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DR JOHN DEMARTINI - Updated 10 months ago
I am often asked for input on how to become more focused and productive.
Whether professionally at work or when trying to reach various individual goals, many people I speak to share details of how they work harder and spend longer hours than before yet somehow don’t manage to make progress in areas of their lives that they say they would love to grow.
Many of them also describe feelings of guilt and shame, that if only they were more disciplined, maybe then they would begin seeing results. In essence, they often don’t know what to do in order to live the life they would love to live.
When addressing these questions, I often hit on a few key touchpoints:
LIVING BY PRIORITY
The first point, and this is key, is that if you don't fill your day with high-priority, most important actions and systematically tick them off like an daily agenda, your day tends to fill up with low-priority distractions.
When you maintain a strong, high-priority agenda, it's easier to say no to distractions, reject opportunists, and decline things around you that are vying for your attention.
In other words, without a detailed agenda for the day, you're more likely to be distracted.
There’s a law in business known as Parkinson's Law that suggests that whatever time is allotted, work tends to fill it. For example, if you have allocated a more time than required to complete a task, the work will somehow fill that time. In that way, you might end up dragging things out or procrastinating until the last minute to get it done. This also applies to when you have gaps in your agenda or calendar - those gaps will likely fill up with low priority tasks and distractions.
Distractions are the impulses and instincts that the external world bombards you with, attempting to divert your focus and deter you from leading a poised, present, and purposeful life. You can also mine it down further than that - If you don't fill your MORNING with the highest-priority actions, it will tend to fill up with low-priority distractions. Similarly, if you neglect to fill your HOUR with high-priority actions, it will tend to fill up with low-priority distractions.
An example that comes to mind was when I introduced a concept called “cluster booking” into my clinical practice many years ago. We had noticed that gaps between appointments often led to patients before or after the gap asking more questions or procedures taking longer than usual. Once we began cluster booking to maximize our time and productivity, we found that energy flowed more efficiently without compromising patient care. This was a valuable lesson and feedback to let me know that prioritizing my time, creating a detailed daily agenda, and cluster booking appointments helped my practice become far more efficient and productive.
I then went a step further by creating and actively maintaining a list of 13 high-priority things to do in case there wasn't a patient scheduled. Without this preparation, unexpected calls from salespeople or emergencies tended to disrupt my day. However, by focusing on high priority tasks, my day was far less likely to become cluttered with distractions and low priority tasks.
In the world of physics, this is known a “entropy”. Entropy, in brief, explains the tendency to go from order to disorder. In other words, disorder is most likely to enter your life if you don't bring order to it. One of the wisest ways to bring order to your life is by planning and prioritizing your time.
DOCUMENTING YOUR GOALS AND CREATING A MASTER PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE
If you've ever written down a goal, you may have observed that focusing on it brings more synchronicities and opportunities aligned with that goal.
Here’s why. Your brain has an area called the pulvinar nuclei in the thalamus that is responsible for filtering sensory information before it enters your conscious awareness – almost like a gatekeeper for your brain.
For example, imagine you're at a busy party with lots of conversations and music playing in the background. The pulvinar nuclei act like a filter, deciding which sounds and conversations are important enough to bring to your attention, while ignoring the background noise. It's like having a bouncer at the door of a club, letting in only the most relevant information to make sure your conscious awareness isn't overwhelmed by every sensory input around you.
When it comes to what the brain perceives as being “relevant information”, the brain operates through a combination of bottom-up processing (where sensory information influences perception) and top-down processing (where higher cognitive functions, expectations, and highest values influence perception). The interplay of these factors helps the brain decide which information is relevant and thus brought to your conscious awareness.
In other words, when you have clarity of purpose and intention, you are more likely to have synchronicities and be conscious of congruent opportunities around you, instead of being distracted by things that aren't truly a priority for you.
On the flipside, if you don’t have clarity of purpose and intention, you will more likely feel bombarded and overwhelmed as your brain’s filtering mechanism will not be as effective.
As I often say, what you think about and thank about, you bring about.
Whether in shopping, business, finance, relationships, social interactions, physical health, or spirituality, this principle remains consistent: without a deliberate agenda and prioritization, external influences tend to take over, mostly leading to impulsive decisions and distractions.
As such, it is wise to live by priority and plan your day accordingly so it is filled with high-priority tasks. This can be a gamechanger and help transform your life.
That's why I often emphasize the importance of planning out your life. Personally, I began this practice at age 17 and have consistently used it for over 5 decades to concentrate on the highest-priority aspects across all seven areas of my life, from spiritual quests to wealth-building. This also led to what has grown to become one of my most popular programs, Master Planning for Life.
This is a 3-day workshop where I guide people through over 2000 questions that help them to get really clear on what they would love to achieve in all 7 areas of their lives.
A master plan serves as a prioritized framework for how you would love your life to unfold. I often spend hours crafting a single paragraph, precisely detailing how I envision my life. Each word is carefully chosen, meaningful, and prioritized. This meticulous process ensures that I feed my mind and focus my mind on my vision, mission and goals.
Athletes like Michael Fred Phelps, with his 28 gold medals, speak openly about how they focus their minds to align with their goals, and the results they have seen in their own lives.
Many people create fantasies instead of creating a master plan.
In essence, a fantasy is when you perceive that you will experience more positives than negatives, more pleasure than pain, and more upsides than downsides. I often describe or define a fantasy as the pursuit of a one-sided life, which is as futile as trying to create a one-sided magnet.
You have tools at your disposal that can help you avoid creating fantasies and instead set true objective goals. The executive center of your brain, for example, is designed to help you transform fantasies into achievable and tangible objectives.
Unlike fantasies, objectives have a well-rounded perspective that include anticipating potential challenges and perceived downsides, preparing for them so you can minimize potential risks, and responding proactively if they do occur. This is very different from fantasies, which mostly consider positive outcomes without acknowledging potential negatives or drawbacks.
While pursuing true objective goals triggers the more advanced executive center in your brain, pursuing fantasies triggers a lower, reactive and more primitive amygdala response in your brain.
So, instead of fantasizing about all positives without negatives and all rewards without risk, you are more able to objectively foresee the advantages and disadvantages, rewards and risks. You'll also be more likely to consider and plan for various scenarios so you can engage in the process of addressing and mitigating any potential challenges. You’ll also tend to think proactively about potential solutions to challenges, contemplating how you will navigate and overcome obstacles if they arise. In this way, you are most likely to unleash your leadership.
Choosing not to master plan your life and living by hindsight more than foresight greatly reduces your productivity and fulfillment.
Master planning can be compared to a checklist for an airplane. Just as a checklist can help to ensure that priorities are addressed before takeoff, so too can a life checklist help you focus on priorities before you take off in your life.
If you are inspired to do something extraordinary with your life, it is wise to create a true, high priority checklist – efficient and effective actions that are proven to help you achieve what it is that you would love to do.
ACTION STEPS:
- Invest time in meticulous planning for the life you are inspired to lead.
- Begin by identifying what you would love to manifest and consider how you can earn a handsome income while doing it.
- Determine the highest priority action steps to achieve this goal.
- Anticipate potential obstacles and devise solutions in advance.
- Reflect on what worked and what didn't at the end of each day, seeking ways to enhance efficiency for tomorrow.
- Regardless of the day's outcomes, objectively assess how they contributed to getting closer to your objective.
THE VALUE OF VALUES
My master plan also includes my unique hierarchy of values and the highest priority steps I can take that are congruent with my highest values.
Identifying your unique set of highest values is invaluable in creating your master plan.
If you're uncertain about your values, visit my website and explore the Value Determination section. It's a free and private resource to help you determine your values and fill your day with the highest-priority actions that align with those values.
My master plan also contains my mission statement, which is a summary of how I would love my life to look and what is truly most important to me - my chief aim of service and fairly exchanged reward. I also actively track the metrics of what I have achieved to date, while also keeping a gratitude journal that I write in every day of my life – what I have accomplished, people I have met, opportunities that have arisen, places I have been, and more.
I believe that metrics and a gratitude journal are essential tools that help me continually refine and execute my master plan.
To Sum Up
In conclusion, You are the captain of your ship and the master of your fate. No one else will dedicate their life to your fulfillment. As such, it is wise to take the time to contemplate how you would love your life to unfold. Write it down, type it up, or join me in the Master Planning for Life workshop so I can help you create your masterful, inspired life plan.
I've been using this master planning process for over 5 decades and have accumulated a wealth of questions and tools to help create business plans, financial plans, relationship plans, social life and leadership plans, physical health and wellness programs, spiritual pursuits, and intellectual development plans.
You can empower all seven areas of your life by using these tools and principles. I've dedicated myself to empowering these aspects since I was 18, and master planning has played a pivotal role in achieving an inspiring and extraordinary life.
As such, I’d love to encourage you to attend Master Planning for Life. These tools, principles, and the 2000 questions provided can save you an enormous amount of time. It’s all laid out for you. Follow the process, map out your vision, clarify and then chunk down the goals until you have priority daily action steps to follow. Let me assist you along the planning process and help you refine your objectives and distinguish between your low priority weeds and your high priority flowers.
Join me for this journey at the beginning of every year - I assure you, it's time well spent and will reveal the incredible potential within you. To find out more view Master Planning for Life.
Are you ready for the NEXT STEP?
If you’re seriously committed to your own growth, if you’re ready to make a change now and you’d love some help doing so, then book a FREE Discovery call with a member of the Demartini Team so we can take you through your mini power assessment session.
You’ll come away with a 3-step action plan and the foundation to empower your life.
Book Your TICKET for Dr Demartini's Breakthrough Experience
If you’re ready to go inwards and do the work that will clear your blockages, clarify your vision and balance your mind, then you’ve found the perfect place to start with Dr Demartini at the Breakthrough Experience.
In 2 days you’ll learn how to solve any issue you are facing, transform any emotion and reset the course of your life for greater achievement and fulfillment.
You’ll unlock your true potential and lay the groundwork to empower all 7 areas of your life.
Get ready to take your life to a whole new level of meaning and purpose.
Today is the day you step into your power and value yourself by investing in your inspired life when you sign up for Dr Demartini’s signature seminar the Breakthrough Experience:
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