FollowtheLeader.indd

LEADERS ARE PURPOSEFUL

Let other people’s lack of agenda set our own agenda.
Allow their lack of schedule to interrupt our schedule.
Permit their lack of focus to blur our own focus.
Allow their lack of priorities to distort our own priorities.
Allow their lack of vision to destroy our own vision!

Principle:

“Focus: the sharper it is, the sharper you are.”^37

(John Maxwell)

A man by the name of E.M. Gray has spent his life searching for the
“Common Denominator of Success.” He found that the single greatest
factor common to all successful people was their secret of “putting first
things first.”^38 Let me share a couple of quotations and principles on this
matter of priorities that I have found very helpful.

“Th ings which matter most must never be

at the mercy of things which matter least.” 39

(Goethe)

• If you can determine what’s really a priority and release yourself
  from everything else, it’s a lot easier to follow through on what’s
  important. And that’s the essence of self-discipline.^40


• You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the
  courage – pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically – to say ‘no’ to
  other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’
  burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good.’ Keep
  in mind that you are always saying ‘no’ to something. If it isn’t
  to the apparent, urgent things in your life, it is probably to the more
  fundamental, highly important things. Even when the urgent is good,
  the good can keep you from your best, keep you from your unique
  contribution, if you let it...The key is not to prioritize what’s on
  your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.^42

“Th e key is not to prioritize what’s on your

schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”^41

(Stephen Covey)