Brian Johnson explains Matthew Kelly's decade view: shift your time horizon from days to ten years to reshape your life and career. A McDonald's worker earning $15 an hour as a drive-thru clerk can reach CEO pay by moving through shift manager, store manager, regional manager roles, each expanding responsibility and time horizon.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. Matthew Kelly has written a number of great books. We have notes on three of them, but Perfectly Yourself, the Rhythm of Life and Off Balance In Off Balance, Matthew tells us that if we want to change the trajectory of our lives and or careers, we need to change the period of time we think about. Here's how he puts it. He says, so the first step is don't be in too much of a hurry to create the ideal life you have imagined. Personal and professional satisfaction are built like a castle, one brick at a time. He says. We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a week. In the same way we tend to overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in a decade. He says. Take a decade view. Give yourself a decade to build the life you have imagined for yourself, one that is rich and overflowing with personal and professional satisfaction. Until you take the decade view and until you begin to imagine and plan what you can do in a decade, he says, you have not even begun to explore your potential. The Decade View what's yours look like? Seriously? Pull out a blank piece of paper, Wave the wand. What's your life look like? That's today's plus one. And a little PS to this from a career or income perspective. Matthew brings the point home by reflecting on how much various people at McDonald's make depending on the time horizon for which they're responsible. Here's a Super quick look. 90 seconds. Well, that's the drive thru clerk. They make seven or eight dollars an hour. Eight hour time horizon. That's the shift manager. You're up to 12 to $15 an hour. Three month Horizon store manager about $20 per hour. How about the one year Horizon? Now you're talking about a regional manager. $35 to $40 an hour. But what about the 20 year vision? Now we have the CEO $10,000 an hour or $20 million a year. Note, the same returns apply to every aspect of our lives. For example, if our time horizon for our happiness is the next five minutes, then we'll prioritize eating the donut, having the extra drink, or smoking the cigarette. And guess what? Although it's easy to take for granted, with that approach, we're not even guaranteed A decade. Of course, none of us are guaranteed even an extra moment beyond this one. But we want to choose wisely. And our number one priority should be making sure we're giving ourselves the best shot to be around in a decade, right? So here's to a beautiful decade view. See your future self and prioritize your next moment accordingly.
Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history, but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up. But if you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on how to optimize your life and pull out the big ideas that can really change your life. You know those sections you underline and.
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