One day, Warren Buffett was having a long conversation with his pilot.
After realizing that his pilot has been working with him for quite some time, Warren decided to perform a goal-setting exercise with him.
He first started by asking his pilot to list 25 goals in life he’d like to achieve in the next 5 years.
After a few hours, his pilot came back to him with his list of 25 goals he’d like to accomplish.
Then Warren told his pilot to narrow that list down to only 5 goals.
His pilot hesitantly responded, “but these are all important to me… that’s why I wrote them down.” Yet Warren persisted and told him he could only pick 5.
When his pilot returned with his 5 goals, Warren surprised him by responding: “Okay, do you see the 20 goals that you haven’t circled? This is now your ‘avoid-at-all-cost’ list.”
The takeaway lesson from the mindset of this billionaire is: the focus is essential.
It’s better to focus on 5 important goals that we can fully accomplish well, rather than 25 goals we perform mediocrely.
In the book The ONE Thing, the author Gary Keller states that you can ask yourself this simple question to narrow down your goals:
“What is the ONE Thing I can accomplish [from this list] so that if I accomplish it, everything else will become easier or unnecessary.”
Take Action:
Try this same exercise yourself.
Write down 25 goals you’d like to have, be or do over the next 5 years. Then choose 5 of these goals to focus on.
Notice how you feel now you have a clearer focus.