Imagine a surge protector – a “power strip,” with eight slots where you could plug something in. You’re paying the power bill on this bad boy, and you have plenty of things that need the power.
Someone comes along and asks you if they could plug their phone into the strip. You’ve got room, right? So you say sure, and figure you’re fine with just seven spots. But before you know it, you’re giving slots to a lot of other people, and soon not only are you paying the power bill for everyone else’s electronics, but yours aren’t even plugged in!
You are that surge protector. And you do this all the time.
You take your energy, and you give it to everyone else’s projects. You don’t save enough for yourself. The lesson is really twofold: first, your stuff has to get plugged in first. Before you figure out how many “spare” slots you have, you have to make sure everything you need is plugged in!
Second, if you’re going to let someone else plug their television into your power strip, they’d better at least be letting you watch, too. Maybe even choosing a show here and there. Because that’s your power – and that power is finite.
And here’s another way the analogy works: let’s say you need more slots to plug things in, so you buy a second power strip and plug it into the first. Well, that might work once – but any electrician will tell you that’s not a secret to infinite power. Everything is getting less juice, everything is working more poorly…
…and you’re creating a fire hazard.
So it is with you. You can’t solve this problem by just doing all of their stuff and all of your stuff. You’ve got those eight slots, and that’s it.
Figure out what gets plugged in.
The Opportunity Machine 