Excerpts from - The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma

The Greatness Guide

1) I’m no guru

2) Harvey Keitel and windows of opportunity

3) Nothing fails like success

4) Be a rock star at work. Being wildly passionate about your To-Do’s. You don’t need to have the biggest title to do the best job.

5) Your days define your life.

6) Drink coffee with Gandhi

7) Get some skin in the game. Fail faster succeed sooner. The real risk lies in risk-less living. You can’t win the game that you don’t even play

8) Be into breezes

9) Make time to thing. There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

10) Leadership beings with extra mile.

11) Mick Jagger and reference points.

12) Business is relationships.

13) Life lessons from

i) Be the eternal optimist.

ii) Value people.

iii) Be an original.

iv) Laugh and have fun.

14) How to be a happier human. The things that get scheduled are the things that get done. List 10 things that fill your heart with joy.

15) Work hard get lucky.

16) Know your genius.

Focus + daily improvement + time = genius

17) Listen twice as much you speak. Never talk when you can nod.

18) Your customer buy with their heart

19) Learn to say NO.

20) Burn your boats.

21) Grow leaders fast.

22) Your four minute pride.

23) Push the envelope.

24) On obituaries and meaning of life.

You can’t hit the target you can’t even see.

25) Leadership isn’t a popularity contest.

26) What do you evangelize?

27) Under the kimono. My best practices. What are my best practices?

28) Culture is the king.

29) Your schedule doesn’t lie.

What are you doing speak so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying.

Walk the talk.

30) Shine as a parent.

Kids grow up unbelievably fast. Blink and they are gone, living lives of their own.

i) Lead by example.

ii) Develop your children.

iii) Inspire your kinds.

iv) Tell them you can do whatever you want when you grow up.

v) Tell them to never give up.

vi) Tell them that whatever you do, do it well.

vii) And tell them that Your Dad Loves you.

31) Be a merchant of WOW.

32) Getting what you want while loving what you have.

33) Think like a CEO.

34) Act like an Athlete.

The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret.

35) Be wildly enthusiastic.

36) Success isn’t sexy.

37) On cuddle parties and the sad state of the world.

38) The value of good.

39) Grace under pressure.

40) To be more productive, relax and have more fun.

41) The two magic words – Thank You

42) The value of dying daily. When the sun shone and the shops were invitingly open, alas, I forgot my shopping. Now the night is fallen- and I remember my shopping.

43) Client focussed v/s out for lunch.

44) Lead without title.

45) Do your part. If you think your’re small to have an impcatct, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room. Make a list of tings you don’t like about your country, organisation, life. Then do your part to improve them one by one.

46) Do your play.

47) Avoid the “Four F’s syndrome”

i) Fear

ii) Failure

iii) Forgetting

Better awareness, better choices.

Better choices, better results.

iv) Faith

48) Problem reveals the genius.

49) Love your irritations.

50) Speak like a superstar. Write inventories of words you most frequently speak.

51) Learning or decaying. Never leave home without a book in your hand.

52) Simple tactics for superb relationships.

Ideas for building human connection.

i) Be the most positive person you know.

ii) Be candid and speak truthfully.

iii) Be on time.

iv) Say please and thank you.

v) Under promise and over deliver.

vi) Leave people better than you found them.

vii) Be friendly and caring.

viii) Be a world class Listener.

ix) Become passionately interested in other people.

x) Smail a lot.

53) Roack stars as poets.

54) The innovators mantra. The enemy of best is good.

55) Pleasures is happiness.

56) The $600 sandwich.

OAD – Obsessive attention to detail.

Take the personal responsibility.

Pay attention.

57) Good business is good for business.

58) Build success structures.

59) The person who experiences most wins.

60) Brand like Diddy. I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.

61) Get into blessings.

62) Be wise, early rise

The space shuttle uses more fuel during the first few minutes after liftoff than it consumes during its entire trip around the globe. Building good new habits consume more efforts in the beginning.

There will be plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.

63) Whoe made success a dirty word?

64) Get great at life

i) Pay attention to life

Try to write a journal each morning. Think about the goals you need to accomplish for your to feel this day has been a success and write them down. Think of your closely held values. Learnings of the previous day.

ii) Engage in life.

iii) Enjoy life.

65) The Steve Jobs question – “What could I do if this was the last night of my life?”

66) What’s missing from your coolness.

67) No risk, no get.

68) Sell your desk.

69) Get fit to lead.

Exercise is the insurance policy I’ve taken out on my health. And each day I go into the gym, I ‘m paying the premium.

70) Extreme leadership is a kids’ clothing.

Improve

Observe

Connect.

Adapt.

71) The seven forms of wealth

i) Inner wealth.

ii) Physical wealth.

iii) Family and social wealth.

iv) Career wealth.

v) Economic wealth.

vi) Adventure wealth.

vii) Impact wealth.

72) Aplly the U2 standard.

73) LEarn more to earn more. Become indispensable.

74) See through the eyes of understanding.

75) The heart of your house. If you don’t know where are you going, then how will you know when you get there? Can you hit a target you don’t see?

76) Become an inspirational human being.

77) Make a dent in the universe.

78) Not all leaders are the same.

79) Six reasons to set goals

i) Focus.

ii) Growth.

iii) Intentionality.

iv) Measurement.

v) Alignment.

vi) Inspiration.

80) Remember the boomerang effect.

81) Make people feel good.

82) Commit to first class. Quality is remembered long time after price is forgotten.

83) Do a clean sweep.

84) Follow the million dollar baby rule.

85) The earth is small.

86) Guests are good.

87) The beauty of time.

88) On mountains and mastering change.

i) Define what the mountaintop looks like.

ii) Start climbing.

iii) Take small steps.

89) What happened to “Please”?

Commons is anything but common.

90) Bon Jovi and the power of focus.

The person who chases two rabbits chases neither.

91) Do a “101 things to do before I die” list.

92) Spend time with your kids.

93) Get goofy at work. The company that plays together stays together.

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

94) Revere great design.

95) On Evian water and you as a big-time dreamer.

96) Be like Garth.

97) Don’t give up.

I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.

98) Get big on self care.

99) Guess who inspires me?

100) How to life forever?

Every one of us will die. But so few of us really live.

101) Lay claim to greatness.

Excerpts from Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

I liked following ideas in the book. There are many other ideas and techniques. But these are the ones I found most important.

1. The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status and happiness in life.
2. You need three key qualities to develop the habits of focus and concentration. They are all learnable. They are decision, discipline
   and determination.
3. One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.
4. Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.
5. Your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills and abilities.
6. Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
7. By the yard it's hard; but inch by inch, anything is a cinch!
8. Difficulties come not to obstruct, but to instruct.
9. You can only get your time and your life under control to the degree to which you discontinue lower value activities.

The summary of the book is as below

Here is a summary of the 21 Great Ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster. Review these rules and principles regularly until they become firmly ingrained in your thinking and actions and your future will be guaranteed.

1. Set the table: Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your goals and objectives before you begin;
2. Plan every day in advance: Think on paper. Every minute you spend in planning can save you five or ten minutes in execution;
3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to everything: Twenty percent of your activities will account for eighty percent of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on that top twenty percent;
4. Consider the consequences: Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else;
5. Practice the ABCDE Method continually: Before you begin work on a list of tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so you can be sure of working on your most important activities:
6. Focus on key result areas: Identify and determine those results that you absolutely, positively have to get to do your job well, and work on them all day long;
7. The Law of Forced Efficiency: There is never enough time to do everything but there is always enough time to do the most important things. What are they?
8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin: Proper prior preparation prevents poor performance;
9. Do your homework: The more knowledgeable and skilled you become at your key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done;
10. Leverage your special talents: Determine exactly what it is that you are very good at doing, or could be very good at, and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very, very well:
11. Identify your key constraints: Determine the bottlenecks or chokepoints, internally or externally, that set the speed at which you achieve your most important goals and focus on alleviating them;
12. Take it one oil barrel at a time: You can accomplish the biggest and most complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time;
13. Put the pressure on yourself: Imagine that you have to leave town for a month and work as if you had to get all your major tasks completed before you left;
14. Maximize your personal powers: Identify your periods of highest mental and physical energy each day and structure your most important and demanding tasks around these times. Get lots of rest so you can perform at your best;
15. Motivate yourself into action: Be your own cheerleader. Look for the good in every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic and constructive;
16. Practice creative procrastination: Since you can’t do everything, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are of low value so that you have enough time to do the few things that really count;
17. Do the most difficult task first: Begin each day with your most difficult task, the one task that can make the greatest contribution to yourself and your work, and resolve to stay at it until it is complete:
18. Slice and dice the task: Break large, complex tasks down into bite sized pieces and then just do one small part of the task to get started;
19. Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time where you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks;
20. Develop a sense of urgency: Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks. Become known as a person who does things quickly and well;
21. Single handle every task: Set clear priorities, start immediately on your most important task and then work without stopping until the job is 100% complete. This is the real key to high performance and maximum personal productivity.