Today I had the exciting and yet ominous task of assembling some pieces from IKEA. I love assembling IKEA stuff, it’s therapeutic to me. Anywho, we was screwing in screws, inserting pegs into holes, bolting and nutting stuff together.
One of the steps required a washer and nut to be screwed on to the legs. Dad told me that the manual just instructed that it be screwed together by hand but after our best efforts with our hands alone, the table legs were just looking flimsy. Then dad throws me a bolt tightener. That really strengthened the table and brought everything together a lot better. Which got me thinking about leverage.
When assembling the table, you try go for the largest screwdriver that’s able to be used. The larger lever arm creates more force than a smaller lever arm. Same with the bolt tightener. The bigger the better.
It reminded me that you shouldn’t try to do everything on your own. You may be able to complete a task, but without the leverage you will most likely get it done slower and the result probably won’t be as good.
Simple enough lesson but when it comes to real life, it’s important to create the right leverage instead of creating perceived leverage.
Leverage was something I focused on heavily a year ago. I have a lot of notes on my phone from a year ago instructing my self about what action I was to take to create more leverage. Funnily enough looking back, the things I thought would bring me leverage didn’t create leverage at all. I thought, people with large social media influence carry a lot of power in society these days so sought to up my social media presence and influence.
I guess one reason it didn’t work was because I cut corners. I went for quantity over quality, and let me tell you, that just creates a mess! Whatever leverage you create you want to ensure is of the highest quality! Not just quantity.
The other thing is, social media is a BIG BIG pond with BIG BIG fish. It’s hard to compete in social media, unless you are a gorgeous specimen with lots of time to invest in social media image.
So my advice is;
1. Create leverage
2. Think about what goal your leverage will help achieve
3. Reverse engineer what leverage could help you achieve that goal
4. Ask yourself how long it will take to acquire that leverage
5. Prioritise leverage on ROI
6. Turn your natural STRENGTHS into leverage, not your weaknesses
7. DONT cut corners! (Quality >quantity)
I think the number 1 thing is, don’t lose sight of the ends. Don’t turn the means (leverage) into the end goal. Leverage is there to serve you to get to your goals. Once you’ve got significant leverage, don’t go overboard creating a jackhammer for a task that requires a drill.
You’re not superman. Prioritise your number one goal. Prioritise one method that will help you achieve that goal. Let the achievement of that goal allow you to leverage your next assignment and repeat the process.
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