In this era of massive distraction, diversion and social media seduction, only the clear and brave producers who have gone "fully minimalist” around their few priorities will dominate their domains. And lead their fields. 

Producers with drained batteries are highly unproductive. ⁣
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The idea that working longer and harder makes you more productive and better is outdated.⁣
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Legendary producers outfocus, outinvent and outwork everyone around them when it’s game time. And then, after they’ve expressed their mastery in a hot burst of flaming audacity, they go dark. Ghost. Silent.⁣
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And recover. And read. And exercise. And daydream. And regenerate.⁣
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This seasonal or cyclical way of running a day and then a week and then a month and then your years is unpopular. And counterintuitive, given the way we’ve been socially programmed to think about productivity.⁣
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Yet if you really want to express your genius, lead your field and stay in your sport for the fullness of a career, it’s the best way to operate. ⁣
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Perfectionism isn’t healthy. Yet, here’s the reality based on my nearly 25 years in the trenches with the titans of industry, world-changers, NBA superstars and music icons: the great ones are all obsessive. They cannot bear being mediocre. They cannot live stagnating at ordinary. They have uncontainable hunger to exploit their potential, bring on mastery and turn their entire field on its head. 

Mahatma Gandhi said it beautifully. "One cannot do right in one area whilst he is occupied and doing the wrong in another area."

So please remember - the way you do one thing defines the way you do everything. 

As a follow-up to yesterday's episode... the majority is caught up in the “relentless release of stuff.”

Most producers rush to deliver many materials rather than investing the time and painstaking care to handcraft a single masterpiece that stands the test of time.

I go into great depth on this pivotal subject in The 5AM Club yet for now please consider this: it’s wiser to make one Fifth Symphony versus many pieces of mediocrity [that never establish domain dominance].

In a marketplace suffering from what I call in my presentations The Collective DeProfessionalization of Business and in a society struggling with The Mass Mediocritization of Humanity, we absolutely must behold the fiery passion  Steve Jobs has for perfection. One former teammate said that part of his genius was his ability to spot defects instantly. I recently heard that he told his design team everything they produced needed to be “Museum of Modern Art-level quality”. His consumer goods needed to have a legendary UX. All devices needed to function excellently. And everything they touched had to be nothing less than gasp-worthy.

Above all else, I believe, Steve Jobs was a hippie at heart. A man who wanted to release amazing things into the world. A maker who dreamed as few have and relentlessly stayed true to his ideals. Sure he was broken [aren’t we all?]. Yet, at his core, he was a human being who wanted to build a better world.

You'll never perform higher than your self-identity. And what you believe to be possible.

All outer fortune begins with rescripting your self-identity, maximizing your faith in yourself and optimizing your daily routines so you’re consistently operating at your peak.

Commit to x25 your inner life and you'll x100 your outer world.

Real leaders truly get that learning and ideation is the fuel of life. And that all it takes is a single idea to change the game at work (and rescript the story that is your life).

Here is one of the uncommon rules that superstars of prosperity, elite performers, and titans of industry live by to make their mark on the world.

Distraction is the great destroyer of dreams. Why be busy being busy when you're built to inspire the world?

If you haven’t discovered how to “protect your hope” and enthusiastically continue on the path of your heroic mission in the face of naysayers, pessimists and cynics—you’ll stop. And lose. [And few things will make you suffer more than the pain of your genius unexpressed.]