Train Your Brain For Success

by Roger Seip

  I've been doing this rigorously since the age of 25, and it's one of only three perfect correlations I've noticed between activity and results. The other two will be discussed in Chapters 15–17 on Aggressive Mental Care, but the Two-Hour Solution is the first. What I mean by “perfect correlation” is that when I do this, my life goes well. Not necessarily perfectly, but well. To reinforce the correlation, I've found that if my life isn't going the way I want—if my business results are down, if I'm not as high-energy as I like, if I'm stressed out, if my relationships are suffering—I can always trace it back to being lax or ineffective with my Two-Hour Solution time.

  In addition, when our coaching clients begin implementing the Two-Hour Solution, they discover a minimum of 10 more productive hours in every single week. Usually it's more like 20 or 30 hours, but in 15 years of teaching this I've never heard less than 10. I mean that the Two-Hour Solution will cause you to take at least 10 hours per week from Quadrants 1, 3, and 4 and put them where you really want them to be. We said in the last chapter that you can't manage time, but the Two-Hour Solution will make you feel like you are actually creating time that wasn't there before. It'll feel like finding 20 bucks in the dryer, only better!

  I'm still underselling the value of this practice. The Two-Hour Solution is not just some trick that makes you feel good; it produces some of the most tangible and powerful bottom line results we see with our clients. I think about one executive we coached who told us in his coaching summary that this one system paid for his several thousand dollar coaching investment approximately 40 times over, in the first year. I think about one production manager I coached, and watched the Two-Hour Solution drop 20 pounds off his frame, deepen his spiritual life, and earn him a promotion much faster than he expected. I think about the hundreds of sales professionals we've taught this to, that when they make the investment of two hours per week, their earnings rise by 30 percent, 50 percent, in some cases 300 percent. I could go on and on, the point being that what you are about to learn is not theory. When you do it, it works. And even when it doesn't work, it still works! Even if you don't get exactly the results you were looking for, at a bare minimum the Two-Hour Solution puts you in the driver's seat of your life. Even if your week doesn't happen exactly as you planned (it rarely will), you end up much better off than if you hadn't made the investment. You really can't lose on this one, so let's get into it.

  The Two-Hour Solution Defined

  Stephen Covey famously said that “all things are created twice—first in our minds and then in our external reality.” The example used most frequently is that of a building. The architect created the building first in his mind, then drew up the blueprints, and only then did construction begin. But this concept is true for anything and everything manmade. A farm field, a car, this book you're reading, anything that was created by a human being was created first in somebody's mind, and then brought forth into the world.

  Your life is the same way. You create your life first in your mind, and then you bring it forth. The key to understand is that this “mental creation” is happening whether you realize it or not. For most people, the problems in their life stem from the fact that the mental creation happens accidentally. They are not influencing the creation, it's just happening at a level below their awareness.

  Know what else is the same way? Your week. You create your week first in your mind, then you execute it. Again, the mental creation of your week is happening whether you influence it or not. When you fail to exercise that influence, what happens is that your week runs you, rather than you running your week. Can you relate?

  The Two-Hour Solution is a specific, seven-step method of investing two hours per week, for the purpose of mentally creating the next two weeks of your life. Statistically, very few people devote this level of time or thinking to creating their week. Only the most successful people do this.

  Remember the principle of success leaves clues? Look at the most successful people in your field, and you will see that they do this. They may not call it the Two-Hour Solution, but they plan, they think, and they visualize. They mentally create their days, their weeks, their lives. They do it consciously, and they do it consistently. You do it too, and you will see similar results.

  Here's how.

  How Do I Start?

  The mechanics of the Two-Hour Solution are deceptively simple. You begin with simply setting aside a two-hour block of uninterrupted time for yourself. Ideally it's a single block. Two one-hour blocks can also work, but ideally you give yourself a single two-hour block of time. Keep in mind that the purpose of this time is to mentally create a stretch of your life. This is not just “make a to-do list,” it's not just some drudging chore—it's creative time. Creative time usually requires a bit of a warm-up period for the juices to really get flowing. Don't make the mistake of thinking “Oh, I'll just squeeze it in here or there—I'm sure half an hour will be enough.” The whole point here is that you are investing time in yourself, and it's the surest, most certain investment you can make. Believe me, you'll want at least two hours to do this right.

  This should happen sometime between the end of one workweek and the beginning of the next. I've coached lots of executives who love to make their two hours the last two hours of the week on Friday afternoon. For me, Friday afternoon doesn't work well, but I love to be up early. So Saturday morning before my family wakes up is perfect for me. Lots of my clients choose to do this on Sunday evening as they transition from enjoying the weekend to prepping for a great week. You choose when works best for you, but get yourself some quiet uninterrupted time when you can shut off noise and just think.

  Why Do I Resist This?

  Before we go any further, let me tell you what you may be thinking right now.

  “Two hours?! Are you nuts? I can't afford to take two hours to just sit around and contemplate my navel, I have stuff to do!”

  And I get it. We live in a society where other people create constant demands on our time, so it's really easy to experience feelings of guilt. Combine that with your mind's natural tendency to resist anything that's different, and I understand that it may feel somewhat uncomfortable to set aside this block of time, especially at first.

  If this thought occurred to you, pay close attention to what I'll say next.

  If you genuinely believe you can't afford a two-hour block of time for yourself, then you can't afford not to take that block, because you are a disaster waiting to happen. Ever flown in a commercial airliner? Think about what the flight attendant says about what to do if the oxygen masks come down. Whose mask must you put on first? That's right, yours. The reason for this is that if you try to help everyone else before you take care of yourself, you render yourself useless. You actually make the situation worse. The same goes for your life. If you really want to live a record-breaking life, if you really want to be able to best serve the people you care about, you must be able to think and create. This will not happen without you making it happen.

  Consider what Gandhi said: “I pray for two hours every morning. If I have an exceptionally busy day ahead of me, then I pray for three hours.” Speaking from experience, you will be very glad you made this investment. So will everyone else your life.

  What Do I Do with My Two Hours?

  Once you've got the time set aside, sit down with the planning tool of your choice. You can use Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal, or whatever digital tool you prefer. Or you can go old-school with Day Timer, Day Runner, Priority Manager; any paper based system works too. For a look at a free Two-Hour Solution two-week worksheet, check out the bonuses at the end of this chapter. Feel free to use any tool you choose; just be sure that you can look at an entire week all at once. You're going to mentally create your upcoming week in quite a bit of detail, and at least paint the broad strokes on the following week, so be sure you can see a whole week at a time.

  Step 1. Reconnect with Your Goals

  If you're not clear on what you want to accomplish
, how you run your week is irrelevant. So before you do anything, take 5 or 10 minutes and review your goals. Take your keystone goal and visualize its accomplishment. See it vividly, and enjoy the excitement of seeing your goals come true. Contemplate all the good things that will come from it. Be grateful for the ability to mentally create your life—it's one of the things that makes you fundamentally human.

  Step 2. Review and Block Off Your Commitments

  Once you've reviewed your goals and tuned up your brain, it's time to actually look at your next two weeks. Your commitments are the meetings or appointments that you already have planned to attend. Any time where you've agreed to be somewhere for or with somebody lives here. Your commitments probably will already be blocked off on your calendar—if not, put them in so you can see them. At the same time, think about how you'd like each meeting or appointment to turn out.

  Some good questions to ask yourself are:

  What are your desired outcomes?

  Should this meeting be happening at all?

  Are the right people scheduled to be at this?

  How can this time be made most effective?

  Should this block of time be shortened (likely), or perhaps lengthened?

  What kind of prep do I need to do for this?

  I devote this intense level of questioning to the upcoming week. The following week will get a less detailed look, because I know I'll be revisiting it during my next Two-Hour Solution time.

  If you'll even just give this step your 100 percent attention and ask a few good questions of yourself, you'll be doing what the most successful do. You'll also put yourself ahead of at least 90 percent of your competition by doing this. Most people don't do any of it, which is why they don't get where they want to go.

  Step 3. Schedule Excellence Time

  The very next thing to put in is your excellence time. If you recall from the previous chapter, excellence is the word we use to describe Quadrant 2. So excellence time is the time that you invest to strengthen yourself and your relationships. This is the time that builds you. Lots of things can live here; for me it's exercise, reading, meditating, and my planning/goal setting time. That's right, your next Two-Hour Solution session needs to get scheduled! You could also include mindful time with family or friends, community service, church, or any number of activities.

  The big key here is that these types of activities must be scheduled, and they must be scheduled before most other activities. Why? Two reasons. Number one: If you don't give them the highest level of urgency they simply don't happen. For me, even when I do give them the highest priority they sometimes don't happen. If you allow these types of activities to be an afterthought (as most people do), it's likely they will never happen. Life will get in the way. Number two: When you've planned to do it, you remove the guilt. You'll see as your Two-Hour Solution unfolds that you have plenty of time for everything that's important. In fact, you'll probably be surprised to learn that you have an enormous abundance of time for all of the amazing things you want to do, if you will just plan them. When that clicks, you no longer are held back by the guilty feelings that come with a scarcity mentality.

  Put excellence time in your schedule—it makes your life awesome.

  Step 4. Schedule Your Green Time

  Next up is “green time.” This is specific to your professional life. It's called that because green is the color of money. In your work, there are only a small number of activities that directly make you money or that you get paid for. If you're an executive, it's running your company or department, and that's it. If you're a salesperson, it's selling, and that's it. If you're an athlete, it's practicing and playing, and that's it. Even in a large bureaucratic organization, there is one reason you are on the payroll, and that's it.

  One reason most people feel pulled in too many directions at work is that they aren't clear on what that one reason—their green time—is. If you aren't clear, ask someone who knows. If you are clear (and if you're honest with yourself you probably are), commit to when you're going to make that time happen and then guard that time. If you will gain clarity on what your green time consists of, when the best time to engage in it is, and then dive into it with laserbeam focus, you and your colleagues will be shocked to see how much you can accomplish in a very short period.

  Step 5. Schedule Your Red Time

  Red time is also part of your professional life—it's the time that doesn't directly get you paid, but does support your green time. There are things that need to happen before your green time to make it effective. There are also things that need to be done after your green time to either account for or deliver what your green time produced. Things like research, prep work for a presentation, organizing leads, paperwork, performance reviews, and other support activities live under red time. Lots of our clients identify it as “administrative time.” We call it red time because red is the signal to stop. If red time is not done well, it stops your green time from being effective.

  The key here is that while red time is important, it is not green time. The two are not the same and should be kept separate. This is not as easy as it sounds, because red time is usually much easier emotionally than green time. I've seen salespeople waste entire weeks “doing research” or “networking” when what they really needed to do was just pick up the phone and make a call. I've seen executives waste days “preparing a presentation” when they really just needed to have a 15-minute conversation with a problem-child manager. And on and on. Red time is important, but avoid the easy trap of letting it consume your more important green time. Green time is all about being effective because it usually involves dealing with people. Red time is all about being efficient.

  So to make it as efficient as possible, put it in your schedule and do it in batches. Answer all of your e-mail at one time, do your paperwork at a preordained time, and so on. Doing it all at once rather than “a little here, a little there” drastically reduces the amount of time red time sucks up.

  Step 6. Schedule (or at Least Notice) Your Flex Time

  Through steps one to five, look at everything you've got planned. By this point you will have reviewed your goals, visualized success, thought through, and blocked out the time for all of the stuff you need to do in the upcoming week, and most if not all of the stuff you really want to do. Congratulations! Here's a beautiful thing about the Two-Hour Solution: When you get here, you will notice significant chunks of your week where nothing is planned. It looks like the chart in Figure 11.1.

  Figure 11.1 A Typical Week for Me

  See the holes? Even the busiest people have them—an hour here, three hours there, another block someplace else. It's amazing how when someone thinks through a week, they end up with all the important stuff accounted for and then a bunch of extra time! All by itself, this simple awareness can really boost your abundance mentality. If you are wise, you set these unused blocks aside as flex time. Flex time gives you a “bucket” of time, into which you can put whatever you want. Ongoing projects, meetings/appointments that get scheduled last minute, some extra excellence or green time. Anything can be put into flex time—that's what it's there for!

  The real beauty of having flex time is that it gives you what you need to stay the course. One of the big things that gets people off track is that they diligently plan out a week, get really excited about all the greatness they'll achieve, and then early Monday morning—Boom—some unforeseen crisis happens and blows up the morning. If there's no flexibility built in, it's too easy to say, “Well, there goes my plan—this scheduling thing clearly doesn't work.” You end by giving up on the whole process and “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” With flex time built in, it becomes much easier to do what's healthy and realize that you've already considered that something like this could occur and then execute your backup plan. Simply take what you were intending to do when you got thrown off and put it into some of your already scheduled flex time. When you put it in flex time, you prevent the unplanne
d from wrecking your plan, and you dramatically boost your peace of mind.

  Step 7. Schedule Your Re-Creation Time

  Last but not least, make absolutely sure that you have some recreation (or, more accurately, re-creation) time planned for yourself. It's likely that you already have some in (your excellence time often is recreational in nature), but if you haven't scheduled time to take care of yourself—mind, body, and spirit—do not miss the opportunity to put some in your calendar every week. If you don't take care of you, who will?

  There you have it: the Two-Hour Solution. A specific, seven-step method of investing two hours per week, for the purpose of mentally creating the next two weeks of your life. Do it weekly, do it regularly, and watch your life improve.

  What about the Rest of the Week?

  The Two-Hour Solution lays the foundation for the week, tunes up your subconscious mind to attract success, and then does one other thing—it provides context. People often ask us, “Should I also have a daily to-do list?” Absolutely. I recommend taking 10 to 15 minutes each day to think through your day and make necessary adjustments to the plan you created. More on this in Chapter 12, but the practice of thinking through your day in the context of a Two-Hour Solution planned week now makes your to-do list a very powerful tool instead of just a boring chore. Yes, you will need to make adjustments (remember that a plane is off course 90 percent of its flight), so feel free to make these changes.