Playing the long game—eschewing short-term gratification in order to work toward an uncertain but worthy future goal—isn’t easy. But it’s the surest path to meaningful and lasting success in a world that so often prioritizes what’s easy, quick, and ultimately shallow.

<ul><li>Say no to short-term work that displaces more important things.</li><li>Instead of a to-do list, use a daily calendar to organise your work.</li><li>Use the "Hell yeah" test to figure out if something is worth doing. Say no to anything less than "Wow, that would be amazing!"</li></ul>

How to create the space to explore long-term goals
 

The following questions can help to assess requests and opportunities:<ul><li>What is the actual time commitment?</li><li>What is the opportunity cost?</li><li>What’s the physical and emotional cost?</li><li>Would I regret it in a year if I didn’t do this?</li></ul>

How to evaluate requests and opportunities

<ul><li>Use the 20% time approach. Spend 20% of your time exploring new interests.</li><li>Use the infinite horizon networking. It is a “pure, no-agenda relationship building” that is simply out of personal interest in individuals. The idea is that you never know what could come of it.</li><li>There are four cycles in your career: Learning, creating, connecting, reaping the benefits. These cycles repeat themselves to build your strengths in several areas.</li><li>Use the “no asks for a year” strategy. When meeting someone, first establish a foundation.</li></ul>

Identify the right goals

<ul><li>Use strategic patience: Admit that you need work and time to progress. It often takes two to three years to gain notice in a field you’re pursuing.</li><li>When things don’t improve, ask yourself why you’re doing the thing you’re struggling with, and how it has worked for others.</li><li>Give yourself repeated opportunities to succeed.</li><li>Test concepts in a small way before pursuing them in a bigger way.</li><li>Use deadlines to ensure you stay on track.</li></ul>

Persevering when progress is slow

Consider these questions to help you find strategic direction:<ul><li>What should I spend my time doing?</li><li>What are the 20% of activities that will return 80% of the results?</li><li>What can I stop doing?</li><li>How can I use limitations to my advantage?</li><li>What do I believe about the future, and how do they inform my current actions?</li></ul>

Finding strategic direction

Your personal goals need a long-term strategy. It's no secret that we're pushed to the limit. Today's professionals feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. So we keep our heads down, focused on the next thing, and the next, without a moment to breathe. How can we break out of this endless cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek? Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives. We need to reorient ourselves to see the big picture so we can tap into the power of small changes that, made today, will have an enormous and disproportionate impact on our future success. We need to start playing The Long Game. As top business thinker and Duke University professor Dorie Clark explains, we all know intellectually that lasting success takes persistence and effort. And yet so much of the relentless pressure in our culture pushes us toward doing what's easy, what's guaranteed, or what looks glamorous in the moment. In The Long Game, she argues for a different path. It's about doing small things over time to achieve our goals—and being willing to keep at them, even when they seem pointless, boring, or hard. In The Long Game, Clark shares unique principles and frameworks you can apply to your specific situation, as well as vivid stories from her own career and other professionals' experiences. Everyone is allotted the same twenty-four hours—but with the right strategies, you can leverage those hours in more efficient and powerful ways than you ever imagined. It's never an overnight process, but the long-term payoff is immense: to finally break out of the frenetic day-to-day routine and transform your life and your career.

The Long Game

by Dorie Clark

6

KEY
IDEAS

The Long Game

by Dorie Clark

6

KEY IDEAS

KEY
IDEAS