If there’s one goal people have in common, it’s to be happy. In our society, we think people can buy happiness. That’s why millions of dollars per year are spent on fad diets, trendy clothes, and expensive cars. That’s why we work long hours at the expense of hobbies and relationships—to earn enough money to buy our happiness.

We design our lives around making money, and then wonder why we aren’t happy when we have it. It’s because we are working too hard and not feeding our passions and interests. We design our lives around making sure the items on our to-do list get checked off, whether they contribute to our overall goals or not.

Memos. Junk mail, Post-it notes. Catalogs. Bills. Permission slips. Newspapers. Look around you. Do these things seem to be everywhere? Many of us are surrounded by overwhelming piles of clutter. You’re probably so used to it you don’t realize its negative impact.

Clutter is one of the biggest reasons you aren’t more productive. You may not realize it, but clutter takes up valuable time and energy.

I once had a client named Stephanie who was so adamant that clutter had no affect on her whatsoever, that she actually renamed it “controlled chaos.”

Let me ask you a question. What do you do when you want your car to perform its best? You keep the exterior and interior spiffy. You change the oil regularly. You make sure that all the required maintenance gets done. In other words, you take care of your car.

Why should you be any different? If you really want to succeed on your journey to earn more by working less—if you really want to perform your best—you’re going to have to take care of yourself.

Old habits are hard to break. It doesn’t matter if we know they aren’t good for us. They’re still hard to get rid of. And chances are, bad habits are preventing you from working less and making more.

If you’re already a Success Circle Member, I want to give you a sneak preview of the information that you will be receiving shortly in your mailbox.

http://www.successcirclemonthly.com

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INSIDE YOUR JUNE 2009 SUCCESS CIRCLE INTERVIEW:

Tapped for Success, with Frank McKinney

It was a beautiful fall day. The sun was shining, and the air was crisp. It was a perfect day for a hike in the woods. A woman – someone I would call a high achiever – was walking along on this gorgeous day when she suddenly heard a rustling behind her. She turned around and realized there was a family of tigers behind her. She knew they wanted to have her for lunch.

She started to run very fast. Good thing she was in top physical condition like most high achievers. After two years of working out with her personal trainer, she could outrace even the most physically fit tiger.  

If you’ve been following the Work Less, Make More program, you’ve learned how to prioritize your tasks and focus on the projects that really matter. These are the high-payoff activities. These are the things that stir passion in your soul, make life worth living, and put you on the road to success.

Prioritizing is a big part of working more and making less. Most people are bombarded with things to do every day. They find themselves moving quickly from one task to the next, from that task to another, all day long. When you’re in that kind of cycle, it’s hard to really get going on any one thing. Your mind is jumping from one thing to the next.

We all do things we don’t like to do. Things that clutter up our days. And there are many reasons why these things stay on our schedules. You might spend as much as half your time at work doing things you hate doing—and aren’t good at to boot—just because they need to be done. Or maybe you spend a few hours a week of your free time volunteering at the local animal shelter. You don’t really like the work, but you think it’s the right thing to do.

I recently got a call from a guy named Gary who wanted to hire a coach. Now, by most people’s standards, Gary was already very successful. He owned a home in a very affluent neighborhood, and drove a luxury car. Gary could basically afford anything he wanted. So what was his problem? Something was missing. He didn’t have enough time to do the things he wanted to do, or hang out with the people he enjoyed. He wanted a solution. Fast.

So I asked Gary what he wanted in life. Silence. When I asked again, I got a reluctant, “Isn’t that what I’m paying you to find out?”