Want to be Highly Effective? Me Too!
Want to be highly effective?
Yes? Me too! And for most of my life I have been, or so I thought. I have definitely been successful, I've accomplished a lot, and I've had a lot of fun (amidst the pain of life). But I've also burnt out, been stressed, and haven't always been as effective as I wanted to be. So when I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, it helped me focus on what to do and how to do it better, more effectively. I'm sharing his 7 habits with you, one per week for the rest of summer. Today I'm setting the stage with the most important concept in the book: balancing your P (Production) with your PC (Production Capability).
The Goose and the Golden Egg
Stephen Covey describes his "P/PC Balance" through Aesop's fable of the goose and the golden egg.
A poor farmer discovers a golden egg in the nest of his pet goose. At first he thinks it is a trick, but eventually he learns the egg is indeed pure gold! He can't believe his good fortune, especially the next day when it happens again.
He becomes fabulously wealthy! But with increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides he will kill the goose and get them all at once.
But when he opens the goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs - and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them.
From this fable, Covey suggests a natural law or principle - the basic definition of effectiveness. Most people see the effectiveness from the golden egg paradigm: the more you produce, the more you do, the more effective you are.
But as the story goes, true effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) AND the producing asset or capacity to produce (the goose).
If you adopt a pattern of life that focuses on golden eggs and neglects the goose, you will soon be without the asset that produces the golden eggs. One the other hand, if you only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs, you soon won't have the wherewithal to feed yourself or the goose.
Effectiveness lies in the BALANCE.
Balancing the P (production) of desired results, the golden eggs, with PC (production capacity), the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs - is true effectiveness.
Covey's 7 habits are:
Be proactive
Begin with the end in mind
Put first things first
Think win/win
Seek first to understand then be understood
Synergize
Sharpen the saw
Next week we will dive into Habit #1 - Be Proactive. But today, I want you to list out all of the things you want, all of your golden eggs. What do you want to produce?
A clean home, reliable car, a type of vacation, meaningful relationships, healthy children, a promotion, a certain amount of money, certain opportunities for yourself or family members, energy to do fulfilling things, etc.
Now go back and figure out the PC of each of those things - who is the goose that you must care for if you are to have those things? (Hint: many times it is YOU)
It may be caring for your own health to have the energy to work. It may be opportunities to learn and grow to continue to be promoted. It may be ensuring your car is scheduled for regular maintenance so it runs well for many years instead of leaving you stranded on the side of the road. It may be investing time into relationships so that the fun is authentic and you know someone has your back, just as you have theirs.
There are countless examples of this. Spend some time this week thinking through your P/PC and decide where you may need to adjust your time and focus in order to bring these into better balance.
As much as we don't want to believe we are as foolish as the farmer, I see people bankrupting their health, their future financial earning capacity, and their current assets on a daily basis.
We all become a little impatient. We believe if we push a little harder right now, we will be in a better position later. In reality, we are often harming our production capacity. We are taking the short term wins today at the expense of the sustainability and long term wins tomorrow.
I've done it. Most (if not all) of my friends and clients have done it in some capacity. And we've all suffered to some extent because of it. The people who are happiest and most successful have recognized their need for balance and have made changes to make their lives better.
And that is the point of this series: Find ways to get what you want in a better, more balanced, more effective way.
No more burnout, no more overwhelm, no more being super busy with barely anything to show for it.
My goal is to help you find ways to reap what you sow, because what you sowed was awesome and consistent.
Let's be real - life is really hard right now. I'm tired of writing that because it's been true for many years, and yet the hits keep coming. We don't need any more abuse and neglect of ourselves and others for the sake of short-term wins.
We need longevity. We need spaciousness. We need EFFECTIVE ways to cultivate health, peace, understanding, progress, financial stability, societal stability, environmental stability, and a better world for all of us.
We need you to stop exhausting your production capacity and instead, invest in it so both your production capacity and your production are in full effect.
Cheers to your P/PC Balance,
Sharon
Not sure of your P/PC?
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