Seven Years On, Reflections on Your Oxygen Mask First: Invest in Your Sweet Spots

“Suc­cess is achieved by devel­op­ing our strengths, not by elim­i­nat­ing our weaknesses.”

-Mar­i­lyn Von Savant, high­est record­ed IQ, Guin­ness Book of Records

Your sweet spots are where you deliv­er, by far, the most value.

It’s where vital­i­ty, inspi­ra­tion and oxy­gen cours­es through your sys­tem, as you spend time and ener­gy doing what you love, the way you love doing it.

To be a high-per­form­ing leader and do amaz­ing things in your work and in your life, that means you need to invest 80% of your ener­gy in your sweet spot. Oth­er­wise, you be drained and depleted.

A Chal­lenge and an Opportunity

Invest in your Sweet Spots (Chap­ter 4, Your Oxy­gen Mask First), is about the val­ue of giv­ing your­self per­mis­sion to focus on the things you want to do and are good at.

Watch the Video: Invest in Your Sweet Spots

And to free your­self up to do that, you need to find oth­er peo­ple to do the things out­side your sweet spot. And this is hard for many peo­ple, unless you think of it as giv­ing some­one else an oppor­tu­ni­ty to invest in their sweet spot – to learn and grow, or to do some­thing they are good at.

Only then can you free your time to do those things that help you, your team and your busi­ness to thrive.

For exam­ple, we have a client who real­ly didn’t like get­ting involved in legal issues. They frus­trat­ed him and, because of that, issues often got worse when he was involved.

But when he found anoth­er mem­ber of the team who could han­dle them bet­ter, it took a huge load off his plate and, inter­est­ing­ly, issues got resolved notably faster.

Ask Who Not How

It reminds me of a great state­ment from Jim Collins:

Your first ques­tion should always be a ​‘who’ ques­tion, not a ​‘how’ question.

In oth­er words, ask the ques­tions that are always default think­ing for great leaders:

Who could make this happen?

Who would love to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be respon­si­ble for this challenge?

The Chal­lenge

• What per­cent­age of your time do you cur­rent­ly spend in your Sweet Spot?
• What can you do to get to 80%?

Your Oxy­gen Mask First Resources

• Sweet Spots exercise/​grid (pg. 25)

Oth­er Blogs

• Do What You Love & Invest in Your Sweet Spots
• Move For­ward by Find­ing the Sweet Spot between Fear and Anticipation
• What Would Hap­pen if You Spent 10% More Time on Growth?

Old­er Podcasts

• Liv­ing and Work­ing in your Sus­tain­able Sweet Spot as a Leader