the first question to ask yourself is: “What hill does this boulder belong on?
The second question is, “Why am I pushing it?”
Perhaps it doesn’t belong on any hill or perhaps it is a boulder that doesn’t need to be pushed at all.
To mix my metaphors, Are you wasting your valuable water squirting a horse that isn’t moving?
A great tool to help with this is the Eisenhower Matrix
Next, we need to realize that some boulders are force multipliers.
In the military, we define a force multiplier as:
“a factor or combination of factors that enhances the effectiveness of personnel or weapons, allowing them to achieve greater feats than without that advantage.”
These are like the power pellets in Pac Man, or a double word score in Scrabble. These lines of effort provide ‘out-sized’ benefit.
The problem is that for a lot of us, these critical lines of effort are the ones we shortchange. These are the horses that we leave standing in the stalls while we work on advancing the LOEs we deem more critical.
This is why I devote the top row of my LOE chart to taking care of myself. I might not always be completely successful at it, but I’ve come to realize that if you don’t prioritize yourself, no one else will.
This is one of the first things I stress with my coaching clients, and predictably they tell me that they would love to devote more time to working on themselves, but of course they just don’t have the time.
I am always tempted to let them know that they have the same 24 hours we all do, but instead I let them know that I will give them the secret understood by only the most successful.
I have them lean in close and whisper: “Force Multipliers.”
We’ll get into them next week.
Read. High Performance Health
By Fran Kilinski
This is a great article on neuroplasticity, and one of my favorite substacks.
Write.
I thought that for a change of pace, I would use this spot to let you know what other writers are saying about Tough Rugged Bastards.
Repeat.
Words of wisdom from those who said it best.
“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.
I now have a YouTube Channel where I post a Sunday morning Ruck Rant that you might enjoy. Check it out here:
If you enjoyed this week’s T.R.W.R., please consider sharing it with a friend. Thanks!
See you next Thursday!
This => "If you don’t prioritize yourself, no one else will."
It took me years to understand this little nugget of wisdom. But it starts and ends with you. Keep doing the big work, John!