The rule of five can help you achieve your dreams in 2015

Focus on few tasks that take you closer to your business goals daily. PHOTO | FILE 

By MURORI KIUNGA, murorikiunga@yahoo.com

When Mark Hansen and Jack Canfield wrote the first Chicken Soup for the Soul, it was rejected by major publishers in New York. It was only accepted by a small company in Florida in the US.

Hansen and Canfield were determined to make it a success. So they consulted widely, studied broadly and tried all sort of ways to make their dreams come true. But the advice of one teacher did the magic.

Teacher Ron Scolastico told them a secret that is applicable in everything that you chose to do whether it is a goal to grow your business to the next level, excel in studies, reduce weight, become financial secure, or build a social network.

It is called the rule of five. The great teacher started with a simple analogy to illustrate this gem of wisdom. He said, “If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp axe, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.”

It is on the basis of this wisdom that they devised a set of five specific things that would move them towards their goal completion.

They focused on this strategy and for a solid two years, they did a minimum of five things a day, every day, and guess what, their goal of getting it to the top of New York best-sellers was met.

And not only that: The Chicken Soup for the Soul series has sold more than 10 million copies in 39 languages so momentous success that it was termed as “The publishing phenomenon of the century” by Time magazine.

One of the many challenges most entrepreneurs face in achieving their goals is falling into the trap of having so many things craving for attention and dozens of decisions to make on continuous basis, all with consequences.

Information overload, opportunities and proposals from customers, staff and other business people can overwhelm you to a point where you find yourself juggling this and that, but achieving very little.

The key challenge is if you don’t have a solid plan and effective way of dealing with your affairs that is, if you cannot decide what to take and what to leave you can suffer from analysis paralysis, stress or burnout, decision fatigue and lower your productivity and fail to achieve your cherished goals.

The rule of five is perhaps one of the simplest, yet most effective of all laws. It simply implies that if you set a goals and do just five things that take you closer to the goal soon or later you will accomplish it regardless how big it is.

As we usher in the New Year with great expectations, the rule of five is a tool that guarantees you success.

Whether it has to do with your New Year resolutions, business targets or personal growth, wake up every day with a list of five things that would take you closer to your goals.

In other words rather than fill your desk with endless to-do-list, each day write down five tasks that if you accomplished satisfactorily would take you closer to your goal.

This need not be a complicated list. Take, for example, if your goal is to increase sales you may choose the following five tasks: call at least one customers, send a proposal or approach at least one prospective customer, spend 30 minutes or one hour prospecting, spend one hour studying your industry, your competitors and selling strategies and spend some time every evening to plan for the next day.

If you can do more and you will not be disappointed.

Mr Kiunga is the author of ‘The Art of Entrepreneurship: Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market.