Hi, it’s Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 444 of The Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of uncommon sense for anyone who wants start, grow and love their own tutoring, teaching and coaching business – the same way I love mine.
I’m here to share ideas that have helped me in my business journey as a teacher, entrepreneur, investor and mentor in a no-nonsense, No BS kind of way... in the hope that it helps you have as much fun at work and in life as I do.
And – of course - I’m listening: so if you have any ideas that you think might be worth exploring on the show – get in touch info@neilcowmeadow.com or on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and maybe you can help me to learn something new, something better?
And I don’t have all the answers – nobody does - and if I rely on my own miniscule brain to solve all of my problems…. Well.....
If you’re good with that, let’s crack on...
Everybody has a to-do list, don't we?
If you're in business for yourself, that to-do list is usually enormous and getting longer. I guess you could say that if you're alive your to-do list is always getting longer because new things are tagged on the top faster than you can take stuff away from the list. Now here's the thing: not everything on that to-do list should be there.
There's a story going around about Warren Buffett talking to his personal pilot. I guess you can afford a personal pilot when you're one of the most successful investors in history.
Buffett asked the pilot what his top 25 priorities were and the pilot, a guy called Flint, wrote down 25 things. Great so he's got some clarity on a whole bunch of stuff. Buffett asked Flint to circle the top five priorities. Flint went ahead and circled, unaware of the trap he was falling into.
With the five top items circled Buffett took a pen and crossed out the other 20. His reasoning is simple: the top five items are the ones that matter most to you. The other 20 are distractions, traps, and the thieves of time and attention.
I looked at my goals list, my priorities list, and it's huge. When I finally did pluck up the courage to grab a pen and circle the top five things on the list, it was very uncomfortable to look at the remaining 80 or so and realize that they'd be nice to do but probably weren't worth my time and attention if it took me away from the top five. Does that make sense?
Now write those top five things out on a couple of index cards, two sets. I suggest attaching one to the microwave door in the kitchen because you'll go there all the time and constantly remind yourself of what your top five projects are. The other reminder should probably go on your computer. Maybe even make it the wallpaper on your phone. These are the places where you go and will need to remind yourself of what to focus on.
If this is hard for you – get a mentor – someone you trust and who won’t pussyfoot around. If you don't have someone like that in your life, then consider hiring a mentor or business coach to help you. Remember that a good mentor should pay for themselves by
making you more money
saving you time
solving at least some of your problems, and
reducing your costs.
Having a mentor is the gold standard – but you can do it solo. It's really useful to sit down with yourself and dig away at your thinking. Put on the hat of an experienced business coach and look at things as though from their point of view.
You could even have AI do it for you if you construct a prompt correctly.
I love mentoring and I love being mentored. Mentoring is one of the hardest things I do, and on e of the most rewarding. When someone “gets it” and see’s their own potential – then goes out and takes action – that’s just fabulous… I wish I’d hired a mentor much sooner – it would have saved a lot of time, money and frustration, because I used to spend way too long inside my own head, caught up in my very own nonsense and limiting beliefs.
My mentor got me out of that loop.
Incidentally, his metaphor was that it’s life is like you're on a train at a station and the train on the next platform to you begins to move. You can't tell if it's your train moving or theirs. Your mentor acts as the unconnected man standing on the platform looking at both trains. From that point of view it's pretty bloody obvious which train's moving, isn't it?
That's the power of having a mentor who is outside of your situation. A good mentor can look at it objectively and give you the real deal or at least a different lens to look through.
Several of my mentees have said that this is the one thing that transforms everything, because they've been so caught up in their own heads, their own thinking, and the constraints of their own beliefs and paradigms that they can't see the wood for the trees. It makes me smile when one of the guys thanked me for calling them out on their own bullshit.
So here's my suggestion: take a cup of tea, pen and paper, and start writing out your priorities. All of them. Every single one.
Now brace yourself. Go back and circle the top five. Not the top six, not the top four, just the top five. Ask yourself - if those five things happened, would the rest of the list be important anymore?
If you look deep inside of yourself, the answer is probably no.
Those forty-seven other things aren't important.
So now take your courage in both hands and cross off everything on the list that is not one of the top five.
You'll find this exquisitely uncomfortable but that's not my problem. As you eliminate the traps and distractions of the lower-priority items, you may feel, though, you're eliminating opportunities. You are. The opportunities you're eliminating are opportunities to do less important things.
The more important things you need to focus upon are the top five items that you circled in the brain dump of everything you think might be ever so slightly important in your life, within which are the treasures of what matters most.
Try this for yourself and let’s see how you get on…
I'd love to hear from you.
Drop me an email to info@neilcowmeadow.com and if you have any comments, questions or problems, get in touch - again it’s info@neilcowmeadow.com or on X where I am @The Tutor Podcast
Let’s leave it there for today – I hope this show has got you thinking and has been some help to you and that you’ll join me next time on The Tutor Podcast for more No-BS tips and ideas of how to Start, Grow and Love YOUR Tutoring Business – just like I love mine.
Till then, remember that your time is precious, your life is largely what you make it, so always make it good. Be excellent to yourselves - stay healthy, stay useful, remember that you’re always loved and you’re never alone. Have a Fabulous Day!
