Do Not Major In Minor Things

Do Not Major in Minor Things 

It typically takes 120 hours of coursework to complete your bachelor's degree. Another 60 hours to complete your master’s degree and another 60-120 hours to get your doctorate. What would you be majoring in if you could track every hour of your life? Where have you spent enough time that it is equivalent to the 300 hours it takes to get your doctorate? If you are anything like me the answers to these questions are troubling. Surprisingly, my double doctorate in Netflix and Call of Duty have not helped me in my adult life. I spent a tremendous amount of time growing up majoring in minor things. The goal of this framework is to help you take control of your time and start majoring in major things. 

What Are Major Things?

Major Things are the skills that will enable you to reach your goals. Minor things are the habits you pick up that hinder your view of your goals. Time is our most valuable resource yet we often waste it by majoring in minor things. As Differentiators, we are intentional in every aspect of our lives, including our time. We hold a high value for our time because we know it is the only resource we will never get more of. 

How Valuable is 24 Hours?

There is a video going around of this older mentor asking his mentee if he would rather have $10 million or if he would rather wake up tomorrow. The mentee obviously chooses the latter to which the mentor responds “That means tomorrow is worth more than $10 million.” While the video is cheesy it makes a compelling case for the lack of respect we put on our time. We assume we will wake up every morning. We assume we have time to start that business. When in reality we have no idea how much time we have. All we know is that we have to make the most of every hour we are given, this first starts by deciding not to major in minor things. 

Practicals

Implement Parkinson’s Law and external motivation into your everyday life. 

Parkinson’s law states that work will expand to the time allotted for its completion. Combine this rule with a good friend and consequences if the task is incomplete. If you implement this simple trick and have real consequences I promise you will accomplish more than you can imagine. 

If you would like to read a practical example of how I have implemented this law into my life, respond to this email with the title of a “must-read book” that you would recommend and I will send it to you 🙂 

Summary 

Let’s use our time wisely this week. You are given 72 hours every week (subtracting 8 hours of sleep and a 40-hour work week) How are you going to use those extra hours to help you reach your goals? What is a major thing that you want to major in? 

Go out. Major in Major things. 

Go out. Make a Difference.