This week One Week One Book (OWOB) series is on “Elite” by Nick Hays. He was a Navy SEAL for 10 years and was awarded the Bronze Star. After leaving the Navy, he was a contractor while attending business school at the University of San Diego. He earned Leadership Development from the Harvard Business Program.
I categorize this book under Personal Growth. It presents so much of great strategies in helping us becoming great. The book has 13 chapters which each chapter cover in detail key strategy. This is the first book I read for 2020.
The praise for this book;
“In Nick Hays’ book, Elite: High-Performance Lessons and Habits from a Former Navy SEAL, he does a masterful job of boiling down the long-standing, well-proven secrets to success into simple, actionable steps – a masterful job of reminding us all that it’s the small things that make the difference between success and failure, and that we should never, ever give up.” —Brian P. Ward, Global Chief Executive Officer, Trimont Real Estate Advisors
One my key take away from this book is this; “Travel lite” or “Unpacked Your Backpack”. This is my whole understanding from his first strategy in chapter one, Remove the Dead Weight.
Remove the Dead Weight
We carry too much “baggage’ in our life. Imagine yourself as a traveler / backpacker; the more things you put in your backpack, the slower your movement will be. Same thing to our life; the much things to do, to consider, definitely will affect our effectiveness.
The author describes it this way and I love it….
“I also cut the tags off every article of clothing that I take with me because, believe it or not, ounces do add up to pounds. Apply the idea of weight in our physical world to the metaphorical weight that we all carry around, traditionally known as “baggage.” How many ounces have you allowed into your life thinking that they are insignificant?”
Time to reexamine every aspect of our life ; health, finance, family, career, etc. These things can be seen as compartment in our backpack. Which items in this compartment need to go. How to determine which items to let go? Perhaps answer to these question might help;
- Is aligned with your life goal?
- Is it taking much of your time / money and not giving much value?
- Is good for your long term?
Maybe we take the area of health; perhaps the things you want to eliminate / reduce;
- Food intakes that are not good for your health…perhaps to reduce the intake per day / per week.
- Time spend watching TV daily and replace with go for a walk
- Negative thoughts; observe your self talks (too much of negativity)
It is time to trim the “fat”. Let embrace the idea of minimalist. Have fewer tasks in hands but very impactful. Lets focus on the few things but with more time so that we achieve what really matters. One thing for sure is to reduce your time with social media…take stock on how much time you spend time there. You have to be strategic in investing your time with social media; maybe certain amount of time and only at specific time only.
“In fact, elite people, teams, and companies know how to remove unnecessary things from their lives and their organizations to function more efficiently. Learning how to be elite is about applying structures in your life that will make you stronger, smarter, and tougher today than you were yesterday. It is not going to be easy, and it may even sting a little.“
Call For Action
Look at your “backpack” and identify which items need to go? Start small, bit by bit. Do not take too much out at one time.
Visit the author: http://www.eliteteams.com