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I have been discussing the seven strategies God built into the rainforest to deal with “pests” and how they relate so effectively to work. So far, we have discussed the following: (1) Eliminate the unnecessary (2) Automate the mundane (3) Delegate the routine (4) Designate your work and last week was number (5) Procrastinate the undefined.
There are seven strategies that God built into the rainforest to deal with pests. You know… those things that consume our time, our energy, our peace of mind, and especially our concentration. After you Eliminate the unnecessary, Automate the mundane, Delegate the routine and Designate your own work load, you still have three other very useful options.
I am wrapping up my four part series on personal productivity as modeled by the rainforest. In the previous three sessions, we discussed the importance of Eliminating the Unnecessary, Automating the Mundane and Delegating the Tactical. Now I want to get to your core competency as the CEO of your life. What are you the very best at? What gives you remarkable fulfillment? This is what you really want to do, free from the time wasters and time consumers that have plagued your life. It’s where you soar at the stratospheric level like an eagle overseeing the fields and forests, planning the next move from a place of strategic advantage.
In the rainforest, plants have certain designated responsibilities that only they can fulfill. They are wired or created to fulfill those roles and everything about their DNA beckons them to fulfill their primary purpose. The fourth law, therefore, is to Designate. By that I mean, designate your time, your resources, your heart, your mind, your strength to that thing you have burning in your heart, but as much as possible, do it at a strategic level.
We have been talking about how the rainforest is so incredibly productive. How does it stay so focused on the most important tasks it has like breathing in CO2 and exhaling fresh Oxygen for us to breathe? For the last two weeks we talked about the first two laws… Eliminate the Unnecessary and Automate the Mundane. These two laws, when properly applied, will create a vacation for you in every working day! But there’s more…
Once you eliminate the unnecessary and automate the mundane, it’s time to Delegate the Tactical. Don’t make the mistake of delegating to others the things you should have eliminated or automated. If you do, you’re just wasting their time and indirectly, yours. In the rainforest, there are many pests that consume the productivity of plants. While many plants have devised their own way of dealing with those pests, on some occasions, plants actually delegate the defense of their leaves to others. They hire ants by paying them with nectar. The ants get hooked on the income (the nectar) and ward off all potential intruders like caterpillars, grasshoppers, grubs, etc.
Last week, we pointed out that rainforests have a job. They are the lungs of the planet, exchanging Oxygen for Carbon Dioxide and sustaining life on this planet. We can’t afford for the rainforest to be inefficient, to fall down on the job or to be ineffective. Fortunately, we do not have to worry about the rainforest defaulting (as long as we don’t cut it all down), because it operates by a series of laws or processes that make it very efficient.
When we understand what makes the rainforest efficient, we can apply those same principles to our lives and garner similar results. Last week, we talked about the first law of productivity… Eliminate the Unnecessary. Today, I want to talk about the second law… Automate the Mundane. In short, systemize those things that must be done routinely and in a precise way.
Rainforests have a job. In a very pragmatic sense, they are the lungs of the planet. They breathe in the excess carbon and exhale much needed oxygen and they are very, very good at their job. In fact, the rainforest is perhaps the most efficient system on the planet, making the most out of a little and wasting almost nothing.
Want to be more efficient? I am going to share the first in a series of four rainforest strategies that speak to personal productivity issues. Most people I know struggle to get a full day of productivity from the time they’ve allotted for that productivity. Parkinson’s Law kicks in and work expands to fill the time allotted. But you can change that.
You know what the biggest, most amazing secret of the rainforest is? It’s how it takes water and air and light and makes wood and leaves and fruit and flowers. You can’t do that in the lab. It’s never been duplicated. Jesus turned water into wine for the wedding feast of Cana. That was a miracle. But in a very real sense, that miracle occurs every day but at a much slower speed. Grapevines turn water into wine year after year. They take water, light and CO2 and, through the magic of photosynthesis, produce a grape which becomes wine.
Photosynthesis has got to be one of the 7 wonders of the natural world, but yet it is an unseen and little understood process. It turns intangibles into tangibles. It represents the science of business. You take water H2O and carbon CO2 and add sunlight and you end up with glucose C6H12O6. It’s never C7.5H3O1. There is a specific process, an exact formula, a precise system and it’s constant. The result? Beautiful green leaves flowing with the breeze, tall trees dominating the view, fruit feeding the creatures and flowers dazzling everyone. But it’s the result of a well executed system or set of processes that work consistently. So consistently that you never doubt it - Never.
We are concluding our series on the 7 natural means rainforest plants have to protect themselves from pests so they can grow fast and produce much. This one is about getting help. - recruiting others to run defense for you. In nature, it’s called the “ant defense”. It’s where plants sometimes offer ants nectar in exchange for defense from leaf eating pests like caterpillars, ladybugs, etc. The ants value the nectar more than eating the leaf so they protect the leaf from other leaf eating insects.
It’s a protection racket, but it’s initiated by the plant. Do you have an assistant or someone who can run defense for you and screen your calls, even answer or clear away nuisance emails? It might be worth the investment. Too often, I have been guilty of assigning a task to my support team, then going back and getting involved, even doing it myself. That’s pathetic. If I have the wrong staff, I need to replace them. If I simply have bad habits, I need to change those!
We are talking about improving our productivity by keeping the pests at bay. It’s a big job but absolutely necessary for success in business. The sixth natural strategy is called “secondary metabolites”. It’s where the plant uses chemical warfare to fight off pests, pathogens and fungus. The plant makes it unpleasant for the offender, even deadly if they persist.
So what’s the lesson here? Simple - Get serious. Don’t reward interruption. Make it costly to the perpetrator. Unfortunately a lot of folks can’t take a hint or even a gentle request so sometimes there has to be a price to pay for that interruption. It might be a stern word of correction, a warning or even withdrawing business from a nuisance vendor.
A quick note from the “Geek” here.
In case you missed my previous e-mail, we’re offering a SUPER deal on the 7 Wealth Secrets of the Rainforest special this week. Check it out here.
We’ve added a couple of extra FREE gifts to it as well, including my new online training video, “How To Download Products from the Internet the ‘Right’ Way!” If you’ve ever wondered where a download went when it disappeared on you, I show you exactly how to prevent that from ever happening again! You might as well learn from a “Geek!” I teach you everything you need to know, but the great thing is… you don’t have to be a “Geek” to understand it!
