(Excerpt from MayoOshin.com)
A few years ago, before an airplane takeoff, Warren Buffett walked up to the pilot of his private jet, Mike Flint and jokingly said to him, “The fact that you’re still working for me, tells me I’m not doing my job. You should be out, going after more of your goals and dreams.”
Buffett then walked Flint through a simple, quick process to gain clarity on his priorities and achieve his goals.
Here’s the exact 3-step process (you can follow along and write these down):
Step 1: Write down your top 25 goals.
The first thing Warren Buffett asked Flint to do was to list the most important career goals he wanted to achieve in his lifetime. These would total to 25 goals.
Step 2: Draw a circle around your top 5 goals.
Once Flint compiled his list of 25 career goals, Buffett asked him to draw a circle around his top 5 most important goals. Flint was hesitant because each goal was important to him , but nevertheless, he circled five goals.
Then, Buffett asked, “Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you.” Flint replied, “Yes.”
Step 3: Focus on Your Top 5 Goals and Say No to the Rest
After the brief discussion, Flint said to Buffett, “Warren, these are the most important things in my life right now. I’m going to get to work on them right away. I’ll start tomorrow. Actually, no I’ll start tonight.”
Buffett replied, “but what about these other 20 things on your list that you didn’t circle? What is your plan for completing those?” Flint replied swiftly, “Well the top five are my primary focus but the other twenty come in at a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I’m getting through my top 5. They are not as urgent but I still plan to give them dedicated effort.”
After a brief moment of silence, Buffett looked straight into Flint’s eyes and said, “No. You’ve got it wrong Steve. Everything you didn’t circle just became your ‘avoid at all cost list’. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5 .”