Without question on the surface it looks a little odd, but I have a couple of secrets that I will share from my current book project, and a little perspective to boot.
My four jobs aren't the only things that I do. I also have written books, edit websites and write articles outside of my blog. Also, my house is a giant toy store for big boys. Classic rag top car, surfboard, paddle board, four beach bikes (everyone that visits likes to ride the beach path), skateboards and a radio controlled helicopter. I like toys, and yes they are for many people a distraction to getting focused. That is because they use them wrong.
Focused Doesn't Mean No Life.
Being focused simply means that you can see where you are going, you have a "destination" as I like to call it, and you are making progress. It doesn't mean you are stuck in front of a computer for thirty hours at a time. Writers block is famously cured by leaving the writing office.
As a former military competitive marksman, I used to say you could see your target clearly. When I moved back to the west coast, I realized two problems with that metaphor. First, any competitive shooter knows that you don't focus on your target. The front site right in front of you is the focus. Second, not enough people on the west coast have guns, and if they do, not enough are technically proficient at shooting to understand the metaphor.
The truth is, shooting is still a great metaphor for life. Looking at the front site is like looking at what you have right in front of you. The tools you have today, here and now are what you have, nothing more. Seeing a blurry target is also a great metaphor, because life is a little blurry. Those who get things done know exactly what they want to do, just like a shooter knows exactly what he is shooting at. At least that is true for a successful shooter, just ask Dick Cheney about now knowing what you are shooting at.
So now I use my second life to teach focus. As a military and airline pilot, we never start the jet without a mission or a destination. Hopefully in the military you accomplish both. Starting out, I don't always know what the place I am going to looks like. Every place I have ever been is new at least once. Some change making them new again. I know enough to get there, and have a plan. I also have a backup plan in case there are obstacles that are too big for my current plan.
The first time a pilot goes to an airport, he has no idea what it looks like, yet thousands of times every day pilots land safely at new airports hundreds or thousands of miles from where they started.
So how does all of this relate to the power of direction and getting more done in less time?
When you have a direction, or a destination, you have a reason, a purpose, an intention or a burning desire to get there. If you want to get there bad enough you will.
The problem for most people is distraction. Those little daily fires that pop up. My two dogs are sitting here staring at me waiting for a morning walk. Because of my burning desire to move my business forward and help more people, the dogs have to wait, and I keep typing.
See if this sounds familiar in any way.
Saturday morning you are going to sit down and re-write your resume so you can get a big promotion or move to another company. You get up, and the kids want to have breakfast. You tell yourself, just after breakfast, you'll sit down and fix your resume.
After breakfast, your spouse reminds you that Jonny has baseball and Janie has ballet and you promised Janie you would take her. Not wanting to let your child down, you take her to ballet. You can do the Resume when you get back. After all it is just a couple of pages and the old one isn't that bad is it?
After ballet the other parents are going to have lunch at that new girls store across town, and Janie is screaming to go. So you do.
At 3 pm you finally walk in the door dog tired of running all over town when you are told, the Jones want to get together for dinner, the sitter arrives at 5 and the dog needs a walk and the dishes need to get done, which would you like?
At 9:30 you get home from dinner, tuck the kids in, sit down and realize it is 10:30. Tomorrow you'll get to your resume.
Sound Familiar? Even without kids this has happened to me more than once.
Building a business isn't any different, you can map out a business and plan it down to the exact color blue on your business cards, and wake up a month later with a great plan and no business, or a business with no income.
The Secrets
My first secret to keeping sane with four jobs is that I don't have children. Just two dogs. It isn't by choice, it just is my life. Any parent will tell you that having kids is a job on it's own. Many parents are overwhelmed by the kids and make excuses to get out of the house that make things worse not better. This isn't really a secret, but it is something you need to understand as you set out on your journey if you want to stay sane.
My second secret comes from the ability to harness that internal desire. It takes a lot of practice, and a litte discipline. Each of my four jobs only gets one major item for the day. The reality is, if I focused on just one job*, I would make a lot more money at it. I have made the decision based on my white board to create dozens of small streams of income rather than one large one. You have to make that decision based on your own "wants" and "don't wants"
The flying job at the airline often gets none. The advantage of that job, for the most part is when I am not flying I don't have to think about it. With over 25 years of flying in the military and the airline, flying is now second nature. All jets are basically the same after a while.
Even if you have kids and a day job, you can pick one major goal and make a destination out of it. If your family understands where you are going, why it is important to you and how it helps them, they will understand the next part. I suggest the white board method for this.
The next part is setting priorities every day. Each day at the end of the day I look at the small white board in my office. Not the big one in the garage that has my "Wants" and "Don't Wants" on it. Here too are three columns. The first is the daily task list. One major item for each of my four main "jobs". The second is my Open or Follow up list. Sort of my brainstorm of things that should become something on the daily task list. These are things I haven't done, and haven't put a deadline on but are important enough not to "dump". Some will get delegated when I find the right person.
The third column is my notes and big picture items to work on when I have completed my daily tasks or hit a road block and need to let my subconscious do some work.
Here is the big secret that takes a little practice. When I get stuck on a task in column one like "Write a New Chapter for Book Project", I focus on it for just 5 or 10 minutes. If I don't see a solution, I tell my subconscious to work on it, and then I either go to the far right column and work on something like "Solar Panels for the roof" or I go grab a toy and play or exercise for 45 minutes. I find that almost every time I do this, a solution will just "pop in my head". Oddly solutions for the other three items on the list show up as well.
Using this method, I work three to four hours a day on three of my four jobs. I believe if you use this method, you can easily start a profitable second career or business in just a few hours each week.
*Because the airline job is union and a straight trade of time for money, none of these rules apply. I can't work any smarter to get paid more and work less than the contract will allow. As much fun as flying is, I do plan to leave commercial flying and purchase a private aircraft in the next 24 months. I will be too young to retire just in case you are thinking that is the reason for 24 months.
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Thank you for your insights.